It worked, Boo. Keep them coming!!!

WhoaHoo! Ok so it took two years and a little down time at work to figure this out. Now I'll try embedding so pix of the garden. Here's some cherry tomatoes that are just starting to ripen. The DH and I ate the first two yesterday.

Here's my field of toms. They got hit hard by blight last year, so I planted LOTS this year

My more modest cukes and zinnias

And a little something I didn't grow but found in my yard!

I love the deer picture! We see those in our yard all the time! I have had up to 16 at one time at the salt block. Nice pictures, Boo.

I wish so much that I had room and enough sun for a vegetable garden. Not that I could even begin to eat all the veggies!

That fellow looks familiar. Lots of his cousins live here.

Great pictures. Love your garden. How many tomatoes will you harvest?

Brenda

Originally, I put in around 50 tomato plants. I started them from seed. The little seedlings did so well I had a tough time throwing them out. So I tucked a few more on the outside of the garden where the DH doesn't like to mow. I put some more around the deck and put a few more in containers on the deck. I will have LOTS of tomatoes to harvest if all goes well!

I can my own spaghetti sauce and ran out this year, because of my bad crop last year. It's one of my most requested items by family & friends.

Boo, wonderful photos! My cukes started coming in this week and I am picking green beans like mad. Now I need the toms to come in.

Would you share you sauce recipe with me? I still have some whole toms from last year in the freezer I need to move out.

Peppi

This is out of Small Batch Preserves, but I got the recipe off the Harvest forum. I can it. I'm sure you don't have to. I imagine it would freeze well too. I add a tablespoon of lemon juice (I'm paranoid about the acidity) to each pint jar then I add the sauce to the jars and follow with processing. If it seems tart to me when I go to use it, I'll add a tablespoon of sugar or grape jam to make it a little sweeter.

Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
8 cups (2 L) coarsely chopped peeled tomatoes -- (about 9-12 tomatoes or 4 lb/2 kg)
1 cup chopped onion -- (250 mL)
3 cloves garlic -- minced
2/3 cup red wine -- (150 mL)
1/3 cup red wine vinegar (5 % strength) -- (75 mL)
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil -- (125 mL)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley -- (15 mL)
1 teaspoon pickling salt -- (5 mL)
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar -- (2 mL)
1 6-oz/156 mL) can tomato paste
Combine tomatoes, onion, garlic, wine, vinegar, basil, parsley, salt, sugar and tomato paste in a very large non-reactive pan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 40 minutes or until mixture reaches desired consistency, stirring frequently.
Remove hot jars from canner and ladle sauce into jars to within 1/2 inch (1 cm) of rim (head space). Process 35 minutes for pin (500 mL) jars and 40 minutes for quart (1 L) jars in a BWB.
Yield:
"8 cups"
Note: This sauce also makes an excellent base for a quick pizza.

Nice pictures, love the ones of the tomatoes and deer!

Thanks for all the compliments on the pictures!

Really nice photos. I tore out my veggie garden last summer; it had gotten too shaded over the twenty years, the raised bed was falling apart, the critters ate more than I did, and near the end it became a nursery for flower, tree, and shrub cuttings and transplants.

I miss the fresh tomatoes, sigh. At one time I was taking home 30 lbs a week..impressive for a 12 x 14 bed and 8 plants.

Keep posting booberry.

No ripe tomatoes here yet, Booberry, so I'm envious. Soon, though, very soon.

Like Peppi, I'm picking beans as fast as I can. I'll be canning some tonight.

Nice garden. I've never used the plastic mulch, do you think the red color actually helps?

Annie

Annie, I do like the red plastic mulch. I actually ran out in one row (it's cut off in the picture), so I just put the tomatoes directly in the ground. They are smaller than the other tomato plants. Many various bugs, slugs and snails stand out on the red mulch making them easier to spot and smoosh! This is the earliest I've ever picked tomatoes. So far it's just the cherry tomatoes. They're about 3 weeks early. The yellow pear toms are starting to ripen too.

I just started picking bush beans in a fury this week. It's going to be tough to keep up with them. We got pounded by thunderstorms for two hours last evening. They're predicting thunderstorms for every afternoon - evening until sunday.

I got a late start on the pole beans this year. I don't think I'll see them til next month. The cucumbers are starting to trickle in too.

Boo, thanks for the recipe. I will try it this weekend, if the temps aren't near 100 again.

Peppi

Alas, all I grow are children! I would love to have both time and a place for a vegetable garden. I have neither so I will have to enjoy yours vicariously. What a lovely life!

Here's a few more pics. These are the ones taking over the deck. There's tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. The eggplants in containers are doing well.

And a solo eggplant

I know the containers are a little small, but things look happy for the most part.

Booberry, I'm envious of that eggplant, I'm the only one here that likes it so I seldom have it.

Last year, however, I planted four of them. The Colorado Potato Beetles like them much better than potatoes and they were stripped to bare stems in a single day. The poor things never recovered.

Annie

Annie,

I had poor luck with eggplants in the garden in the past. That's why I tried the containers. The DH refuses to eat them, so the eggplant is just for me. As you can tell from the leaves, I've had a problem with flea beetles - no Colorado Potato beetles though. Some of the pepper plants are habenaros. Those are just for me too! I want to make some of your Habenaro Gold.

Love the way you use the veggies as pots for your deck -- that big brown creature visits our apple trees-- along with a few of his friends !

Diane

Wonderful garden Boo. I am envious. I love my grounds, but would kill to have an acre in the sun to grow a garden. Now I am in to canning, and have to buy my produce to can. Bummer!
Sherry

Beautiful Boo! My gardening days are over for the season, except for banana peppers. I'm still harvesting those. I need a good canning recipe for banana peppers. Got one?

I always grow waaaay too many hot peppers. I dice them up and throw them in the freezer to use at a future date. I've also made the jalepeno salsa in the Ball Blue Book to use up hot peppers. However it tastes nothing like Annie's salsa. Here's some ideas for those hot peppers. I made the pickled peppers this past weekend. They lost some of their pretty color in processing, but I'm sure will taste fine in chili at a later date.

The garden is producing lots of tomatoes and hot peppers at this point. Can, Can, Can! Grapes to come next month. I found the camera and the battery charger. Now I have to find the download cable!

Here is a link that might be useful: Preserving peppers

I too have little or no sun in the backyard but the shade mostly comes from a white Crepe Myrtle that I planted so...

Yours crop looks great boo.

Thanks Boo, I'm going to pickle some this weekend!