Balancing flowers and vegetables

I've posted earlier about mixing my vegetable garden with my flowers since my backyard (as you can see) isn't too large. At the near left is my mix of zucchini and vinca. My challenge is the vining vegetables like squash and melons that require a lot of space to spread out. I also prefer not to get the vines messed up with my perennials. My solution was to use a large patch of my front bed for the vines and then to fill the front up with flowers (this pic is about three weeks ago). I'll post a new one in a few days. You wouldn't believe how much the zucchini has taken over and there is no mulch to be seen in the front as the flowers have exploded. Again amazing results when you go from a drought to a regular rain.

Solar Fire and Mortgage Lifter Results

Just wanted to show off the Solar Fire tomatoes (left and right) and the 4.5 inch Mortgage Lifter in the center.

The past years during the drought my large tomatoes didn't show up until end of July and my garden was overrun with the grape and cherry tomatoes. This year I'm getting the large ones early and just a few cherry tomatoes. Surprised that I haven't had a single yellow grape or yellow pear yet...

My Yellow Taxi tomatoes are finished as well (you can see the last few on the sill).

Mortgage Lifters live up to name

Here it is in June and I have 9 tomatoes on my single mortgage lifter plant (and a few more dime size coming along). The biggest of these is already almost 5" in diameter. They are still all green but some of my other large tomatoes are turning red now.

My early Yellow Taxi tomatoes - too short?

In response to Cindy and my early tomatoes - some are healthy and bushy but this one is the one that concerns me. These are my yellow taxis. One is bigger and has a ton of fruit the other pretty small still. This smaller one is the one I did pick off the fruit. It is still only about 14 inches high. Compared to the other Yellow Taxi which is probably 3 foot high although a bit droopy and has 11 tomatoes on it. I picked on of those tomatoes still green but large and it appears to be ripening up on my windowsill.

Question for the experienced gardener

I have tomatoes on many of my plants already - this is much earlier than I have ever had tomatoes. Do these early tomatoes stunt the plant growth? Should I pick them off? It would seem that the plants are putting all of their energy into making these early tomatoes and not into growth of plant. Here in Atlanta we have had a great combination of rain and sun and not too hot. My past gardens were all part of the recent drought. Still it seems that 5 weeks is a bit early to see tomatoes on: Yellow Taxi, Solar Fire, Cherokee Purple, Sweet Million and Box Car Willie

Cindy: Any advice? Should I worry? Pick the tomatoes? Let them be?

Challenges of a raised bed & backyard garden

One of the challenges I face in incorporating my vegetables into my backyard and front yard gardens is how to mesh vegetables and the sometimes sprawling vegetation into a pretty garden. Especially in my back bed where it becomes a lot of green against the house and in the front bed which is prominent to anyone driving by the house. I'll start with how I am working with the front bed garden which is the first time I have planted vegetables out front. This is an area that benefits from a lot of strong afternoon sun.

I used an ornamental column to serve as the post for the pole beans - it is five feet tall but we will see if that is enough for the beans as summer progresses. I have wrapped the squash and melon plants around in a circular pattern to take advantage of the drip hose and scattered in some onions for trial. From there I will be planting flowers around the edge and in the front to soften the look. I am investigating companion planting for the flowers but also have to take into consideration what will live in the hot Georgia sun and of course the colors that I like best.

Regrowth of the black cherry tomato plant

In an earlier post I asked Cindy a question about a tomato plant that lost it's top. She thought it would re-generate and sure enough one of the offshoots has taken over the role of the leader and headed for the sky. Hopefully you can see the small white circle drawn around the spot where the plant broke off and then see the regrowth as it reaches for the sky.