@begreen , Thanks for all those photo updates of your garden. I love seeing your plants and harvests, and it looks like a great year so far for you. Congratulations.
@djlew , Tomatoes and squash are frequent volunteers from my compost if I use it without letting it compost fully. I do that knowingly at times, sometimes in the fall if I know that frost will kill the seedlings, sometimes if I just don't mind doing a bit of removal. We just moved into a new construction home last fall, and there was one area outside where I needed to build up the soil a lot. I moved fill, humus from the woods, and topped it with unfinished homemade compost. I have had countless tomatoes and one squash. The area isn't sunny for a vegetable garden, but I let them grow to a good size just to get roots in the soil. My mom frequently gets volunteer tomatoes in her garden, and the fruit is often good. Not always, but often.
I installed soaker hoses in my garden rows yesterday. We actually had a good rain over the weekend, so I haven't had to to use them yet, though I did test them. I think that they'll get their inaugural use tomorrow morning while I carry water to the shrubs around the house.
I spent the afternoon processing tomatoes. I made sauce out of my abundant harvest of the little egg shaped Taste Patios that I grow. They aren't paste tomatoes, so the puree had a lot of juice. I made some into spaghetti sauce and froze an extra quart.
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I had a beautiful Hungarian Heart tomato on the counter, and it was too pretty to put into the sauce, so I changed plans and made BLT's for dinner. Actually they were BBT's with basil instead of lettuce, since the basil is thriving, and the lettuce has bolted. It was just too beautiful a tomato to pass up the opportunity. The tomato is about four inches long to the point, by the way. The basil is a "lettuce-leaf" variety that my daughter grew in her horticulture class this year. The larger leaves can be as big as my hand. I've been giving lots away when I take kids to medical appointments. It's a huge hit.
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Hmm. I'm not sure how to fix the sideways picture at this point, but the idea is there. We're also beginning to harvest okra, red cabbage, Rattlesnake pole beans, and Red Noodle Yardlong Beans.
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The sweet potatoes are filling out well. They've completely hidden the moving paper I've been putting out in an attempt to smother the invading bermuda grass.
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I have a lot of pepper varieties growing, but two of my favorites are Shishitos and fish peppers. We've been enjoying pans of blistered Shishitos as a side dish. I'll let the fish peppers turn red and dry them to make a powder that my kids really enjoy for adding spice to foods.
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