Drying and Canning

Ryan has gone on a drying spree.

We've been given a bunch of peppers and tomatoes by a lady I work with and we had too many peppers for salsa alone. Ryan decided to dry the various peppers whole in our dehydrator. He dried jalapeños, habaneros and another garden pepper, I'm not sure what kind it is exactly.

Many of the tomatoes we got were big cherry tomatoes that we cut in half and dried in the dehydrator, too. These ended up being perfect for dried tomatoes because they were so big that by the time they dehydrated all the way there was actually something left. Ryan

dried tomatoes

had the idea of grinding these dried tomatoes up and using them in things like sauces and salsa. It worked out great. He ground up the tomatoes and it turned into this great powder with a pungent aroma and deep flavor and color. I can't wait to use it in everything.

Most of the tomatoes were cut up into chunks, cold packed into pint jars and preserved for over-winter. I would so much rather have my own canned tomatoes than buy them at the store where they have tons of sodium and other preservatives. This is just tomatoes, lemon juice and water.

dried tomato po

I saved back a portion of the tomatoes for salsa. I have never made my own salsa before, and this batch ended up a success. I pretty much looked at two or three different recipes to go off of for amounts, but kind of just threw what I wanted in the pot. Once I got everything in there that I wanted: Jalapeños, red and green bell peppers, chopped onions, garlic, one habanero pepper, red pepper flakes, dried tomato powder, cumin, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper, I brought it all to a boil and let it simmer for 30-45 minutes. Really just until it was the right consistency. Then, I canned it. I did pints because quarts are just way too much and anything smaller is definitely not enough. Pints are perfect for salsa.

Our last two tomato plants are still giving us some tomatoes. The Cherokee Purple is going strong and the Sunrise Bumblebee is doing okay. The purple ones are big, beefy and great for slicing and canning. We've made BLTs with them and the flavor is on point. The texture is perfect, too. I want to grow these every year. We had an abundance so I canned a quart of them and threw a handful into my salsa. I still have five or six that I just picked this morning that will be ripe in the next couple of days.

Ryan made pasta dough with some of the dried tomato powder, as well as the butternut squash from the garden. There is just all kinds of things you can do with dried tomato powder and I intend to try more and let you know.

A Month Later...

It's been about a month since I last posted. So that means, it's also been a month since I planted fall crops.

Lots of tomatoes, but also a dead squash plant

The good news is that the tomato plants we have left are producing a second round of beautiful fruit. I'm thinking that because it's fall and there are tons of nuts and other things for the squirrels to put away, they aren't as focused on the garden. I did see one out there nibbling on a few green tomatoes so I grabbed my Halloween dummy and threw him out in the garden. I think he's making a sufficient "scarecrow" and haven't seen any more furry friends out there pilfering my goodies.

The various greens we planted are sprouting and beginning to grow. The cilantro is the most surprising crop yet. We harvested our own coriander from our spring cilantro crop, so I didn't have to buy seeds and used my own. I have to admit, I was pretty skeptical they were going to do anything. But, a couple days after everything else started sprouting, up came little cilantro sprouts.

The only thing about our garden this fall is that we planted on a day that was followed by a stormy night. It was a pretty powerful storm, too and had high winds and hail. We planted some crops in rows and others broadcast method, but because of the storm the seeds just kind of ended up all over the place.  So I'm just kind of watering the entire bed and watching sprouts pop up randomly.

Sprouts

The squash bugs ended up killing our butternut squash plant, but not before we could harvest at least eight big, beautiful squash. There were about four more on the vine that could have used another month to season on the vine, but the bugs got the plant first. I started noticing them about six weeks ago. I guess Ryan started noticing the eggs on the bottom of the leaf much sooner, but wasn't sure what he was seeing. The bugs took over quickly and started killing off the plant one leaf at a time. Pretty soon it was every leaf. It was kind of sad to witness. But we weren't too unhappy since we were able to get quite a few squash from it.

The cantaloupe plant was killed by the squash bugs, too I think. The same kind of thing happened with it, although I never really saw squash bugs on that plant. Something happened because the last cantaloupe was small and the vine died before I picked it.

The tomatoes are hanging on, though. The blight is still there, but, because it's not so hot and humid any more the fungus isn't spreading. I think we'll actually get some if we can keep the squirrels at bay.

Squash bugs taking over my plant!

I also think I could get one more harvest from my herbs, maybe two. The basil is starting to flower, (I picked off the first round of flowering so the plants wouldn't die yet), and the sage is, too but it's also starting to get yellow. The thyme still looks great, same with the rosemary. I'll cut a bunch today or tomorrow and dry it all for sauces and cooking through the winter. I love fresh herbs, but dry ones last longer. And that way I can use my dehydrator again.

Fall garden

This weekend I ripped up the north bed and replanted fall crops. The blight had just gotten too bad and I had to make that decision to get rid of the diseased plants and get some fall lettuces going.

First off, the night before I soaked my seeds to get them germinating. I put the contents of each seed packet in a separate red solo cup and covered the seeds with water. After at least 12 hours I strained the seeds out of each cup and put them on paper towels. This helped me separate the seeds so I didn't plant them in clusters

and was able to broadcast them all over the plot.

I sectioned off the bed into four plots using cardboard pieces from canning jar boxes. I was even able to use them as labels. I did arugula, spinach, cilantro and collard greens. For these plots I just kind of threw the seeds around randomly and pushed them into the dirt. I might have to thin some of the greens, but maybe not. Last spring my mesclun mix grew close together but it worked just fine.

For the cilantro, I used seeds from our spring cilantro crop. I let it bolt, then cut the plants when they had seeded, then dried them inside. Hopefully, the seeds will be ready and actually grow something. If not, I guess we will just plant something else. Ryan and I figured we may as well try since we have a lot of coriander, more than we know what to do with anyway.

That night, after planting, a huge thunderstorm came. There was even a flood warning, but I don't think we got that much rain, maybe 2 and 1/2 inches, tops. I'm hoping my seeds weren't washed away or ruined. I think it'll be okay, but just got to wait and see.

Ryan put down some of our compost that was ready, before we planted. We had some alfalfa mulch left, too so we hand-tilled that in with the compost. The compost was kind of wet but I think it'll be ok. I only tilled down about an inch, I didn't want to go much further because we were planting crops that need to be planted shallow. And why work harder if I don't have to?

In the south bed we planted butter lettuce and bok choy. For those we planted rows since they'll grow better that way because they are more like heads of lettuce. Also, there weren't as many seeds in those packets, and the seeds were bigger than the others so it was easier to plant them in rows.

Hopefully our fall crops will do better than our summer tomatoes and peppers. Now, we just wait.

Garden Update

The north bed. This is the Sunpeach plant.

It's been about a month since I last posted and that's because our tomatoes aren't doing the best. This morning I ripped up the north bed, even though there was new growth and possible tomatoes to come because the blight wasn't too far behind. My logic was why wait for a few small tomatoes to hopefully ripen when I could go ahead and get started on some greens and lettuces for the fall.

Over the past month I've been trying to save these tomato plants but nothing seems to work. It's been a rainy and humid year, so the blight just spreads no matter what. I did slow it down, but then the squirrels arrived. In less than a day all of our green, almost ready to ripen tomatoes were stolen from their vines and eaten by rude, thieves. So now, there are new tomatoes beginning but their branches are full of blight and by the time they ripen they will be half rotten anyway. So I pulled the plants. It was hard to do, but something that needed to be done.

The south bed is doing a little bit better in regards to blight.

Squash bugs!

There are small amounts of it on the bottoms of the plants, but I've given up pulling those leaves. Now I've been using that Fertilome spray, which seems to affect the insects and other wildlife very minimally. I tried spraying it on some squash bugs and they seemed unbothered by it, even a few hours later. So that's a good sign, except those bugs are still there, I guess.

The butternut squash is still growing baby squash and right now we have at least eight fully grown squash we are letting age a bit on the vine so we can store them overwinter. We

South bed. 

have a minor problem with some squash bugs, but now that Ryan knows what they are and what their eggs look like (little black dots on the underside of squash leaves, usually in perfect little rows) we can combat them. But right now, our squash plant is going crazy so a few bugs won't hurt. We just can't let them get out of control.

Good sized muskmelon

I picked our first cantaloupe last week. The excess rain this year helped that one right along. Our muskmelon was sweet, juicy and the texture was just perfect, not like store bought. It was a pretty good size, too. There are three or four more out on the vine, but that last one is gonna be small. That's okay though, I'm still excited for it. Sometimes smaller fruit is better.

Over the past couple weeks Ryan and I have been trying to preserve as much food as we can. My mother's friend Annie has an apple tree that her family can't pick because they have disabilities and can't go climb a ladder and pick the apples, so we do it. This year we got nine crates of apples. I am not sure what kind of apples they are, but I do know they make great apple sauce and apple butter.

I've also taken up pickling. A lady Ryan works with brought a bunch (like a LOT) of cucumbers to
work for whoever so Ryan brought them home and I pickled them. I did whole dill, spears and chips as well as some bread and butter pickles. I added some red pepper and chilis to a few of the jars in hopes those will be spicy. After the brine cooled it smelled spicy, so there is hope.

The dill recipe I found is simple and it's actually made for dilling green tomatoes but I figured it Sean Brock's Heritage, and the recipe is Dilled Green Tomatoes on page 230. If anyone is interested in this recipe, please ask. I'll send it to you.

could work on pickles, too. And it did. I pulled out a jar at a party a couple weeks ago and everyone said they were good on their pulled pork sandwiches. I plan to use them for catering in the upcoming months when we do pulled pork buffets. I think that will be a nice touch to our catering, don't you? Here's the book I got the recipe from:

So, although I've been a canning fool, none of that stuff has actually come from my own garden. Our tomatoes were stolen, the ones that weren't were killed by a nasty fungus and we haven't gotten enough of anything else to can. It's a little depressing but I feel like we will be prepared for next year. At least, as prepared as we can be!

In other news, I was on Facebook last night and saw a friend who posted a picture of a pressure cooker, never used for $50. Originally $100. I jumped on that! Brought it home last night and figured out it can be used as a cooker or a pressure canner! Steal! I can now plan a garden next year and not worry about if I have the equipment to can it all. Now I do! I think Ryan and I are going to mess around with canning beans, soup and other stuff like that. Stay tuned!

Sad News

The blight has taken another plant. I had to get rid of the 'Sweeties' plant the other day when I noticed it wasn't producing new growth, and most of the tomatoes that were previously growing had stopped. The stems were turning brown and I decided it was time to let it go.

I sprayed the Fertilome again last Thursday. There were new blight spots but it wasn't spreading like before. It's been rainy, so I haven't been able to spray it again, but I plan to maybe do it this afternoon. The fungus has slowed down but it hasn't stopped. I think it's just a humid, rainy year and we planted our tomatoes too close together. Next year we will hopefully have better luck.

Our peach tree has exploded, on the other hand. It's giving us tender, sweet fruit that I can't get enough of. Some of them have been eaten by worms but not so bad they can't be salvaged. I'll just have to be careful and cut out the parts that are worm-eaten. Some of the ones that have fallen on the

ground had somewhat moldy pits, but I've only found a couple like that. I've read where that could be the result of too much rain, but who knows? If you do, please comment below.

I plan to can a bunch of peaches, freeze some and eat even more fresh. I may even make a peach pie or cobbler.

The tomatoes are still coming, I'm just not getting as many as I had hoped. I think that is because the plants are too close and they weren't allowed to spread out. Also, I read where pruning the plants of the suckers helps the plants focus on fruiting instead of producing leaves and stems. I didn't start doing that until later on. Also, the blight seems to be slowing down the process and I only get one good harvest from a plant before the blight takes over completely and I lose the plant.

I've lost two plants completely but two others that were affected are producing new growth. That's a good sign, I think, but I'm not sure either will give me any more tomatoes. One of those plants was the 'Black From Tula' and it had  some big, beautiful, red and blackish tomatoes but squirrels got to them. I went out to pick them and they had already been torn apart from those furry little robbers. I hope they enjoyed them! Next time I won't try to let big tomatoes like that vine-ripen.

Although we've had some problems, it's all a learning experience. I'm having a lot of fun figuring things out, researching and getting my hands dirty. I feel like I can only get better and that makes me excited for next year. I think I'm going to try to get some seeds going inside on my own this year. Ryan and I also have plans to expand our garden and spread it out a bunch. I think I'm going to move my herb garden and plant more of a variety. I love drying them and cooking with them because the flavors are much fresher that way.

I'm excited to get canning this year. Peaches will be first and I'm hoping I'll have enough tomatoes for canning. If not, I plan to get some from the farmers market or maybe friends who have too many. The families I've gotten produce from in the past had way too much rain this year and not enough luck. My mom's friend has an apple tree that will be ready in the upcoming weeks, so I'll have some apples, too. Can't wait!

Using Fertilome For Blight

I decided to use an organic fungicide to help with the blight. It was taking over every plant it touched and Ryan and I didn't want it to go any further. We decided we would rather use a fungicide than lose all of our hard work to a stupid spore. I went to Jackson's Greenhouse and asked for help.

New growth on my 'Chef's Choice' orange
tomato plants that had lots of blight

You can see where the leaves died where
they were affected with blight

The lady there directed me to a product called Fertilome. She said it wasn't organic, but I did some research and the chemicals used in the product are considered organic. She kept telling me I had a bug problem from what she could see in my photos. But, I tried telling her I had talked to a few different people about it and I'd done a lot of research and she wouldn't listen. I finally showed her my original photo of the blight and she changed her tune and said maybe she was wrong. Duh.

Well, I bought the fungicide and a pH tool. I am going to take in a cup of soil for Jackson's to test for me since they do it for free. I thought free was better than spending $20 on the kit myself, but I haven't made it back because I've been busy. I have plans to take the soil in tomorrow and I will let you know what I find out.

The butternut squash is growing along the fence quickly

When I got home, I mixed up some of the fungicide with water as the bottle directed, then put it in a spray bottle. The directions say to lightly spray the affected leaves, but not so much that the leaves drip. I lightly misted all the affected plants, and tried not to breathe in the chemicals. Although they are organic chemicals, they are still chemicals and should be treated as such.

I sprayed three days ago. The photos here are taken today, three days after the application of the fungicide. I feel like it worked. The leaves that had blight on them are now brown and shriveled, as if the fungicide killed the blight, but also killed the leaf in the process. But, the stems don't seem to look any different and there is new growth on the top of the plants. Also, the blight hasn't spread like it had been before. Last week, before the Fertilome, I noticed entire branches overcome in only a day or two. Now, it's a spot here and there and mostly on the tips of the leaves. I feel like it's been a success so far, but still have to wait and see what happens.

Coriander hanging in the basement

I was scared of using the fungicide because I read online that some bugs would die as a result. Ugh, that was my biggest hesitation in using the fungicide, but I also read that it was only in the first 24 hours that it would kill bugs, so I tried to make it so when bees were out and around, it would be the last 12 hours of the 24. So, I sprayed it on around 6 p.m. when I hardly see any bees or other bugs around. Also, I've been out to the garden and there are still tons of insects buzzing around, so it must not have done too much damage. I'm not sure, and it's hard to tell. But it is something I think about and try to affect as little as possible. I read where you can cover your plants with a sheet or some other cover for 24 hours, then remove them.

The butternut squash and the musk melon plants are doing well. The butternut has vined out and we have 2-3 small squash and one big one so far. There are a bunch of flowers, too, so it must be doing well. The muskmelon is producing, too. We have at least two melons, one of them is a bit bigger than the other. That plant is growing up the fence, too, and there are many possibilities for fruit to appear. The lakota squash isn't doing much and neither is the zucchini. Hopefully, after we get the soil tested at Jackson's, we can get those turned around.

I went ahead and harvested the coriander. Some of it was still green and seems to be taking forever to turn brown. But, some of it is brown, so I decided to cut it all and hang it downstairs and see what happens. There is so much of it, I'm sure it will be ok if it all doesn't turn brown, but from the plants I hung last week, it seems like they will all eventually turn brown. 

Now that we have a blank spot in the garden, Ryan and I are going to save the spot for fall planting. We want to do more greens and lettuces. So for the time being, we are going to leave it alone. 

Once a week I've been feeding all of the plants in the garden the seaweed fertilizer Ryan bought at Jackson's. For some reason it was hard for us to find this stuff anywhere. It's available online, but hard to find in the stores and nonexistent at stores like Lowe's or Home Depot. All they have is Miracle Grow. There are all kinds of brands, but the one we are using is called Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed. I hear that fish emulsions work just as well. Our 'Tumbling Toms' plant on our front porch was looking pretty sad and had stopped producing any fruit. I poured this on it and by the next week there were three new branches with blooms on them. It's been almost three weeks since the first time I put any on it and I've gotten 3-4 tomatoes off of it and there are even more to come. I definitely recommend getting some of this if your garden seems a little puny. This is much better than Miracle Grow, and the results are immediate. It's a little pricey, but worth the price, I think. You add one ounce to a gallon of water and I did about an ounce between the two garden beds and a quart on the 'Tumbling Toms' and the rest of my flowers on the front porch. It works on those, too, in case you're wondering.

I plan to keep using the seaweed once a week and I may spray one more time for blight. I think after that, if I continue to water carefully, I won't have to worry about the blight. At least I hope.

Handy Dandy Dehydrator

Over the weekend, I've been messing around with a food dehydrator Ryan and I bought on Amazon. We discussed it for awhile and decided that we would have plenty of tomatoes to dry and other projects we'd like to try (dried fruit, beef jerky, fruit leather, etc.), and we felt it would be a worthwhile purchase. We spent about $65 for it with free shipping.

The dehydrator we bought is electric with a fan that runs. There aren't any settings on it because we decided on a basic model since we are beginners. Of course there are more expensive ones that let you play with settings like timers and temperature control. That would be nice, but those models cost more around $200 and we just weren't ready to spend that much. One thing I like about our model is that the trays can be stacked one way for a shallow drying surface for thinly cut foods, and stacked another way for thicker cut foods, you just flip it over. That way, you don't smash your food or give too much room either.

For the first round, I kept it simple with cherry tomatoes. Later, I added basil, which didn't take very

long at all.  I cut the tomatoes in half and placed them cut side up. The tomatoes weren't too juicy so I didn't have to worry about them dripping into the fan, which is something I have to watch out for on this particular model. I didn't treat the tomatoes with anything at all, I just stuck them into the dehydrator after slicing them and turned it on.

A little bit later, I added some fresh basil from the garden. The basil only took 45 minutes to an hour. It was quick and the smell was amazing. I just stood there and smelled it all for awhile and enjoyed the aroma. When the basil was dried, I found a container and crumbled the freshly dried herb into it. Ahh, it smelled so good! The freshest dried herbs you'll ever use are ones produced this way. I opened my store-bought basil and compared and it just didn't make the cut. The store-bought stuff was gross compared to what I had just made. It's hard not to throw it out, but it's gonna happen eventually I'm sure.

Dried cherry tomatoes

Yesterday, I found some somewhat old blueberries in the fridge. They weren't yet moldy, but they were just a little shriveled. I thought, 'what the heck' and threw them in the dehydrator. Why not? I left them in for about 11 hours and they were almost all the way dry, except for the bigger blueberries, they were like little pebbles. The bigger ones were a little more like raisin-consistency.

I also dried some herbs -- thyme, basil, pineapple sage and rosemary -- but I did those first so the flavor wouldn't leach out into the blueberries. That wouldn't be good.

Next, we want to try bananas, peaches and maybe even some kiwi.

Our Struggles With Blight

So the blight did not go away.

We had to sacrifice our 'Early Girl' plant and may have to get rid of the 'Chef's Choice' orange ones. It's very sad and depressing, really. I'm scared the rest of my plants are going to get infected so we started to make some hard decisions.

The stems on my pepper plants were turning black

Blight on my pepper plants' leaves

Ryan and I decided to also get rid of our bell pepper plants and jalapeno plants because they were overcome with blight, also. The stems were even starting to turn black, which I read HERE is sign of late blight, which is even harder to get rid of and can even kill your entire crop in a matter of days. That scared me, so I wanted to rip those out as soon as I could. It was a hard decision, but we felt like it was the best one.

I've been able to prune off the small bits of blight from all my other tomato plants, but I'm scared the 'Black From Tula' may be on its way out, but it has tons of fruit on it right now. I think tomorrow I'm going to check out Jackson's Greenhouse and talk to the people who work there and see if there is something I can do. I really want to keep the garden organic, but I've read about how there are organic solutions. I was not wanting to use any chemicals, but I guess I'm gonna have to if I want to save these plants.

One of my many harvests.

In order to keep the plants from touching so much, we've started to direct each plant's growth out, away from the other plants. Now that the pepper plants are gone, we have room to walk back into the garden and mess around with the plants. Next year, we definitely need to space things out a bit more so we can do that on a regular basis. Being able to view your plants from all angles is important. One I wish I would have been told before starting this endeavor.

Overall, I'm happy with the garden. If we can get this blight under control we should have plenty of tomatoes for canning, BLTs, salads and even some to share with family and friends. Every tomato I've tasted has been amazing, and I can't wait for more. Tonight, we just cut our first 'Black From Tula' and it was juicy, meaty and robust. The 'Early Girl' tomatoes have been sweet, but smaller than I'd hoped and packed full of flavor. The 'Sunpeach' has been one of my favorites. It's peach colored and sweet, meaty and bursting with juice.

A variety of tomatoes from the garden.

The couple zucchini we've picked are flavorful and the texture has been good. But, as you can see from the photo above, the ends are kind of withered and I found where it may be blossom end rot, which occurs because of calcium deficiency. There have been a couple other zucchini where the end was more mushy and looked like it was rotting off.

I have a bunch of eggshells so I'll probably go throw those on there to start off. But first I'm going to test my soil. While I'm at Jackson's I'll ask about a soil testing kit or meter. I found that Ace Hardware has one for $15.

I ordered a food dehydrator on Amazon last week and it should be here tomorrow. We plan to dry many of our cherry and grape tomatoes with it. We have plenty for a first batch this weekend. I'll post my experience here.

Garden Progress Mid-July

Everything is coming along nicely. I feel like the plants are much healthier after I removed the blight-filled leaves.

I did find that some sort of pest got to one of my "Black From Tulas". I looked up some possibilities, and found where it's probably a tomato hornworm. I tried looking under the leaves to find them, but couldn't. This was the same day I picked all of the leaves with blight, so maybe I was able to remove the worms, too? I hope so. I haven't seen any more holes in any other tomatoes, yet. I will keep checking.

Here are a couple more tomatoes on my "Black From Tula" plant. They look so good!

Here are some "Chef's Choice Orange" after pruning. 

Our Lakota squash is going crazy. It's found its way up our fence without much help. Ryan is trying to get the muskmelon to do the same thing in this photo. He also had to separate the Lakota squash from some of our tomato plants because the squash was just wrapping itself around the tomatoes. Next year we know to plant everything much further apart.

These are some "Sunpeach" cherry tomatoes. They are so sweet and juicy. We've been able to harvest a few of these here and there, but there are about to be hundreds.

The "Sunrise Bumblebee" is coming along nicely.

These are "Sweeties", another sweet cherry, but these will be bright red. As you can see, we are going to have hundreds of these, too.

The plant most affected by blight, the "Early Girls" are still coming along nicely. There are lots of fruit still hanging and starting to redden up a bit. I'm just hoping there will be new growth after these.

I spied this little guy while watering. I hadn't seen anything but blossoms on the zucchini plant.  There's another small one to the left of this one, but you can't see it in this picture, and it's much smaller. This one is the star of the show, at the moment. I can't wait to see how many more we get!

Taking Care of Blight

I chose the perfect day to prune my tomato plants. It's been 70 degrees and cloudy. I got lucky.

Next year I really need to remember to plant my crops further apart. I definitely didn't give any of them enough room to spread out and really grow. I have a squash plant wrapping itself around a tomato plant, and tomato plants intertwining so much I can't tell which plant is which. Not to mention, you can see the path of the blight.

Before

After reading up about blight, I've found that it takes touching leaves and lots of water to spread the spores quickly, and you could definitely tell by looking at my plants, the path the blight traveled.

I lost most of my "Early Girl" plant because it's in the back, I couldn't see it very well, and by the time I noticed the blight for what it was, it had spread through most of the plant. Luckily, the branches that held most of the ripening fruit weren't affected, but pretty much all of the other branches were sacrificed. Our "Early Girl" is now a Naked Girl. I think we should still be able to get the remaining fruit from the plant, but I'm not sure how much more it will produce. Hopefully I was able to save it and it will continue to produce a bunch of tomatoes.

Because the "Early Girl" is next to the "Black From Tula's" and the "Orange Chef's" Choice, those

After

two plants lost the second-most of all my plants. Also, the "Sweeties" needed some minor pruning at the base of the plant, and when I did that I found a bunch of fruit I didn't know was even there. As you can see from the photos, I took off a lot of leaves, but I didn't lose much fruit. There is still some low-hanging fruit on the "Sweeties" so I left them there. Also, this plant only had minor blight, and I mulched heavily in hopes to prevent future blight outbreaks. If that fruit wasn't there, I would have cut all of that off at the base and probably still will once those tomatoes are ready to pick.

I went ahead and pruned my other tomato plants in the other garden bed to the south. There were minor signs of blight, but nothing like the north bed, but I still wanted to prune to prevent any blight from happening in the future. I went up about a foot of the plant, trying to think about how water splashes when I water. I also mulched that bed heavily, making sure to spread the straw away from the base of the plant a bit to prevent rot or pest from showing up.

The future plan is to get some soaker hoses set up and get them connected to our rain barrels. That's going to take some work, though, so it probably won't happen tomorrow. Soon, though.

Early Blight -- OH NO!

Over the weekend I found that some of my tomato plants have early blight. At first I was stressing out about it, then I did some reading and found that it's a common problem that can be fixed pretty easily.

Infected leaf on my Early Girl plant

First, I took a photo of one of the leaves affected on my Early Girl plant. Then, I posted it to Facebook to see what others had to say.

After doing some more research online and listening to what people were saying on Facebook, I came to the conclusion that I'm dealing with early blight. Early blight is a fungal infection that is easily spread by water or touching leaves. The spores use water to travel, so when you water they splash up and land on the bottom leaves of your tomato plants. The spores move up from there, infecting your plant one leaf at a time, including jumping to other plants if their leaves touch.

Unfortunately, I planted my tomato plants way too close together, so airflow is at a minimum and the leaves will stay wet longer, so I need to take extra care when watering in the future. Also, I hope to get some soaker hoses set up, that way splashing won't be an issue anymore. Then, next year, I won't plant my tomatoes in the same spot, as that will encourage blight to return, and I'll make sure to spread them out more than I did this time.

My plan of action includes pruning off infected leaves, mulching heavily with straw and adding soaker hoses so I can limit splashing. I think I'm going to prune all of my plants about a foot off the ground. Maybe closer, I'll judge that when I'm out there and let you know what I decide.

Some articles I read promoted the use of fungicides but I hope to fix the problem without them -- I'm going to try, anyway. Another way to prevent blight is to plant blight-resistant varieties of tomatoes, but I wasn't paying attention to that sort of thing when I was buying my plants. Maybe next year I will look for different varieties, or plant in a different area. Experts say to wait 3-4 years to plant tomatoes in the same spot if they suffer blight.

Resources:
Purdue:
https://www.ppdl.purdue.edu/PPDL/expert/tomato-blight.html
Mother Earth News:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/preventive-pruning-for-tomato-early-blight-control.aspx
Tomato Dirt, blog
http://www.tomatodirt.com/tomato-blight-early.html

Greens, Tomatoes and Herbs

Today, Ryan and I harvested our first collard greens and kale.

We only have one plant of each item, but I feel like we can still get a good amount off each plant. I read where you can harvest the outer leaves and they will grow back three leaves every five days. Ryan was skeptical, but I reminded him of how fresh garden produce is and not to compare to grocery store produce. The stuff in the store is already a few days, if not a few weeks, old by the time

Top layer is kale, bottom layer is collard greens

it makes it to the consumer's kitchen. We can store the greens up until we have enough to make something. It should only take two, maybe three harvests.

The garden is coming along nicely. I am seeing small, green tomatoes on most of the plants. I haven't seen any on the Lemon Boys, but those are a late harvest anyway. I've seen tons of blossoms on the Black From Tula, but haven't seen any tomatoes, yet. The Early Girls are getting bigger and any day now we will have multiple fruits off that plant.

Yesterday, I ate my first tomato sandwich of the season with some Early Girls I'd let ripen by the window. I've been picking the tomatoes when they are a light orangey-red color, then I set them by a sunny window and let them redden up. It frees up the plant to put energy into other fruit this way, plus, I've heard from gardeners that tomatoes don't get anything from the plant after the white to orange stage. Either way, it's worked for me so far. They don't seem to get any bigger so, why not?

I also picked a bunch of basil yesterday, and thyme. It helps the plants to bush out and produce more this blog and enjoyed reading the writer's experiences with failing at basil. I would rather read and learn from someone else's mistakes, so I figured you would, too, since you're reading this blog. In regards to the flowers, I've been picking mine off of my basil plants, so that I can keep harvesting. I didn't realize that's what I was supposed to do, and think maybe that's why it's dying off a bit. I'll try to get rid of all the flowers and see what happens. I need to harvest much more of it so maybe it will bush out.

stems with more herbs if you cut the plants regularly. I cut the basil from the top, down, about 1&1/2 inches.  I found

I noticed that with the pineapple sage it's bushed out a bunch. I did cut a substantial amount from it a few times now, so that proves cutting down herbs encourages growth.

I've only cut some thyme, but it's grown a lot, too. The rosemary is growing tall and has a couple extra branches that weren't there before -- I started with one, single stalk.

The cilantro has begun to produce small, green seeds where the white flowers used to be. Only a few flowers have begun to turn, but I bet the rest are quick behind them. I read where you can harvest them green for one flavor, and dry them out for a completely different flavor. The plan is to try both ways and compare, then let you know the findings.

Tomatoes

Our sunpeach tomatoes are coming along.

Tomato Cages, Coriander Seeds, Rain Collection

Today, I fed my plants and gave them some support.

Some of the tomato plants already had cages, but today, Ryan and I bought some more and built a couple for our tomato and squash plants.

A friend gave me some cane reeds that we tied together and built into tomato cages. It was really easy. All I needed in addition was some green tape to tie the tips together and add some extra support. I tied some around the bottom of the canes to support the plants a little more. I'm hoping the tape will hold up, but will just have to wait and see.

I also decided to throw down some more food. The leaves on a couple of the plants are looking a little yellow again, so I figured some food wouldn't hurt. The last time that happened and I fed them, the yellow was gone the next day. It's crazy how fast you can see results in gardening.

I've noticed a few peppers on my jalepeno plant, small tomatoes on a couple of the plants and all kinds of blossoms. The basil plants are going crazy and some are producing flowers already. The pineapple sage is bushy and my thyme is thriving, too. The rosemary I planted to get rid of mosquitoes is branching out and I snipped a little the other day -- it was so fresh and aromatic. The lavender is bushing out a bit, and I haven't even watered it once. There's been a lot of rain, and lavender doesn't need as much water as other crops. I read that it needs well-drained soil, so I planted it on the outside of the beds, and so far, so good.

Something is eating the kale and the collard greens, but I read on Mother Earth News that during the warm summer months, those plants attract more pests than in the early spring or late fall when it's cooler out. Also, better tasting kale results from a couple of frosts, and that isn't happening any time
soon. I'm going to keep trying and see what happens. I can always try again in the fall.

The cilantro is flowering, which is one more step toward coriander. I'm waiting for the flowers to produce little green seeds -- coriander. I want to harvest some of the green seeds, but save some to dry out a bit for overwinter cooking. I read a blog that said the flavor is much different and the seeds can also be frozen so I could use them through some of the winter months.

We've continued to collect rain with our rain barrels, but, we've also found another way to collect waiter that would be otherwise wasted. We have a dehumidifier in the basement to help with moisture in the summer months. The machine collects water from the air and sends it into a reservoir. This particular dehumidifier also has a hose you can attach and therefore, aim it at whatever you want and collect the water. Originally, we had the hose aimed at the drain in the basement, but Ryan decided to put the hose in a bucket instead, and see how much water we could collect. We had no idea how much it would produce: up to four gallons a day!

So, we've hardly used our own water to water our garden or yard this year. I'm so glad Kansas isn't one of the states where it's illegal to collect rainwater. I just can't believe that's the case anywhere.

Everything is going well so far, and I'm so excited for some summer tomatoes.

Whoa, look at this worm, it's huge!

Ryan at work.

Tuesday, Ryan and I planted the crops we bought at the Topeka Farmers Market.

First, we had to uproot the spinach and mesclun mix to clear a spot for our new tomatoes and squash.  We used these hoes a friend of ours made for us, he likes to use metal to make things, including decorations. He goes by the name The Iron Florist. Here's an article I wrote about him, if you want to know more.  After pulling up the roots, we threw them into a pile a few feet away from the beds. Once they die we will add them to the compost bin.

Big worm

Ryan also bought a tool at the hardware store that can be used to shallowly till soil by hand. He used it to loosen up the soil and kind of mix it together, which helped rip up some of the weeds that were growing, too. Hopefully those won't come back. Weeds are hard to keep up on. At first I was getting all of them, then, slowly over time I slacked off. Then, there were a whole bunch of them and it took me a long time to get most of them, so I can see how it would be easy to let weeds take over your garden.

While tilling, we found a lot of worms. BIG worms! I was hoeing up some of the spinach when one flipped out of the soil and flew two feet, then scrambled to get back underground. It startled me and gave me a laugh at the same time! Then, Ryan found another one, pictured here. At least we know we have good soil thanks to these guys!

We added alfalfa mulch

We then planted our crops. We did three more tomato plants in the north bed -- where the other tomato plants and pepper plants are. Then, in the south bed we put the other three tomato plants, the squash along the southernmost side, and the greens on the northernmost side. We had a reason for our madness. The squash plants will yield 2-3 squash, so we figured this meant we will be picking those plants the least, so we placed those at the back where it's harder to reach. The tomato plants, however, will be picked frequently and better access will be appreciated. The greens are in the front since they are low to the ground and you need to be close to them to cut them. We tried to think ahead.

After planting, we added compost and mulch to each plant. Some of the plants we bought were already planted in compost, but we figured a little more wouldn't hurt. Here in a couple weeks, I'll add some plant food.

There is a blank space in our garden. The reason for the blank space is that we were scared to take on too much for our first garden. I've read all over the place that the biggest mistake new gardeners make is taking on too much. We decided to give it a week or two, then decide if we can take on more. I think we should just do what we have so far, and start planning a fall garden. It's been so fun so far, I wouldn't want to overwhelm myself, so I'll probably just carry on with what I have.

If you have any comments, tips or advice, please comment below. I'd love to hear your experiences!