Oh my gosh you guys, I am SO freaking excited that tomatoes have just appeared on my plants! Look look look!!
A little (semi-embarrassing) background info from a couple weeks ago… I was trying to be super good, learning how to grow things successfully, reading about how to prune tomato plants, and I misunderstood some things because I don’t know what I’m doing yet (hey, this is my learning year, misunderstanding is to be expected), and I WAY over-pruned. Once I realized what I’d done wrong, I feared I’d seriously damaged the plants and either killed them completely or majorly affected the time it would take for tomatoes to start appearing. So when I saw these three tomatoes today while watering – 2 on the middle-sized plant, one on the biggest plant – I was ecstatic!
And then, the pickling cucumber plant I added (into this planter) less than 2 weeks ago…
…has three of these little future-cucumbers appearing already! Yay!! Extra exciting after learning a bit about pickling, and getting eager to try it out! (By the way, all these photos were taken super close-up with a micro lens – all these little future-foods are bitsy right now!)
Aaaand, the carrot seeds I planted at the same time are starting to sprout! Hooray for carrots! Yumyumyumyum!
Lastly for the foody goodness… the California Wonder pepper plant I added at the same time as the cucumber is flowering – not doing quite as well as the other guys though. That blackness around the bases of the stems is worrying me… the photo on the left was taken the day after planting it – all green – then the new photo on the right was taken today:
Then there’s my herbs! The yard came with a pretty stocked herb planter when we moved in – healthy looking sage, oregano, some dying thyme, and what I think is tarragon, but I’m not sure since there’s no tag and I’ve never cooked with tarragon so I don’t know what it smells like… what do you think?
And just yesterday I discovered some mint in another part of the yard, so that’s rad… then soon after we moved in I planted some rosemary and sweet basil. A few weeks ago, the sweet basil seemed to have been totally killed by the horrible cold streak we had in June, but now it’s come back to life! Then I added African Blue basil at the same time as the cucs and peppers, which I totally love! I don’t want to put any effort into anything that’s not edible, so when I saw that I could have a basil with pretty flowers as a bonus, I went for it! Side note – the photos below (left = today, right = just after planting) are a great demonstration of the difference between shade vs. harsh direct sunlight:
One last thing from my yard – these narrow planters are empty now (were filled with dead things and weeds, which I got rid of yesterday) and I could totally use them for something new, but what? Any suggestions for things I don’t already have, small enough to fit in here (width is around 8ish inches), not too late in the season to plant?
And some extra bonus photos, snapped for fun while walking around Lents Park awhile ago…
These are some awesome looking plants that I liked – no idea what they are:
Ok I’m done! Happy gardening!
Lee Does Stuff 
My garden is throwing out small grape tomatoes with larger ones on the way. I'm super excited about the little baby cucumbers that have finally arrived. They're slightly thicker than a pencil and pretty cute too.I'd suggest a few more herbs. Another type of mint, cilantro, dill,…
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I would plant cilantro. You can plant it this time of year, at least here in Greece…hopefully there too! Oh you will love the smell of your tomatoes, i'm so excited for you!
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The bottom two mystery plants from the community garden are milkweed and chives! I love chives, mostly for the flowers, but the ones we planted didn't grow. Boo.As for the garden boxes, I second the cilantro idea! Cilantro is delicious. Try chives too maybe?
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you could also plant lettuce in your planters. It grows quite fast & there are all kinds of cool varieties out there to choose from. Zinnias aren't edible, but they are sure colorful and fun and very neat flowers…you'd love them! They'll bloom on into the fall..we always have some on our deck in planters 'cause they're so nice to look at.BTW, the bottom photo looks like leeks blooming. Chives are smaller than that.
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That is definitely tarragon. Such a beautiful and under used herb. Add it to your eggs, it'll blow your mind.
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That looks like french tarragon to me. My sun gold tomatoes have produced 2 ripe fruit so far with 70+ more on the vine. I just freed up a large section of the garden and asked Portland Nursery what food crop they would recommend for the space. They said now is the perfect time to plant brassicas (cabbages, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, kale) for the autumn garden. I got purple and orange heirloom cauliflower and inter-planted it with fast growing lettuce.Your garden is looking gorgeous, thanks for sharing!
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yay tomatoes and cucumbers!!Good ideas, think I'll probably go with some cilantro!
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thanks! I think I will try some lettuce, in the longer planter – good idea!
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oooh awesome, thanks!
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wow, that's a ton of tomatoes!! I'm the only person in our household who eats them, so I'm just hoping for a few per week for a little while… if I get more, I can try making some kind of salsa – my guy won't eat tomatoes alone, but he will eat salsa!Thanks for passing on that info – I think I'll try some kind of lettuce in the long planter, and maybe broccoli if the planter isn't too narrow.
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cool! I think I will try some cilantro, yum!
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thanks, planning on trying some cilantro! oooh yeah the smell, I can't wait!
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I think you are supposed to pinch off those basil blooms. I've heard they diminish the flavor of the leaves. Lookin' good! So jealous you have a yard to plant in!
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The black joints on the pepper plants are normal. I agree with the cilantro, but make sure you pinch any blossoms or it will bolt. This was the first year I grew cilantro and didn't know about bolting, so now I have tons of coriander, but not a single cilantro leaf.
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hmm I read that the flowers can be a few inches long without affecting the leaves… I'll cut them shorter next time I'm out there…thanks!
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oh good, thanks! good to know, I'll watch out for blossoms!
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Those tall purpole mystery plants aren't chives, they're probably onions — chives are significantly smaller. You should totally grow chives, they're a bulb, so they come back annually, and the flowers are beautiful AND edible, which is a requirement for my small garden, too! I've been growing tomatoes for years and I've never heard of pruning them.. I'm glad yours survived the trauma! But you should be pruning that basil: all mint family plants, really. If you pinch them off just below the flower stalk, you'll get a bushier plant with more leaves. If you let them bloom, they'll put all their energy into the flowers and stop making leaves, after the bloom is done they'll die (because their purpose for being is over, seeds having been propogated). If you have the space, plant green beans now! It's supposed to be a good long season so you'll probably be able to get a harvest before the freezing starts again this fall.
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hmm I read on a couple of different websites that you can let african blue basil flower and the leaves will still grow and be fine – it's a hybrid and doesn't produce seeds, so that's not an issue. I'll prune off most of the flowers though, since the leaves are what I really care about.I'll consider chives, maybe a good thing to try next year. I'll see if my planters are big enough for beans, yum!
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The tall purple are Giant Allium. They are a giant chive, but mostly grown for show – a lovely thing to see. The third picture up looks like they could be a flowering poppy – not the BAD poppies! Lee, I went to high school with your parents,and all of grade school with your dad as well – sure wish you had shown a picture of them scarfing down that great looking breakfast! LOL Really enjoy your blog – your dad clued some of his FB friends onto your site.
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hooray! I love seeing tomatoes for the first time. It still surprises me. If you wait until all the really hot days are over, lettuce does well in the fall and doesn't need such a deep bed. My jalapeno plant also has some blackness around the bases of the leaves. If you find out what that is, let me know….
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I hope I'm not being a wet blanket here, and I certainly don't want to discourage your efforts, but in general, I think this is turning out to be a tough gardening year. Our spring was so wet and so long, that many plants had trouble getting started and are not as far into their development as one might expect. (Your results may vary, grin). That being said, if you do get late in the season and find that your tomatoes are not getting ripe, just pick the whole plant and hang them in your basement… they will still ripen. You can't leave them out of doors, of course, because they would freeze, but my Mom generally has fresh tomatoes well into the winter. (She packs her green tomatoes in newspaper and puts them in the basement). Good Luck!
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