Batting 1000 and Still Going Strong

I am late for Monday Harvest (It is Wednesday!) but since I had surgery on Friday, I hope I will be given some grace. BTW thanks for all the prayers for my surgery. Surgery was successful... now on the road to recovery!! YEAH!!

Many of you have followed my delight of the ENERGIZE BUNNY tomato cherry plant. (For more info look for posts that have the Energizer Bunny label in the right column of my blog.) The plant earned its name not only because it keeps going and going but because it was mislabeled when I bought it and I don't know what it is!! It was supposed to be a determinate patio variety reaching a height of 4 feet. However, this plant has grown out of control!!! If I could stretch it out, it would be at least 12 feet high. As of today, we have picked 1009 tomatoes from this one plant. And to think I was so excited when we reached 100. I am glad I decided to count the tomatoes this year.  I apologize for the picture but I just had my daughter grab a quick picture with my phone.

I believe my sweet husband has enjoyed bringing in the harvest for me. Of course, his delight may be in watching my joy at the harvest. I love this man!! And I am so blessed!!!

Blessings,

Debbie

Harvest Monday 10/11/10 Stepping Up to the Plate

It's MONDAY and that means it is time to join Daphne and the other gardeners for Monday Harvest. Take some time to see what others are growing, planning, or creating in their gardens.

My guys are stepping up to the plate and taking care of things in my garden since I can't do it right now. Larry did a super job of harvesting the last of the okra. It was so tall that no one else could reach it!

Joshua tackled the job of clearing the okra plants (or should I say trees) from the garden. I think he enjoyed using the clippers...

and pulling the okra stalks.

He was amazed at the roots on this okra plant. I guess when it hit the harder ground at the bottom of the raised bed that it took a turn to easier territory. (Ummmm... He needs a haircut!)

Caleb continues to take care of the tomatoes. This day he picked 128 cherry tomatoes from the mystery Energizer Bunny Plant. He was eager for step 2 of harvest - EATING! (Side note: We have harvested 815 cherry tomatoes to date from this plant and it is still going strong! I think we may hit 1000!!!)

I so appreciate MY GUYS for stepping up to the plate!! They are awesome!!

We still have cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell peppers growing in the garden. We had about a week where the thermometer did not creep into the 90s but the mercury pushed back to the 90s on Thursday and has remained there. My tomatoes and peppers bounced back with the cooler temps and are still going strong. Still no rain and no rain in the forecast. Everything is so dry and there is great concern for fires across the state.

Year to date Harvest
Okra               31.9 lbs
Bell Peppers     6.27 lbs
Garlic               2.14 lbs
Onions             0.25 lbs
Cantaloupe     12.5 lbs
Squash             0.19 lbs
Cucumbers       3.25 lbs
Green Beans     0.48 lbs
Tomatoes       18.69 lbs
TOTAL          75.67 lbs

Blessings,

Debbie

A Day Late and A Dollar Short

Well... that is an expression that I heard my grandfather say more than once. I am a day late for Harvest Monday but I didn't want to miss another week of sharing with my Garden Blog Friends. Also, it has been a while since I linked to Tuesday Garden Party.

I spent most of Monday at the doctor's office. I am now on limited activity until surgery sometime later this month. Surgery will keep me down for a few more weeks. This means NO gardening for me and I will need to depend on my family to keep an eye on things. I still have tomatoes, cucumbers, okra, green beans, and peppers growing in the garden. Eventually I will need to remove plants that are no longer producing and I MUST get my garlic and a few other things planted in the garden. I may have to pass on a few things that I had planned for my fall/winter garden this year.

This is my harvest from Wednesday. It seems like it took FOREVER for these peppers to turn a GOLDEN color.

We have had 109 days of 90+ degrees weather. Long HOT summer!! And we have had less than a half inch of rain for the last month! So HOT and DRY!! But finally that came to an end yesterday. The high was in the mid 80s and lows in the mid 50s. NICE! Still no rain and none in the near future. I think the Energizer Bunny tomato plant is enjoying the cooler weather. It has its second wind. My youngest son picked 66 cherry tomatoes yesterday. They were so pretty!! He told me there were a few that he couldn't reach. He was very proud of his harvest!! He even shared a few with me.

Harvest totals for the week:
Okra 101.85 oz
Cherry Tomatoes 12.2 oz
Bell Peppers 6.9 oz
Cucumbers 15.7 oz
Green Beans 4.1 oz
TOTAL 140.75 oz = 8.8 lbs

Blessings,

Debbie

Long Time No Post

I can't believe it has been over a month since my last post. I am still busy with my garden but with the start of school my days are full to overflowing.

I continue to harvest okra, bell peppers, and tomatoes from my garden. I have also harvested my first cucumbers since my last post. It is a race with the pickle worms to see who gets them first! The "Energizer Bunny" cherry tomato plant has given me 540 tomatoes to date. I have no idea if this is a normal but I am delighted with the crop from this plant. It is still loaded with green tomatoes and I expect to get many more before the weather gets too cool for tomatoes here in the South. I hope to harvest my first GOLDEN bell peppers this week. It seems like it has taken FOREVER for these plants to turn yellow. I am also getting a few green beans from my 3rd planting.

My harvest to date:
Okra         24.22 lb.
Tomatoes   16.07 lb
Bell Peppers 5.67 lb
Garlic           2.14 lb
Onion           0.25 lb
Cantaloupe  11.4  lb
Squash          0.19 lb
Cucumbers    1.64 lb
Green Beans  2.2  lb
YTD Totals   63.78 lb.

I have missed visiting everyone at Daphne's Monday Harvest. Hopefully, I will not have to miss another week with the friends I have met through a shared loved of gardening.

Blessings,

Debbie

I HAVE GRANDBABIES.... of the Garden Kind!

Well.... what do you call the fruit from the suckers rooted from your tomato plants?

The cherry tomato plant of unknown variety that I have dubbed "the Energizer Bunny" continues to produce. I have now harvested 201 tomatoes from this plant and it continues to go strong. I have had to be creative in staking it since it was NEVER supposed to get this big. I think it likes being planted next to my okra.

And now the suckers that I rooted earlier in the season have fruit and the first one is starting to ripen. YEAH!

I actually have 2 suckers that have fruit. In the picture below, the suckers are in the front and the original plant is in the back.

I hope the sucker plants produce like the original plant. AND... I hope that if I save seeds I will get more of this plant next year.

Enjoy more gardens at the Tuesday Garden Party and Oh, How My Garden Grows.

Blessings,

Debbie

 

Harvest Monday 07/12/10 One hundred and Still Going Strong

I am about to hit the road again. I traveled to Nashville yesterday to bring my daughter and 2 friends to Camp Electric, a music camp where they get to spend a week under the instruction of musicians who play for some of the top names in the Christian music industry. She plays keyboard and looks forward to learning much and having lots of fun.


I harvested tomatoes and okra this week. (15.75 ounces) My major event this week was harvesting 49 cherry tomatoes from the Energizer Bunny mystery tomato plant. This bring my total this year for this plant to 102 +. I missed some in the count because my 10yo son loves to eat them straight out of the garden and I don't always know how many he eats. (smile) The plant is still going strong and I expect to get at least 100 more from the plant. I have rooted several suckers from the plant and noticed that one of the suckers is just starting to produce fruit and the other is full of flowers. YIPPEE!!!

Well... I need to close down this computer and get on the road. Check out all the harvest events at Daphne's Harvest Monday.


Blessings,


Debbie

I LOVE SURPRISES!

 I love surprises!! Well... good surprises!!! I have been away from my computer for a few days and I was sad to miss Monday Harvest,  Oh, How My Garden Grows, and the Tuesday Garden Party. We were out of town for Independence Day and then I needed to make an unplanned trip out of town and left Monday afternoon and returned Wednesday afternoon. Needless to say, I was eager to get to my garden. A very special lady (my precious mother-in-love) arrived at the house for a visit about the same time I arrived home yesterday. Since she loves plants as much as I do and since we both needed to stretch our legs after driving, we eagerly headed out to the garden. I was excited to harvest 29 cherry tomatoes from the Energizer Bunny bush. I also harvested 5 okra pods. But my biggest delight was my find while showing my MIL the cantaloupe growing on the trellis. I showed her the one that I have eagerly been watching and blogging about. I told her that I was surprised to have only 1 "big" melon growing but I was glad to have smaller ones growing, too. As I was moving the leaves around to show her the trellis, I FOUND THIS SURPRISE . . .

And, yes, I shook my head and blinked my eyes a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things! This guy is bigger than the other one. It is about the size of a softball or grapefruit. Yippee!!! I don't know HOW I missed this one. (It is located on the back side of the trellis on the fence side.) I will definitely be in the store today to get the pantyhose to sling the two cantaloupes. Thanks, EG, for your education on slinging melons on a trellis.


Blessings,


Debbie

         

Refreshed

We had a good rain late yesterday and woke to a soft rain this morning. My garden looks so happy and refreshed.

Below is one bed of okra. I noticed this morning that a few of the plants have flowers and one has a tiny okra growing.

This picture has plants on the left that were planted the same time as the picture above. On the right in the back of the bed is the first okra I planted. It has been producing for about a week and a half and the pace of harvest is picking up. Soon I will harvesting okra every day. In the front of the bed is the cherry tomato plant that is definately an over achiever for which we give thanks. It was labeled as a determinate patio bush plant. WRONG!! I so wish that I had several of these plants. They taste so good and it is producing lots of tomatoes.

More pictures of my favorite tomato plant. I had to improvise with the trellis. (ha!) It wasn't supposed to get this big. I have topped out several of the vines so that it doesn't get any taller. I have rooted about 6 of the suckers I have pruned from it. But it still keeps going and going and going. Since I don't know what variety it is, I have dubbed it the Energizer Bunny!!!

This bed has bell peppers, an eggplant, ornamental peppers, and a few tomato suckers that I rooted and then transplanted.

This bed has Early Girl and Roma tomatoes. Notice Adam the Owl keeping watch over the plants. He is doing a super job of keeping the birds away. I just move him around every time I go to the garden.

Thanks for stopping by to join me on my morning walk in my garden.

Blessings,

Debbie