First Harvest

How cute are these?!

Red at last!

Ok so, the yellowish ones from the last post are turning red. (yay)

I have no idea when to harvest the Anaheim peppers.

I wonder if there are any great recipes for LOTS of cherry and grape tomatoes? Off the top of my head is this one:

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/chicken_tacos_with_charred_tomatoes.html

It calls for plum tomatoes but I've made it with grape tomatoes and it was FABULOUS!!!

Color!

My cherry tomatoes are getting some reddish-purple color to them!

And these ones are yellowish-orange! Yay!

Max thinks that these might be Anaheim peppers. Anyone agree?

Disease?

I don't know what's going on. My tomato plants have spots on many of the leaves. Then the leaves yellow, wither and die.

It is very sad.

I went out and cut off all the yellow leaves. I really hope this doesn't affect the fruit.

Also, my crazy pepper is getting huge!!! It is twice as long as it was in the last photo I posted.

Last thing, I'm pretty sure now that my runt tomato plant is NOT a cherry tomato plant. The fruit are bigger and a different color pattern than the other cherry tomatoes.

August 11 Update

So, I had to go out of town for 5 days. I was very excited to go check out my plants when I returned today.

The little runt tomato plant has three little fruits. I can see now that it is a cherry tomato plant.

I was so excited to see that my bell pepper plants are WAY bigger than they were since I left. I couldn't believe it!

As I was checking out the other pepper plants, I was shocked to find this:

Ha! I thought all 3 pepper plants were bell pepper! I wonder what kind of pepper it is and when do I harvest it? :D

Next Year's Plans

So, I am so thrilled with the results of this year's garden that I am tempted to expand.

I started reading Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. (http://www.amazon.com/All-New-Square-Foot-Gardening/dp/1591862027/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312466590&sr=1-1) It's getting me super excited for next year! According to the book, I should figure approximately 32 sq. ft. of growing space per adult. That's 64 sq. ft. for Max and me. I have a preliminary drawing of the raised bed design. I welcome your comments.

This design has approximately 114 sq. ft. of growing space. I know I don't need that much right now. It's kind of an eventual destination. So, maybe next year I will do one of the long boxes and add the 2 small ones the year after that and so forth.

O Bel Poivre!

Cherry tomatoes! My brother-in-law's wife helped me identify the tomato plants. So far, I have 2 plants that are producing fruit that are round and clustered like the ones in this picture. I don't know how long it takes for them to ripen.... We shall see.

Grape tomatoes! We are guessing that 2 of the other tomato plants are grape tomatoes based on their oblong shape and clustering nature. Pretty cool!!!

Last but not least, there is one little runt of a tomato plant. Today I see that it is beginning to fruit. No idea yet what variety it is. Only time will tell.

And for the moment you've all been waiting for....

PEPPERS!!!! If you look closely, you can the beginning of my very first pepper.

I am so pleased.