This morning I went out to pick tomatoes and found that there were a lot more than I saw yesterday--many were hidden under the leaves. I had about equal amounts of Roma (a paste tomato), Juane Flamme (a medium-small golden tomato that produces through the high heat), and cherry tomatoes. The Romas will go into the freezer until I have enough to make pizza sauce (I like to use it for spaghetti, too!). When I get a lot at once, I will can diced tomatoes. The other tomatoes I will eat today and tomorrow (yes, I love tomatoes!). I also picked (but forgot to photograph) 5 yellow beets. I will roast them for my dinner tonight.
I harvested my spring peas, so I can plant them next spring. As I was picking the peas I almost grabbed a wheat colored (my pea plants are dried and wheat colored) praying mantis that was about 5 inches long. After I was finished picking, I gathered up the pea straw and the mantis and placed them on an empty garden bed that is being used as a compost bed, and will be planted next spring. That way the mantis will have her habitat, and I will recycle the plant material. I will shell the peas and keep the largest ones to replant. I gathered some lettuce seeds, too, so I will have seeds to plant next summer.
I also harvested my garlic. Some of the bulbs are small and others are large. I suppose it depends on the size of clove I started out with. I used a bulb of garlic from the market last spring, and now I have my own garlic to cook with, and some to plant next spring. I will keep the largest cloves to replant, and eat the rest.
Lastly, I topped my apricot trees. Apricots need to be pruned about now, instead of winter. This will lessen the chance of the trees becoming diseased. Also, these trees are semi-dwarf and I want to keep them low enough so that I can pick the apricots without a ladder. Apricots can get out of hand in a year or two if not pruned back. I had a semi-dwarf apricot before that went 12 feet high and spread out all over the place! I learned that lesson well! According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, now through August 3rd is the time to prune trees and shrubs that you want to keep their shape. August 10-16 is the time to prune trees and shrubs that you want to encourage growth, such as for increased height or filling in thin spots. Yes, there are a lot of weeds in this bed, very happy weeds! You might be able to see one of my many pecan trees in the left bottom corner. I will be going after the pecans next. The blue jays plant them in my yard every year, so it's an ongoing battle. I have seen other yards in my area that have pecan trees, too, so I'm not the only one!
Growing garlic is really easy! If you have some garlic that you bought at the market, and it is starting to grow, just stick it in the ground so that the very tip of the pointed end is sticking out of the soil. Then, make sure it gets watered regularly. Garlic generally doesn't have trouble with pests or diseases, but sometimes aphids will attack the leaves (just wash them off with a stream of water from the hose). Last month the leaves of my garlic started drying out. Once they were mostly dry, I pulled the garlic out of the ground and let it dry completely in my garage. In the picture above, the garlic on the left is how that garlic looked (after I cut off the leaves). The garlic on the right is after I trimmed off the roots, and pulled off the first, and dirty, layer of skin. Now it looks like the garlic you buy in the market!
This is how my garlic looks in my kitchen. It sits on the counter all the rest of the year. It is close at hand for cooking, and out of the way, too. This year my garlic was small--I believe the long cool spring we had stunted its growth. No problem! I can use two cloves of garlic instead of one when I cook--I have more than enough!
