2013 Salsa Garden

Well, we've moved last summer to our new house, it has a good sized back yard, BUT, the dirt only goes as far as 3' in some spots before hitting thick rock....so, no massive garden as planned. However, I do have a salsa garden, 6 varieties each of tomatoes & peppers. They're thriving, but, then we got hit with a cool spell & the tomatoes wouldn't ripen....now, however, today's high is supposed to be 99, so I'm hoping with this heat wave they'll all start ripening. My peppers weren't really even fully ripe, all my cayenne's weren't red, they're green. Not sure whats going on, but found out its state-wide problem, which means tomatoes that are store-bought will probably go up in price next year.

  You'll have to excuse the yard, I took these before hub had a chance to mow :) The camera batteries weren't all that great, and I wanted a shot while they were still alive....

Here are the tomatoes:

Pepper half of the garden

My early addition to a Spring container garden

 So its been a while with Winter & all since I've posted last. I plated some New Potato eyes in a kitty litter pan, which my cats kept using, so note to self: don't use the litter pans indoors.....cats are smart!
  I replanted & they're growing! The tallest has to be at least 4" tall, so I'm proud. I'm also growing a mixture of peppers in soda bottle "containers". Unfortunately, it might be too early for the peppers because not many of them are looking too happy with me at the moment...I've got the wire "cage" on top so my cats leave them alone, because for some reason they seem to enjoy eating my green leafy plants...my youngest, especially enjoys spinach leaves, so in a way, no wonder he eats mom's indoor garden (my next pets will be birds or fish!)

Here are the potatoes:

 Here are a few of the pepper pots, I have at least 9......

Most recent pictures of my garden this fall, even in this cold weather

Garden Updates

 Well, its about time to pull my tomato plants up. The wind broke down one of my slicing tomatoes, thankfully it didn't have any fruits so I'm not too worried about it, however, the remaining 2 I'm concerned about because 1 has 3 tomatoes, & the other has loads of flowers, but with it being so cold I doubt it'll pump out any late tomatoes. However, my 3 cherries & jelly beans are still producing & kicking butt! The most recent one that I got off it was a little smaller then a golf ball. I'm going to try & get a "winter" garden going of potatoes & possibly some lettuce, depending on how things go. Good luck winterizing your garden everyone!

Well, here are pics recently of my tomatoes & peppers, I picked about 6 jelly bean tomatoes today, unfortunately they weren't quite ripe enough yet, so they need a little longer to become soft, but they're reddening nicely!

              These are the Jelly Bean tomatoes that I picked today:

     My Brandy Wine slicing tomatoes are plumping up nicely, finally!        Here's a from above view of the jelly bean & cherry tomatoes:

                                  Cherry Tomatoes

                                     Jelly Bean Tomatoes

                                   Cherry Tomatoes

                             Unripe & nearly ripe Cherry Tomatoes

                                   Yet, more Jelly Beans
                  (I have 3 plants of Jelly beans & 3 Cherries)                                       

My garden is growing!

Wow, here are a few new pics (yes, the same plants), but bigger and more fruit! My biggest slicing tomato has turned into "two", so I won't be able to use that one, but the other 2 are looking nice. I haven't got any fruit on the other 2 slicing plants yet, but we'll see. I've got a hot pepper! I bought a 4pack a while ago, & I finally have 1 hot pepper, I forgot to take a pic of it though....but my Serrano's are growing nicely, & I apparently have a pet spider. I'll try and get a pic, he's cute with green eyes. He's been there since hubby moved the pot in it's location, so I'm guessing his momma had her egg somewhere nearby. I'm hoping he's removed himself by the time I bring them in, though, as they're not dangerous, they are aggressive, even towards humans, and I wouldn't want to get bit by him, nor have my daughters or cats!
    I didn't get a good enough pic of the peppers, with said spider in there, defending his area! But I will soon, outsmart the spider.......

This is what I've done to my peppers to prepare them for bringing inside whenever the temps drop lower then 45degrees. I've taken small square chicken wire & wrapped it around, tied with the extra wiring that comes with it.