Tomatoes are iffy here. Â To do well you have to find a sunny spot, a warm micro climate works best. Â My garden spot just is at the edge of the garden and as such doesn’t serve tomatoes well. Â Our little balcony is another story. Â High up on the south side of the building, the sun warms the area early and continues through most of the day. Â Varieties suited to containers are my mainstay and this year is no exception. Â This past month has seen the harvest of the Tiny Tims I purchased at the local garden center. Â A packed purchased on Amazon was either crossed with something else or mislabeled unless Tiny Tim has grown in to Jack’s Giant. Fortunately a neighbor with more space adopted Jack’s tomato and my little TT has been putting out fruit for the past couple weeks. Â The Lil’ Bites cherry that I started from seed has also started ripening. Â Wow are there going to be a LOT of cherry tomatoes.
Of the nightshades that have done wonderfully this year are the Russian Banana potatoes I planted back in April. Â We had our first ‘official’ harvest a couple of weeks ago. Â Almost 5 pounds from one small tuber. Â I planted 10 and am planning to stagger the harvest to have potatoes well into the Fall. Â These fingerlings are wonderful roasted or baked. Â I’ve not tried preparing them any other way so can’t speak to how they would do boiled or mashed.
The zucchini are thriving with the Oya. Â I’ve only watered them through the clay vessle. Â It probably helps that we’ve had fairly frequent showers this summer so far. Â Not sure how they would fare in a drier year.
Some green onions and a couple of leeks from the early planting. Â The leeks can be harvested any time from now on. Â They’ve done quite well.
The beans have started coming in. Â Nothing really seems to bother them here. Â I’ve yet to run into Mexican bean beetle or rust.
Harvested:
- Beans -Â Roma & Topcrop
- Cukes – SMR-58
- Green Onions
- Leeks
- Potatoes – Russian Banana
- Tomatoes – Tiny Tim (purchased as transplant) & Lil Bites
- Zucchini
Planted:
- Beans – Contender