Garden update - Tomatoes and Tomatillos

 Good morning everyone. I am here to show you the process on my tomatoes and tomatillos As you can see they have grown huge already.  The tomatoes are on the right and the tomatillos on the left.  The tomatoes are bursting out of their tomato cages.  Next year I need to try a Florida weave for my tomatoes as these cages are just too small for indeterminate types and do not work well.  If you look closely you can see a couple of the beefsteak tomatoes started.  The sweet million and midnight snack have a couple of tiny fruit started and some flowers but not much action on that front yet.  

On the right is my tomatillo plants.  These grew quickly as well and have set a bunch of fruit already.  I also learned that they are self sterile and you need to have at least two plants so they can pollinate the flowers.   

I moved two of these plants into containers as well as I quickly noticed that I had planted these way to close together in the actual beds.  There of the 4 of these plants are showing some distress but still setting flowers and fruit.  They have some leaves which are yellowing and curling. I'm not sure what the issue is, it seems to happen most on the upper leaves and the lower leaves seem healthy.  I'm going to fertilize and hope they are ok.

Look at how pretty the flowers are! 

Once the flowers are done they form a lovely husk lantern.  These are very similar to a Chinese lantern flower and are so special looking. Once the husk is formed then the fruit starts its life inside the protective husk.  Apparently they are ready to harvest when they start bursting out of the husk and the husk starts drying.  I can't wait!

Have you grown tomatillos before?  Are you growing anything new this year that you haven't grown before?  Tell me about that in the comments below.

July Garden Update - Peppers A lesson in patience.

 

I feel like the garden is growing very slowly this year.  The patience required for a garden is hard but I am enjoying the process.  I think part of the reason the peppers are going slowly is because of the cold snap they faced after planting.  In this first picture (left to right) are rows of zinnias that I started from seed and transplanted into the rows that the carrots and parsnip failed seeds were in.  As you can see there are a couple flowers already on these - so pretty.  Next is the bell peppers, California wonder in the front and snack pepper in the back.  I picked up some celosia and other plants at the grocery for 50 cents each - score!  I spread the celosia throughout the veg garden.

Next up are the shishito peppers and Bangkok peppers which have both set flowers (I've stopped picking the flowers off now).  The mad hatter pepper plant (centre back) is the largest currently.  On the left is two ring of fire cayenne peppers and a single jalapeño plant (which already has fruit - I missed clipping the flowers off of these early to promote bigger plant growth first).   You can also my hockey player gnome friend hanging out, and some marigolds to deter pests.

Next up are the habaneros (middle of this pic).  As you can see they are very slow to grow.  This is sad as these are my favourite type of pepper.  I'm hopeful they will pick up soon. I have also moved two of the four habanero plants to containers.  They seem to be doing a much better.  On the right of the photo are my super hots.  The front is the ghost pepper and the back is the armageddon.  They are both doing quite well and I can't wait to try the armageddon - they are supposed to be a sweet slow heat like the habanero but much hotter.

Alrighty so thats a wrap up on the process of my peppers.  I'll be posting about my tomatillos and tomatoes soon.

Front flower bed

Last year GMF and I built a wooden flower bed at the front porch. This area is very sandy and dry so the partial raised bed will help retain the soil and water for the plants.  As you can see in the before it was mostly weeds :(.  The hosts was split off the giant plant we have growing in the backyard beside the air conditioner.  It's a little yellow in the pics from last year because of transplant shock and sunburn, but it came back beautifully this year. 

Here is what I planed last year.  The hosts, some day lilies, 2 mandavilla plants (beautiful flowers) and a coronation plant.  The gnomes are some dollar store finds.  Kneesa cat enjoyed the new space.

Here's another pic from later in the year last year.  The mandavilla plants have grown and have lots of flowers.  The carnations are kinda spent.

Ok moving onto this year.  The carnations came back great!  They are a nice mound to white flowers.  The hosts is also doing great - super green and large. I think I will have to split it this fall already to keep it from getting as large as the one in the backyard.  The Lillies are also back.  I added a hanging basket from the grocery store and moved my hibiscus outside again.  I added a pair of Black Eyed Susan vine starters at the back in hopes that it grows up the railing.  The flowers on these vines are a glorious bright orange with a dark centre at first and fade to more of a yellow.  As you can see kneesa is exploring the new spring growth.  

Heres a pic of the hosts in the backyard (and this is still spring so imagine it at full size) I need to move this somewhere else (or many other places).  I have received a water barrel from a neighbour and I want to install it there on a platform. This job will probably happen in the fall. 

I did buy some mandavilla vines again this year but decided to keep them in a planter so I can bring them inside over the winter.  I also like that I can move them around and enjoy the pretty flowers wherever I am working or relaxing.

Here's an update at the end of June.  As you can see the black eyed Susan vine is growing up as planned and I can't wait for it to really start to cover the railing.  The hanging baskets are doing beautifully adding so much colour. I usually have hibiscus flowers by now but I had something eating the buds. I have picked and disposed of all the buds and hope I've got the all the culprits.  The plant itself is looking very healthy.  I've also added some zinnia and calendula seedlings.

Next update: July 1st.  The Black Eyed Susan's are progressing nicely still. The hanging basket is still doing ok.  The petunias are starting to dwindle but the supercells are very prolific.  And I really like the lantana flowers.  They produce multiple tiny little flowers in an umbrella shaped clump.  And I've got some beautiful yellow day Lillies. You can also see the mini gnomes are beginning to get lost in the zinnia's which are growing faster than the calendulas.  

Here's a close up of the lantana.

The squirrels have also gifted me some plants.  These are peanut plants.  They are nestled in my hibiscus pot and the pots around my property.  Silly squirrels.

What should I do with these peanut plants? Have you grown peanuts before? Let me know in the comments below.