tomatoes Archives | Page 2 of 4 | Diana's Designs Austin

Saying goodbye …

Say goodbye.

Goodbye to the 10-foot tall tomato plants.
Goodbye to the 6 varieties of Heirloom tomatoes grown from seed, lovingly raised in the greenhouse last winter.
Goodbye to the lush plants around the tomatoes, including giant okra, parsley, jalapeno peppers and red bell peppers.
Goodbye to my towering jungle.
All because of HIM! And his hundreds and hundreds of cousins and uncles and nephews and babies.

Everywhere.

And I mean everywhere.

So one of my “guys” came over yesterday and ripped the guts out of my whole garden. And me, for that matter. It was hard to watch.
So, with the truck full of my formerly beautiful plants, he drove off with what was the promise of my fall tomato crop — up until a week ago.

And I was left to squash and squeeze and stomp on literally 150 of those #$%^&*#&* bugs — just on the ground! And climbing on the empty tomato cages. I killed about 25 more today. I will check again tomorrow, but I think they are all gone or dead.

There are only 2 things left in the garden — the strawberries and the basil, which weren’t infested and don’t seem to have drawn them. My fingers are crossed for them. But I am diligently checking them several times a day.

My goal: To eradicate the *&$#@%*&# bugs so that I can plant new teeny tiny tomato plants this weekend for a fall crop. We are blessed with two seasons here and the time to plant is NOW. I figure if a few bugs show back up, I can handle killing them on a few couple inch-high plants! The jungle, not so much.

I WAS planning on an amazing crop from my huge existing plants. (Did I mention that? sigh.)

Ok — I am not over it. But it’s gone. So, now I am making a list:

some compost
some new mulch
a few new marigolds (fat lot of good THEY did keeping the bad bugs out!)

Tomorrow is a new day.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:42:42-05:00August 3rd, 2009|Blog, fall tomatoes, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomato leaf footed bug, tomatoes, vegetable garden|0 Comments

Aarghh…

Someone moved in while I was gone!

I rounded the corner to check the garden after 9 days away and what to my wondering eyes should appear?

But bare tomato stalks for about the top foot of the plant closest to the gate.

Aaaack!

So I put on my investigator’s cap and start inspecting. I see nothing on the leaves of the first few plants. Nothing anywhere near the stripped stalks. (Of course, they’ve EATEN all of that and have moved on! DUH!)

Then I peered into the depths of the middle plant — a Hank heirloom tomato, where I find, yep, you guessed it, leaf footed bugs. Ugh.

And nasty. They creep me out.

This is a terrible pictures, but you get the idea — I’m not going back out in the heat to get a portrait.

So I use the last of the organic stuff I have sitting there for tomato bugs and come in to make another bottle of insecticidal soap. I spray the whole bottle and find lots of them.

The question is, will it kill them? My guess is not, and I may need some Neem oil since these are babies and that will stop their growth at least.
And right below the stripped stalks, I find all this frass — which is what they call insect poop. (I just call it poop. Seems appropriate.)

Then I am wondering, do I have two pests? This seems like big poop for those little bugs, but what do I really know about bug poop? Answer: Zilch.

So if you know who left this poop, please tell me!

Tomorrow I will make a trip to the Natural Gardener and see what I can get to get rid of those dang leaf footed bugs. They decimated several of my plants last August and they are NOT getting these.
And look what I left lying back in the veggie garden. And yes, it did rain 2 beautiful inches while we were gone. So, yes, they are nicely rusted. Again. I give up. I am a bad tool mom.
Here’s another friend I found had moved into my garden while I was gone! I think I may know who escorted him back there!
And look, (well, YOU can’t tell anything, so you can quit looking!) my fence gate is fixed. My Daddy came over while we were gone and fixed the separating gate frame and fixed my latch. I can now actually open it with one hand without having to lift that heavy sucker and hurt my elbow. Thanks, Daddy!

Other that the deadly bugs, my fabulous son took GREAT care of everything. I’ll have to check it all out tomorrow when I water in the morning.

It’s nice to be home, even if it is 103!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:32-05:00July 25th, 2009|Blog, gate, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomato leaf footed bug, tomatoes|0 Comments

The Tomato Jungle

One week away from my garden and I just could not stand it any more.

So, yesterday I borrowed some garden gloves and some pruners and went after my brother in law’s garden.

Because he farms about 700 acres, there just isn’t much time for piddling in the home garden.

The friend who took me on the nursery tour this March gave him 20+ tomato plants — most of them wonderful heirlooms.

But the weeds took over after a wet spring – some of them were 3-1/2 feet tall. In search of some more delicious tomatoes, I decided to get my hands dirty.

This is the pile I’d accumulated after several hours of pulling and whacking.

And this is the improvement on at least two sides of the giant plot.
I uncovered the row of cabbages and several rows of 45 vidalia onions. See the weeds in the back where I didn’t finish?

But here are some of the beautiful tomatoes that I uncovered. I know that the list includes Zebras, Brandywine, Yellow Pear, Purple Cherokee, Germans and more.

We ate this one last night — it was ripe and ready and very tasty. I’m guessing it was a Brandywine. And there are probably thousands more to come out there in the giant tomato patch!

I’m just a little stiff this morning, though — achey legs and back and arms from all that squatting. But I might just have to get back out there today for a little more work — there are thistles at the end of the end of the garden that I hear calling me!

Can you hear them?

What’s calling you in your garden today?

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:32-05:00July 24th, 2009|Blog, Indiana, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomatoes, weeds|0 Comments

Seed sowing in the cutting garden & more veggies

Boy — sprinkling a few seeds seems so simple, doesn’t it?

Not.

But it was fun. Since the soil is nothing but nasty clay, I scraped back the mulch, scraped a little soil off and sowed the seeds, then put good, new garden soil on top and replaced the mulch.

I even had a *PLAN* — ha ha. (I almost never make one for myself — it’s the old shoemakers children have no shoes syndrome.)

So all the seeds for the cut flowers are going all around these plants.

Here’s what I planted:

Vinca – Little Pinkie

Sweet Peas — Patio Mix

Shasta Daisies –Silver Princess

Zinnias — Pinwheel Mix

Cosmos – two kinds: Bright Lights & Fordhook Mix

African Lion’s Tail

Blackberry Lily

Bachelor’s Buttons — Blue Boy

Morning Glory – Early Call Mix

And we’re getting some severe thunderstorms today and tomorrow, so they will get some good, fresh rain to get them started.

Cross your fingers!

Now on to the veggie garden.

A tomato! We have several small ones, about golf-ball sized. This one is on the first tomato that I planted successfully from seed — so he’s near and dear to my heart.

And a bell pepper.

And, since this is Texas, we always have some jalapenos growing in our garden.

I love having the makings of fresh pico de gallo (tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, limes and cilanatro) in my garden all summer long. The cilantro is hard to keep when it heats up, but I’m always trying to sneak a few plants into the shade.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:36-05:00April 17th, 2009|bell peppers, Blog, cutting garden, greenhouse bed, jalapenos, seeds, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomatoes|0 Comments

Easter Greetings

Just a few quick shots from our grey day here in Austin.

There is no real gardening on the agenda today — instead I am mostly cleaning house and cooking for tomorrow.

I did have to bring in a few little pots that hadn’t been planted yet because we are supposed to get severe thunderstorms tomorrow morning.

So I battened down the hatches before the rain hits, and closed up the greenhouse windows and doors and picked radishes and parsley for tomorrow’s salad.

I am so tickled to report that there are actual little green tomatoes on several of my tomato plants! They are very small – mostly cherry tomato sized, but there, nonetheless. The green onions are growing nicely, but not ready to pick for a while. (Did I mention that the weeds are also growing nicely?! THAT will be a Monday chore for sure.)

I still have several little daffodils blooming in various small clumps scattered about. It’s so nice that they don’t all come out at once. I like it better that way — it extends the smiling season!

Just a little decorative nest inside the house to welcome the Easter Bunny tomorrow.
The Angel Wing Begonia is beautiful and healthy. It loved the winter in the greenhouse and is enjoying the cooler weather of Spring.
And there are limes on the lime tree. They are about the size of cherry tomatoes, too! But the tree is full of dozens more blooms, so we may have some fresh limeade before too long.

Enjoy your holiday weekend.

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:37-05:00April 11th, 2009|Angel Wing Begonia, Blog, daffodils, lime, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomatoes|0 Comments

Spectacular signs of Spring

Here she is, Miss Tangerine Crossvine in her full spring splendor. See how gracefully she climbs up into the nearby Live Oak tree?
Her blooms are cheerful and bright – bringing a cacophony of color into the shady corner bed.
And she just keeps on cruising down the fenceline, spreading her beauty.
Out front the little Anacacho Orchid tree that I planted last year is living up to her full expectations with a profusion of delicate white blooms.

The variegated lemon tree is chock full of pink buds, ready to burst into lemony goodness very soon. The bees are eager for the buds to open, too, as they were hovering around just like me!
Green beans peek out of the ground in the veggie garden.
The tomatoes planted before we left for our Indiana Spring Break trip were damaged by the 1 cold night in Austin last week. I think it got down to the mid-30s and the tomatoes all have leaf damage, but they will be fine. See, this one has a BLOOM!!!!! A wannabe tomato…the plants may not be pretty any more, but they are growing and developing, so I won’t complain.
These are the White Icicle Radishes shown in the sidebar photo above. Tasty – and spicy.
Here’s another Bluebonnet blooming in the greenhouse bed. I gave in a planted plants this year as I have not had luck with seeds — we just have too much mulch where I want to plant them, so I carefully amended the soil and pulled back the mulch and put in 15 plants this spring.
The Mexican Plum tree is full of blooms this week, too.
Aren’t they pretty?
This, however, is NOT so pretty. Witness, please the GAZILLION Live Oak leaves that are cascading from my trees. If they were white, you’d think it was snowing in parts of my yard. And they aren’t even 1/2 done with their littering of my beds.

I’m itching to get out there and blow them elsewhere, but more will fall right into their place, so I will wait a week or two. I know, for instance, that there are dozens of wildflower seedlings under here waiting to get out…and I can’t wait to see them…next week maybe!

By Diana C. Kirby|2016-04-14T02:44:38-05:00March 20th, 2009|anacacho orchid, Blog, blue bonnets, green beans, Mexican Plum, oak trees, radishes, Sharing Nature's Garden, tomatoes, trumpet vine|0 Comments

tomatoes

Saying goodbye …

Aarghh…

The Tomato Jungle

Seed sowing in the cutting garden & more veggies

*Easter Greetings*

Spectacular signs of Spring

Escape in the garden

Easter Greetings