The September garden

The leaves are starting to change color and the smells have changed in the air. School has started and most of us gardeners are planting our fall veggies. Some of us have unsightly tomato plants with green tomatoes hanging all over them wondering when and if they're going to turn red. It was a pretty cool summer here and only now with the recent heat the tomatoes starting to turn red. Here is an article I read this morning regarding this subject. Looks like I wasn't the only one disappointed this year with our crop.
http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-living/ci_18912349?source=rss

Maggie's Chinese cabbage is growing beautifully and we have lots of red onions & walla walla onions in the ground. Carrots and lettuce are sprouting and any day the beet seeds I planted should will too.  Here are some recent happenings from out back..

Finally red

Green zebras

Rows of Chinese cabbage

Herbs galore

Colin's huckleberries

Poblano peppers

Basil

Green With Envy

 Jackie's Tomato Plants

  2 of our tomato plants


I just adore our neighbors Jackie & Dudley. We are so fortunate to have such wonderful people in our lives and even luckier that we live on the same street as them. I know that if I need anything that they are just steps away. I consider them the "safe house" on our street for our kids if ever there were to be an emergency and they have done everything for us from taking in our mail and checking on our kitty while we are away (They have even watered our garden before we had drip system) They have helped me in scary situations as well and came to my rescue when our son had a bad injury & Jackie not only  took me but stayed and sat with me in the emergency room once when I thought I had been bitten by a black widow and there is so much more -  I could go on and on. Jackie's tomato plants astonish me year after year. I'm not sure what she's doing over there but I have been following her lead the last few years. We planted within days of each other this year and already her tomato plants are about three times larger than mine! She has been planting her tomatoes in the same spot for years - what about all this crop rotation stuff I've read about?? Her method always seems to be the same. She plants directly in the ground (not raised beds) and she mixes chicken manure & miracle grow mix to the soil prior to planting.  She waters deeply by hose maybe every other day depending on heat and occasionally feeds them with liquid miracle grow. Perhaps it's the deep watering, the miracle grow, the location. Perhaps it's just Jackie and her gift with things. Now to me, this makes perfect sense.