August 4, 2010

Greetings, gardening friends!

How does your garden grow?  I hope that the plants you chose from our greenhouse are producing lots of delicious fruit.  In our garden, we are overflowing with all kinds of tomatoes, and we also have Cajun Queen okra, 4 kinds of pole beans (Rattlesnake, Grandma Nellie’s Yellow Mushroom, Blue Coco, and Turkey Craw), several kinds of peppers (although they are being slow to color up), green onions and a lot of basil and parsley.  The Willow-leaf White Lima beans and the 2 kinds of crowder peas haven’t started coming in yet, but they were planted late.  We’ve just started 2 hills of summer squash, too.  In this August heat, it is hard to think about planting fall crops, but it is time to do it.

Please drop me an email and let me know which plants are doing well and which are disappointing.  I drop plants from my list based on their performance in my own garden (and I can’t grow them all) and on reports from other gardeners, so your input is very important! 

The 2011 tomato list will be shorter than the 2010 list was- perhaps only about 50 kinds of tomatoes, down from 73.  That sounds like a lot, but if your favorites aren’t available, it will seem too short. I will also be paring down the other vegetable, herb, and flower lists, so let me know what you like there, too.

The standout tomatoes in our garden this year have been: Moskvich, Hungarian Italian Paste, TC Jones, Vorlon, Black from Tula, Cleota Pink and Anna Russian.  Kentucky Beefsteak produced (only) one huge, truly excellent tomato, so I will probably give it another try next year (with more space).  Italian Noire, Black Plum, Egg Yolk and Sungold Select II cherry tomatoes have all done very well, and the tiny Hawaiian Currants are glowing red candy!  Goldman’s Italian American and Japanese Plum are doing pretty well, too.

Among the peppers, Jimmy Nardello has produced very generously.  Bulgarian (a creamy white bell that turns red) is also producing a lot.  I’m still waiting to see about the others.  I’m getting great feedback about the Charentais, Early Yellow Moonbeam, and Moon and Stars Yellow-Flesh melons.

Although we are NOT ACCEPTING ANY ORDERS until 2011, I hope you will enjoy looking around this website and exploring some of the fabulous diversity available in the plant world. It was a lot of fun to choose these particular varieties.

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