The Year of Lessons

My blogging hours have significantly dropped recently. This is because I decided it would be a good idea to work full time and go to school full time. Yeah. No one ever said I was smart!   So my blogs will be less frequent and shorter, but I will try to continue because I'm still gardening.....for now.

Herbs and peppers are doing well. That's about all I got.

One tomato plant is pretty much useless and we won't get anything out of it. Maybe 1 green tomato?
The heirloom plant will be turned into a bunch of fried green tomatoes (still not a bad result!)
And the cherry tomatoes are doing well but dammit they are taking so long to turn fully red!!  We're at the end of September so I am pessimistic about the timing here. We shall see.

I did, however, learn (and by learn, I mean, I changed my guess for the 4th time) that my black tomatoes likely come from putting my plants in pots that are too small and they are either drowning (not enough air in the soil to feed them) or starving (not enough soil to hold water to feed them throughout the day. And I don't water in short bursts several times a day - who has time for that??? This is a hobby not a farm!).  So, we will dub this "The Year of Lessons". An opportunity to learn how to garden on a small scale in containers. The other lesson this year? Don't start it at the end of June, halfway through the season. Gee, I wonder why my tomatoes aren't all bright red???

Here's a few progress photos in the last month.

Heirloom tomatoes. Still that damn green color.

Red AND green pepper!

We're so close!

Cherry tomatoes doing well - ate the 3 red ones you see. They were small bursts of wonderful home grown flavor! Then it was over.

The only red tomato on the Big Boy plant. He later shriveled and um, is still on the plant because I don't have the heart to pull him off which is probably killing the rest of the plant. I need to let go.

Hope grows.

Yeah. A bunch of water-logged tomatoes (according to the new guess-theory).

Success!!! Will be harvested and eaten soon.

On the left, a new strawberry. On the right (in the middle of the photo, really), that small shriveled thing? That used to be a strawberry and how all my strawberries seem to end up.  Grrrr...