7.26.2015

2015 Garden {Month 3} + A Winner!

It's been 3 months since I planted my 2015 Garden, so I thought I would do another update, especially because my tomatoes had something weird happen to them (more on that below)
Here was the first week I planted:

Month 1:
  Month 2:
This weekend.....3 months:
 My tomato plants are growing like CRAZY. They are so tall.
I have 4 different varieties of cherry tomatoes:

Sun Sugar, Sweet 100, Sun Gold & Red Cherry.
The girls and I love going out to the garden & eating the tomatoes right off the vine. For every 1 we eat, we put 2 in the basket. Sometimes I will bring a container of hummus out to the garden & we will have an afternoon snack of hummus & cherry tomatoes in the garden. YUM!
Besides my cherry tomato plants, I have 4 Early Girl Tomato Plants. They just started to turn red 2 weeks ago:
 These are my favorite tomatoes to put on sandwhiches and make caprese salad with!
But, last week I went out to pick some and noticed that some of the bottoms looked like this:
They were totally rotten on the bottom! About 1/2 of my crop last week. It was so bizarre!
So, I did a google search and found out it is called "Blossom Rot"
Blossom Rot is caused by lack of calcium in the tomatoes which often happens during droughts! 
Ah-ha! We are in the middle of a major drought here in California, so that is what was causing it. 
My mom has the same thing happening to her Early Girl Tomatoes! 
The solution is super fixable, you get a spray like this to spray on the foliage of your tomatoes
I sprayed it on ALL my tomato plants last week and today when I went to pick my red tomatoes, none of them had bottom rot! I spayed again today & will do so 2x a week from now on.
So, if any of you other gardeners out there have experienced bottom rot, just get a calcium spray to save your crops!

This is my last bunch of lettuce that I have left in my garden. I am going to plant more once Fall arrives. It's too hot to plant more lettuce now!
We have 2 apple trees...Honey Crisp & Fuji and the apples are starting to look ready to pick! This is the first year we have had apples grow on these trees (we planted them 4 years ago)
I can't wait to make Mason Jar Caramel Apple Pies with our apples:
Get the recipe {HERE}

My zuchinni is also still going strong. My yellow squash seems to be done growing, so I will give it a few more weeks and then take it out of the garden:
Zucchini for days.....
Here is today's zuchinni harvest:
Last month I got THIS zoodle maker:
Does anyone have any good recipe ideas for zoodles? Besides just adding a spaghetti meat sauce? (which is what I have been doing)
I would love to hear your zoodle recipe ideas!

+++++++++++++++++++

And, the winner of the $250 Nordstrom Gift Card Giveaway is:
Maureen
CONGRATS!
I sent you an email, so email me back and/or comment below so I can get that mailed to you so you can get some shopping in before the Anniversary Sale ends on August 3rd!

8 comments:

  1. I wish my name was Maureen and not Molly...I wanted to win that Nordies Gift Card! LOL!
    That is strange about your tomatoes, glad you got it figured out!
    That Christmas in July deal is great, I am already a customer, so I will see if my sister wants to order. I love that paste!

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  2. This shrimp scampi zoodle recipe is AWESOME!!!
    http://www.jocooks.com/healthy-eating/shrimp-scampi-zoodles/

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  3. Your garden produce looks amazing! You could try this recipe: http://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/summer-zucchini-noodle-salad/

    - Kate

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  4. Check out www.inspiralized.com She has a plethora of recipes and a cookbook too! Enjoy!

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  5. As a fellow Bay Area gardener (WC) I ran into the same problem a few years ago at the beginning of the drought. One thing you can do to prevent blossom rot is to save your egg shells and crush then up to fine pieces/dust and mix it into your dirt each spring when you are prepping it. Then when you plant your tomatoes, throw a good handful of the broken down shells into the hole and put your plant right on top of it. The calcium will naturally leach out and your tomato plants will grow and produce nicely. Mine are about 9 feet tall and still growing!

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  6. If you can grow all that in a drought, then I have no excuse, lol! Impressive garden! Have a great day! :)

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  7. Gosh I just want to eat everything out of your garden. I'm picking up zucchini today and planning to make zoodles. Hopefully between the two of us we can get a good recipe! Haha

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  8. What a wonderful garden! I love your tomato plants. I have a dedicated tomato patch in my garden. I recently redeveloped my garden with the help of a local gardening company. They helped to design the space and then landscaped it for me. Before it was just mud, but now I am able to grow my own fruit and veg.

    Norberto @ Thorburn Landscapes

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