Garden update

What an amazing color for an eggplant! This is the first fruit on my Asian varieties. It should get about a foot long when it's ready to pick.

I'm not a huge fan of tomato cages, so I tried weave trellising this year. It's a bit maintenance intensive, but I'm liking the results.

Got some weeding done today with my daughter's help. This is half of plot #1 (4 plots total), all nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants). Plot #1 is all on soaker hose irrigation. I also have squash, zucchini, and potatoes in this plot. All of these plants do really well on soak/drip irrigation. Keeping the foliage dry keeps mildew, blight, and numerous other problems at bay.

Just waiting for a fresh tomato sandwich! I have two 65' rows of basil coming in right now that will pair perfectly with all these tomatoes. Half of my tomatoes this year are an heirloom Amish paste variety. Those are even thicker in production. I'm going to have to finally learn how to make a good tomato sauce and recruit some kitchen help when it comes time to can these.

If you grow in containers, don't spend $$ on grow bags and big pots. Spend 50 cents on a reusable shopping bag. The blue wal-mart bags are perfect! They hold enough soil to grow a pretty decent tomato plant. I've neglected to water these properly, but they're still producing along with my other plants that were buried 2' - 3' deep! These bags are in their second season of use, and I think I can get another year or two out of them.