1st Golden Nugget tomatoes

Came home from work Friday afternoon and found 2 ripe Golden Nugget tomatoes.  They were delicious.  If you have ever had a Golden Nugget you know what I'm talking about.

Apr 26, 2011 pics

Here's some Easter weekend lemon and veggie pics.  Everything's looking healthy.  Going to spend the weekend pulling weeds and taking care of the turf grass and the flowers.   Still no rain in Houston but the weather folks say maybe we'll get some rain Monday and Tuesday.  I've also added a Weather Underground link to the bottom of the blog page.  Enjoy and Happy Easter everybody!

Improved Meyer Lemon

first flower on Purple Rain eggplant of 2011

first Celebrity tomato of 2011

and marigold



Gold Nugget tomatoes; greenbeans, Matt's Wild cherry tomatoes, and Sun Gold bell pepper

Purple Rain eggplant - mutant like!!!

Pics from Saturday afternoon - Apr 16

Spring garden

This year's garden didn't end up as originally planned.  Mostly because the wind damaged most of my tomatoes while outside to harden off.  After some reading and lectures about crop rotation maybe it was for the best.  Rather than 7 varieties of tomatoes I've planted the following spring garden:

• Purple Rain eggplant
• 2 Celebrity tomatoes
• Baby Red roma tomato
• Matt's Wild cherry tomato
• Gold Nugget cherry tomato
• Mr. Stripely tomato
• Golden Summer bell pepper
• 2 green beans

This year I've planted French marigold dwarf flowers next to the beans and tomatoes.  The French marigold is supposed to be a deterrant for whiteflies and nematodes.  I haven't used marigolds as a companion plant in previous tomato gardens so I'm looking forward to see what, if any, difference they make.

Kirby taking a well deserved break from weeding and tilling.

Kirby helping plant the Improved Meyer Lemon tree in February

Burpee green beans seeded March 26, 2011. One was planted April 3 and the other planted April 10th.

Classes completed

I'm finished with my Texas master gardener classes, reading, and tests.  I took was a seven week condensed evening course and I'm now spending my spare time working on the volunteer component of the program and tending to my own garden.  I've reconsidered a full garden of only tomatoes.  I'm adding some green beans and squash and a bell pepper (in the nightshade family so not helping my rotation).  I'll upload some pictures soon.  I just wanted to check in after a long absense.