popular What have you done today in the Garden?

Mel— those really are attractive squashes. Lotsa fun.
The strawbs look to be a good size. Too bad about those rascally chipmunks.
I like seeing your hangers-on. Do you think the toms will redden?
Finally— the funion strings. Well done, meid. They look a treat.

 

@Melody Mc. your harvest is wonderful! Those squashes remind me of the Red Queen's hair in Alice Through the Looking Glass. I imagine they are the butts of some jokes around there.

As for onions (also for @marlingardener), around here the grocery onions tend to spoil so quickly, while the onions I harvested last fall were good until May. I like the flavor and texture of home grown onions too. Onions have a lot of health benefits. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/are-onions-good-for-you/

Somewhere I read there are more of those benefits in heirloom varieties that have more tear-producing pungency.

Nice to have some strawberries. I have some strawberry plants now. I think I'll just grow them in containers now.

Today I harvested enough yellow cherry tomatoes to fill a sheet pan to freeze. Those will go into a freezer bag when frozen for a favorite meal (cherry tomatoes roasted with a block of feta cheese, and garlic, and mixed with noodles). I don't think freezing will affect the texture or flavor.

The variety is an open-pollinated dwarf type from the open-source "Dwarf Tomato Project". So I saved seeds from a few of those. Oh - @Sjoerd - in response to your question, I only remove seeds for saving. I don't remove them when cooking tomato sauce.



I also processed a container of Roma tomatoes - just blanched, skinned, portioned in 2-cup amounts in freezer bags, removed the air, and froze. A shoebox-sized bin yielded eight 2-cup bags.



What I found with these, was the actual Romas are more tender and release more juice, while the hybrid "Supremos" are more firm. Mixed together they seem just right.

I potted this Cheyenne Spirit hybrid Echinacea, from the garden bed. Washed the soil from the roots before potting. In 85 F weather. It seems to be holding up ok, which is kind of surprising. It's in deep shade for a few days.



I wanted to give this one container treatment, because I think the red color is richer than the other seedlings. Which might just be a pigment of my imagination...

Buffalo Grapes from the arbor. Deeper blue than the ones I harvested last week.



I made those into a second batch of jelly. The green ones are "Interlaken", which I grew a few years ago from a cutting. It's not so productive yet.

Enough of me blathering on...

 

Daniel, the texture of your frozen cherry tomatoes will change, but the flavor remains. The Romas can be frozen whole. The skin just slips off when almost thawed. I have two gallon bags in the freezer now for use this winter.
"Pigment of my imagination"? Good one!

 

Saw my friends Marion, Barry and went to see Geoffrey and did some weeding in his garden.

 

Harvested apples grapes nuts and blackberries. Lettuce bolted , and squash is doing well.

 

Beautiful harvest, @Pacnorwest !

 

Thanks for the pictures, Daniel. I had forgotten about Victory seeds. I used to order from them when I lived in Washington. The others were Nichols and Territorial. Those were the three I always ordered from.

Wow, you seem to really be downsizing. It looks nice.

 

Thank you Willow.
I think Victory is a good source for some open pollinated varieties. They are also a small outfit, something I like. I think they are one if the few sources for tomato seed varieties from the Dwarf Tomato Project. Of course I also like Baker Creek, and buy from them too.

Territorial became too expensive for me. Too bad, one of their hybrid sauce tomatoes (Ranger) was really good, one of the best. I don't know Nichols.

I have two acres. I was over-ambitious with planting, and a lot of things were experiments. I still have a big garden, but now need to focus on what I can do. There are a few other areas to convert to clover, and a few fruit trees that never did anything. I'm not able to do as much, and the hotter, drier, climate adds more challenges.

I enjoyed this French marigold this year. It originated from a volunteer in my vegetable garden, ten years ago. I've been saving seeds ever since.




I wonder if this one will come true from seeds? I bought the plant, unknown variety. Prolific bloomer, very compact.

 

Great harvest @Pacnorwest

Potted up 4 big pots and 2 very large pots with daffodil bulbs.

 

Daniel—Great toms, grapes and Echinaecia foto’s. Very nice-looking marigolds.

Pac— looking good there. Too bad about those lettuce plants. The hazelnuts are a bonus. How will you use those?

 

Some bearded irises arrived in the mail. I planted them in a large container.





I don't know how they'll grow and bloom in the container. Time will tell.

Small fig crop. They are in dehydrator now.

 

That's a great fig crop that you got there Daniel, not sure about the bearded irises how they will grow.

 

I will be happy to see those iris next season, Daniel.

 

I picked a boquet for inside today. I'm so excited to have sweet peas again.

 

Thank you Sjoerd. I'm not sure how the toms will do, and I have so many houseplants that I'm reluctant to bring any out door plants into the house. I've gotten a few though. If they are willing to try, and I'll keep them on hahaha.