I see that I'm just in time!

Don't give up, Aloha'! I'm not a fan of fried green tomatoes but I pick nearly all my tomatoes just as they "break." I believe that's what it's called: when the color begins to change from green. Maybe, I'm good at recognizing that the tomatoes are ready to graduate to ripe but they all ripen in less than a week. Many will be ripe and ready to use in 2 days.

The reasons are splitting and the demon slugs ..! This year has been bad for splitting and I'm not really sure why. The neighbor has been in charge of the water for his and my garden nearly every week and might even has over-watered. My schedule would only allow twice a week watering and if the soil dries quickly, which it would, the sudden excess in soil moisture might cause splitting. He has been watering every other evening. (We are at record number of days without rain. Something that is supposed to change - tonight!)

I've learned that slugs are mostly in the grass around the garden. Planting tomatoes close to the grass is a recipe for total loss! They may be out in the garden but their population in that grass is ridiculously high.

Steve

I have taken up ..

.shooting them with the hose.

They have the walnut trees across the road and plenty of grass and clover in lawns and the elementary school's playground. Like the English sparrows, they have followed us everywhere!

Steve

Interestingly, there are no squirrels in Grand Junction.

With the late freeze we had this spring, there are no apples or crabapples for the squirrels to eat. They (and the mice) have been bad in our garden too.

I have turned my hose on the field mice, also. That is, when the owls and coyotes haven't found them first.

A slow trickle of water at the burrow entrance for about an hour has been successful in ridding that garden area of mice activity.

Steve

who is running sprinklers this morning trying to stave off the frost.

Freezing again this morning.

Successful on 9/22, I have the sprinklers cycling on and off, manually. This is it. Tomorrow morning has a colder forecast. Too bad I can't put a little weather person right in the middle of a garden.

It's late enough. Any tomato showing color was picked yesterday. The outdoor peppers have not changed a bit for the last 10 days.

Steve

Yeah, Steve, we're getting our first true taste this morning. 36 officially at my house, but the local airport dropped to 33 around 1:30 this morning and has stayed there since. The moisture/fog in the air is keeping it from getting much colder, thankfully. Once we get through this first good chill, there should be about a week or so until we drop back into the mid-30s again. I harvested tons of tomatoes about 10 days ago and have them ripening in cardboard boxes on the dining room table which is working BEAUTIFULLY. It appears I have another box or two to harvest this week, assuming this morning didn't damage anything too badly (it all looks okay so far) and hope to be done with it all next weekend. I'll then start the big fall clean-up heading into mid-October with final mowing, weed prevention and sprinkler maintenance.

Hard to believe that last year we had 70's and 80's all the way through October. 2' of the nasty white stuff forecast for the Mountains I saw, too. Hang in there guys, spring is just right around the corner, only 8 more months of winter!

It wasn't quite as cold!

May had made little difference and by 6am there was frost everywhere that there was frost yesterday. The only tomato plants that might get through this unscathed are the 2 cherries in the backyard. One had a severe case of wilt along one side but seemed to pull out of it with a nice, warm (55°f) drink of water. They are under a tree and in the 20' of yard between the house and greenhouse.

Damage throughout the garden. Still, the weather is supposed to warm and I have seen how the central part of the plants can survive and big green beefsteaks can ripen, if given enough days ... Hope. Kind of the definition of Gardening, don't you think?

Steve

Oh hey! If the fruit flies follow your tomatoes into the house as they are ripening indoors, that vinegar with a drop of dish soap trap has worked for me this year.

The initial attraction was the melons, proceeding the tomatoes so I got practice. Just cover the bowl with plastic wrap with plenty of holes punched in it. The flies find themselves inside but don't seem to know how to get out. After trying for awhile, they sorta randomly fly into the vinegar. They don't come out.

fruitflies really like things that are fermenting. Apple Cider Vinegar is like crack to them...

last year we had mice eating the tomatoes. They LOVED the 'Anasazi' variety from Harlaquin Gardens from Boulder. I too loved 'Anasazi'. A tomato that has now graduated to my favorite and one i will try to always grow. Did well in my climate and soil here too where most tomatoes die a pitiful death. Rarely have squirrels eat tomatoes, but tomatoes rarely grow here so they probably don't even know what they are, or prefer other food.

The F1 [Solanum pennellii x domestic tomato] grew like a hulk monster this summer! I am growing an F2 inside for the winter that happens to be a potato leaf, that is also a monster even in a pot! Can't wait to plant it out this spring. :)