First tomato!

I did pick our first tomato of the summer yesterday, perhaps a tad early but i kind of wanted to pick it and so i did.  They finish ripening well indoors off the vine anyway.

Of course this one tomato is well ahead of the others,  i don't expect another ripe one any time soon. A little disappointing, but i can handle it.

I have been watering the bare part of the yard as often as i can- we seeded it with grass seed and of course we have gotten almost no rain since.  But i see a green haze forming out there which means the tiny needle-like blades have emerged from the soil. I can't wait for it to look green and healthy since it has looked like a barren wasteland for so long now.

To look at the yard you can see that all our efforts were put into the veggie garden this year. :o)

Horizon Herbs is holding all plant orders until the middle of September due to the heat wave,  so thats ok.

I learned from a recent blog entry at The Never Done Farm that dehydrated zucchini makes a good substitute for potato chips.  I'm wondering how well they compare since i eat low carb- but since i have not had a potato chip in ages- i wonder if i will notice if they are very different.  I can't wait to try it and i wonder if i can quickly deep fry the dried 'chips' to put a little fat into them for the almost greasy potato chip authenticity.  I guess i can slice my yellow squash on my mandoline, soak the slices in salted water, drain and dehydrate.
Now all i need is the weather to cool it so i can run the dehydrators without making the air conditioners compete.


Now, about the weather.  For some reason its supposed to get down to the 40's tonight. Last night the forecast for tonight's overnight lows was low 40's. Thank goodness that has been raised to about 47F because i think 40F might actually be damaging.
Saturday its only supposed to be in the mid 70s in the day, that will be nice from the last few days in the high 80's.  We had been expecting rain and thunder yesterday, but the clouds literally danced around us and we got no more than a few drops, not even sprinkles.  It was cloudy all day and the humidity was crazy, so at least things didn't dry out.
Today it is dry and sunny.

Watering...

I dragged out the oscillating sprinkler today. It got to around 86F up here. Under the hoops it read 99.5

I hope that is going to be ok. I don't think it will cook the veggie plants where they stand.  But i watered to cool things down a bit and since the air has been very dry- humidity about 28%- so i am letting it run for a while.
I looked underneath and it seems like things are growing quite happily from what i can see. I didn't have time to really pull up all the covers and check each row- that is the only problem so far with the covers. Its an extra step just to see what is growing.  But they only need to be there for the first handful of weeks until the plants get big enough to fight off pests and hopefully miss a breeding cycle or two. Then they'll on again in the fall when i hope they will extend the season past the first few frosts.

I'm considering some sort of drip irrigation system.  Something that can be installed and left under the hoops and stay there all summer. Maybe i will look into it throughout the winter. I sure don't need to be testing anymore ideas in the garden this year.

But i do have a better idea for my tomato trellising.  Right now i have some standard cages, but i am short at least 4, maybe 6, so i need something else. I do have a pair of clothes racks that i bought cheap- but they didn't work... The footings were not strong enough and the whole unit falls over when i put stuff on it-  But with the footing removed, it is a  metal structure made of 1/2" tubes that i should be able to push into the ground and tie some trellis twine to. I may have 2 of them i can use. . that might be just about enough for the last tomatoes. So i have to remember to try and see where i put  it when i took it apart, and where i put the second one that never made it out of the packaging.

I hoped to run another strand of wire on the fence today, but i don't think i will be able to get to it.  I need to remember to take the time for it next chance i get.
I also need to find some sort of venturi attachment for the hose so i can run some liquid fertilizer through it for when i water. I have seen some that attach inline to the hose and you just put the tube in your fertilizer concentrate container and it sips it as the hose is watering.  I just have to find out what they are called and what types exist, then either order my choice or look for it at a local shop.