Collecting seeds... enjoying the harvest!

I made tomato sauce yesterday. Got 8 pints canned... one is in the fridge. Will be making pizza with it this week. Oh my gosh... it smelled so good as it was cooking up.

Today, I'll be picking more tomatoes. I bought some of Mrs. Wages Ketchup mix based on Granny's recommendation... so I may try some of that next.

My parents have 2 Plum Trees... they are sooo good! I've been making Plum Jelly. Yesterday I steamed juiced a fresh batch... so will be making MORE Plum Jelly!

Homemade Jelly makes an awesome gift... so... I love to have LOTS on hand!
My Hollyhock are just about done producing flowers at our little rental house. So, I've been collecting seed so that I can plant them up our new house.

Pictured on the far right is a collection of "Wyoming Wild Sunflower" seeds. I don't know the official name for these petite cluster-like sunflowers but they sure are pretty! They grow near watering ditches and along the side of the rode. They are so pretty!!!

Hmmm.... where to plant them????
Here are 2 heads from my giant sunflowers. We love eating David's Sunflower seeds... so I thought that I'd try harvesting my own sunflower seeds.
I've got lots more tomatoes to pick. Mostly I have Roma tomatoes, but I did purchase a few indeterminate plants from our local Master Gardeners sale this spring. I have so enjoyed to wonderful sweet taste of the Rutgers. This one pictured is a Opalka... strange looking thing, isn't it? This is the first ripe one... I have no idea how it will taste.
Well, I am so pleased to finally have enough ripe tomatoes to make a sauce... that... is what I wanted most from my garden! I make pizza almost once a week and love using my own tomato sauce!

Ah... the goodness of a ripe, sweet tomato!

A big welcome to Whitney! Thanks for following my blog!

This is the tomato that I've been photographing for weeks now! It's a Rutger variety. The other day it went from reddish... to red. My son Aaron was out inspecting the garden... and picked it! Lucky for me, he brought it in to show me before devouring it!

We each ate half... Oh my goodness... I have never tasted a tomato like that! It was so sweet! Wow!

My Romas are turning red too! Tomato sauce... here I come!

I bought some of those Mrs. Wages packets that Granny's been talking about... want to try the ketchup. Wouldn't that be awesome if my family actually liked it?

My sunflowers are all blooming now! Just love them!

Well... today I'm riping out my green beans.

They didn't hardly produce anything... just looked sickly all the time. The seed I used was old... maybe that was my problem. Gone are my visions of jars of canned green beans lining my pantry shelf... I'll have to go the farmer's market and buy some.... : (

Be gone sickly green beans... make way for a fall planting of broccoli seedlings... and spinach... and lettuce.. and arugula... and ???

Oh, I bought Eliot Coleman's Winter Season Handbook and just started reading it... Ah... visions of cool weather crops gracing my dinner table in the chilly winter.... Hmmmm...

My vines are finally growing!

Welcome... welcome!!!

A big welcome to Hidinginmygarden and EllieMaesCottage! Hey, thanks for following my blog you guys!

Lettuce continues to be my biggest harvest, although I have begun to enjoy some beets and... have found that I love swiss chard!!!! I'm almost craving swish chard... like everyday!!!

My Romas are growing lots of fruit. I am finding some blossom end rot, though... : ( Below is a photo of my Rutger bush.

This is my first time growing Opalkas. What a strange looking tomato! It almost looks like a cucumber!!! I bought a few indeterminate plants at the Master Gardener Plant sale in May. Wish I had bought more actually! But I have 2 Opalkas and 2 Rutgers.

My vines are finally starting to grow! Look at the pretty bloom on my cantaloupe vine!

Lots of Romas... grow... grow!!!

This is one of my watermelon vines. It's finally long enough to reach the trellis that I build last week.
This is another cantaloupe vine. In the photo behind the vine is a sea shell... put it there... well... just because!
I seeded some broccoli inside a week or so ago. Most of those seeds have germinated. This will be for a fall crop.

My new bush been seedlings started in my onion box are coming up nicely. Can't believe how fast they're growing! Also started some more baby romaine and radishes in various squares through out the garden... loving SFG!!!

Well, got to run and pick some lettuce to go with our home made nachos!

Video walk thru update 7/11/09

Blooming Tomatoes!

Olpaka and Rutger

We were so busy "house finishing" yesterday, that I didn't get to poke around my garden... but I did make the time today to make my weekly Garden Video Update!

Overall, everything is filling out nicely! We continue to have nice warm sunny days here and my garden is loving it!

My yukon gold potato patch is looking very sad... but there will be some potatoes to harvest even still!

Want to walk around the garden with me?