Summer Garden Notes - July 6, 2016

Whoa -- it's been a long time since I've posted a garden note, but that's because there's not a lot happening out there in this heat.  We're down to basically tomatoes, peppers, and okra.  There's not much else left.
Catching up, we harvested the "All Blue" potatoes.  Total was 1.9 pounds, which is not a lot, but they were fun and they're pretty!

 I'm getting lots of tomatoes (over 28 pounds so far), so I'm canning at least once a week.  I'm making nothing but salsa this year. I may try to make some of those "Rotel Type" tomatoes that I did last year - they were good and we used them up pretty fast. The tomato plants are holding up pretty well, although they're showing some stress with this heat.

 The jalapeno peppers keep on coming (about 10.1 pounds so far.)  I'm also canning these about once a week.  This past week I made Cowboy Candy for Jeff -- he really liked them, and I saved a couple of jars for the holidays.

I've been impressed with these Gypsy peppers - they're about 1/3 the size of a regular green pepper, but they are really prolific.   

 I was thinking we were done with the huckleberries, and I even tore down 3 of the 6 plants, thinking they were done. You can tell I was ignoring these by the weeds that are trying to take over. Well, here's what's happening with the other three I left there....new berries are covering it.  Wow!

The elderberries are starting to ripen with this heat -- anticipating a really good crop this year! Future wine! 

 All around the grounds around my Litchi Tomato plant I found all of these -- they are dropping off of the plant.  They're sweet, but so seedy, so we don't eat them - this plant is just a novelty for us. I'm thinking Turk (our turkey hen) will love them, she eats cherry tomatoes all the time.

The morning glory is finally filling out and has reached the top of the pole. They are all various shades of pink so far.

 And I'm happy to report that the two mulberry trees have been growing in leaps and bounds since John trimmed away all the little suckers at the base of each of them.  They are both about 6 foot tall now, over my head.  That's me hiding behind one of them. I try to avoid the camera when I can. Ha!

In other garden news, the few summer squash plants that I replanted after the rains killed my first batch are growing and getting bigger -- I'm expecting some blooms on them soon.

I've ordered and received my fall garden seeds! Looking forward to starting some of these in August for the fall garden.  I love the anticipation of a new garden!