I Will Grow Eggplants: Lacy Skirret Blooms, Early Tomatoes, and Glorious Cabbage

How is it already the end of July?

The first tomatoes to ripen have been Katja, Favorie de Bretagne, Scotia, and Amber, ~4 of each variety. One small Kim's Civil War Oxheart ripened as well. One Pendulina, three EM-Champion, and two Javelin tomatoes are at various stages of ripeness on the plants.

On the four large North Georgia Candy Roaster squash plants, 9+ female flowers have opened in the last two weeks. There hasn't been a single male flower yet, so none have been pollinated.

The first half of the month, ladybugs graced our garden in abundance! I saw at least one every day. They are so sweet, and seeing a tiny, unexpected pop of red in a jungle of green is a delight to the eye.

While the dill I planted early in the season came up sparsely and then withered, several volunteer dill plants came up in the garlic patch. They have grown so large that now I wonder if I tossed Mammoth dill seed that I mistook for unviable into the patch last year. The tops have turned yellow and they are beautiful, some almost as tall as I am. This afternoon, however, I spotted aphids at every stage on them. Arhg! I loathe aphids. I doused the plants with insecticidal soap and will hope for the best.

We also saw evidence of some aphids on the carrot tops Those got a few squirts of the insecticidal soap, as well. I wish the dear little ladybugs would return. They would keep those aphids at bay!

Buck the Muncher was back for Round Two at The All You Can Eat Buffet (aka, our garden). He ate the pansies and calendula that had bounced back from his first visit, an onion top, lettuce, a bit more chard, bean leaves, some kale. He couldn't get at most of the tomato flowers and greens now that they have been covered with plastic netting.

We have had many volunteer tomato plants this year in the gardens and raised beds. Four have grown to a decent size (considering they germinated late), and three of those now have tomato flowers. One, in the East garden, has tomatoes growing on it. It will be fun to see what variety these turn out to be in the Fall. I would love to post a picture of it, but the East garden is a visual mess of weeds, mulch, half-munched plants, and sprawling tomatoes.

I have taken a few pictures of the tomatoes as they develop and ripen, and will post most of those at the end of the season, in a single "Tomato Round-Up" blog post.

This hasn't been the best year for peppers (this year I have mostly Anaheim plants, and one Ghost pepper plant that was given to me). Two or three Anaheims have a single pepper on them, and there are few flowers on the plants. The Ghost pepper has neither flowers nor any peppers.

The zucchini finally started producing flowers around July 28th and I have been able to hand-pollinate three of them.

The "Saffron" summer squash (similar to "Early Prolific Yellow" squash) grows more quickly than, and produces earlier than, the green zucchini. From two plants, I have already picked 4 squash and there are at least 3 more that will be ready to pick soon.

The skirret plants are covered with flowers that remind me of smaller versions of Queen Anne's Lace.

Two of the varieties from the Heritage bean mix and some of the Fiesta beans have grown runners much taller than in previous years. The beans, too, have loved this summer's weather, and the runners are growing with vigour! Some have outgrown the bamboo stakes put in the patches for them to climb.

The Bachelor Buttons, all of them volunteers this year, are blooming on and on with regular dead-heading. The little fuzzy bees adore them and the deer don't have a taste for them, making them among the few flowers that have been left intact in the garden this summer.

The weather this summer has been ideal for the cabbage, and they have thrived under floating row cover. We've harvested two so far for cole slaw and cabbage roll casserole (I look forward to the latter all year).

Cabbage (Copenhagen)

First Anaheim pepper (July 17th)

Kim's Civil War Oxheart, the first to ripen (July 28th)

Volunteer "Compost Bin" Squash (July 25th)

Volunteer Cosmos ("Sensation Mix") at the edge of the south garden.

Gold Harvest Peas with volunteer Bachelor Buttons throughout (July 17th)

Volunteer dill in the garlic patch (July 27th)

"Pink Blush" lavatera (July 22nd)

Rossa Lunga di Firenza onions (July 17th)

Borage - small and not particularly lush. I don't think it likes being in a pot.

Feverfew (July 22nd) - doing okay despite having been divided and transplanted, which I gather it does not like. The flowers remind me a bit of chamomile. Hoping it doesn't self-seed to the same degree.

Skirret flowers (July 30th)

Heritage bean mix

Window boxes (9) of dry bush bean varieties. Containers of potatoes are to the right.

Light Red Kidney bean pods

Last few poppies...

Naked poppies

A bumper year for summer savoury. Mounds and mounds of it. :)

Amber tomatoes (July 30th)

Pansies (still intact because the buck can't reach them beneath the netting).

One of our furry supervisors relaxing in the shade...

...and her sister came out to join us.

The first zucchini of the season (July 30th)

Cucumber bed and Plourde tomatoes to the right (July 30th)

Marigolds (obtained them at a local seed library and am unsure of the variety)

Queen of Malinalco tomatillo - this is not yet ripe (this variety turns bright yellow) but it had to come off the plant (the husk was torn and it was partially pulled off the plant).