The Veggies

 My Spring Garden didn't really happen this year.  Started late and got lazy.  But I found a list of what could be started later for Fall harvest and decided to give it a try.  And since things are warming up these years, my growing season is lasting 2 weeks later that when I first moved here.

So I have young veggies growing...

I usually hang cherry tomatoes in a pot off the deck.  They just hang down and I can pick a few as I walk by.  This year, I just put 2 of them in a pot on the deck floor, and let them drape over.  But 4 side-stems grew high, so I put stakes in the pot and attached the up-growing stems to them.

And, yes, you might notice the thermometer reads "100".  That was in the shade of late afternoon.  Temperatures are crazy everywhere!

The main tomato patch is doing well.  I hadn't planted heirloom tomatoes (more vulnerable to diseases than hybrids, but they taste way better) there for years , so the soil has less diseases to bother them.  

You can see some tomatoes maturing here...  They grew faster in Summer heat than Spring-planted ones.

The deck cherry tomatoes that were draped over the edge are starting to ripen.

These bell peppers will be transplanted into larger pots this week.  It is late for them outside, but I am going to experiment with growing them inside.  My idea is to place them at the unmovable side of the south-facing deck door and put a mirror behind them to reflect unabsorbed sunlight.  Well, it won't cost me anything to try.

I got a free packet of chives with a seed order, so I planted them.  Not quite sure what to do with them, though.  In salads, sprinkled on chicken or pork, added to eggrolls?

The purple scallions have been growing great.  They taste slightly different from the regular green ones.  I add the tops to salads and sauces.

I bought a packet of round carrots out of curiosity this year.  The first batch died, the leaves knocked over into the soil by watering.  The 2nd planting is doing much better.  I've been dribbling water onto the soil between them this time.  

My lettuces all wore out after many "cut and grow back" cycles, so I need to replant.  They will grow fast in Summer heat and then mature in cooler Fall weather.  I grow enough to always have a green and a red leaf lettuce mature enough to cut.  It is great to be able to just walk out on the deck and harvest a whole salad.