Meanwhile, the tomatoes in Centralia are still in limbo

The plants all have flowers, but will they produce fruit? Last year we waited and waited and didn't have ripe fruit until well into September! This is Washington where the weather can rake your salsa dreams right through ringer.

But I am optimistic. We two tomatillo plants this year. Two because I was told I needed two. But how far apart do they need to be? Because these two plants are kissing cousins, sharing the same pot!

And here's the rest of plants along the house - exposed to south sun and a warming wall. They are slowly climbing (this is not voluntary, but forced) the tightly secured twine. Not sure yet how this is going to work, but putting it out there any way. The other tomato plants are not against a wall and are not faring as well. So at least the wall seems to be a good idea.

First garlic harvest - purple Belarus

We pulled our first batch of garlic this week - the Belarus. We've tied and hung them to cure (dry).

Measuring bulb size, the bulbs with cut scapes are clearly larger. The bulbs where the scapes remain, are smaller. So my husband begs the question - some sources say to always keep the larger bulbs for planting, but the direction we are using this year is to keep the scapes on seed cloves until cured, which result in smaller cloves. 

What I haven't found a good explanation of what keeping the scapes on do to enhance the seed cloves.

I've seen many posts advocating for keeping the scapes but not one that does a technical job of explaining why. I"d like to know. Help me out if you have the answer.

Potatoes towering -

Our plants are huge and quite healthy looking except for the occasionally slug feasting on a leaves. But I think there is enough foliage to overcome their midnight marauding. 

Update on the process.  The soil is staying cool and damp. We're watering 2x per week. I cannot determine if the proper amount of water is filtering well to the lower levels so I'm just going on plant health.  I am seeing inside the tower, some leaf yellowing. But the jungle is dense in there, so I am guessing that some of the plant is losing out on sun time.

See more photos on the Potato Project page.

Just looking for a name. . .

I got this perrenial from a friend a couple of years ago. Large leaves, mulitiple seed/flower pods per stalk. Just looking for a name.

Tomato ripening!!!

I have one tomato beginning to ripen, I am so excited it looks like we will have a ripe tomato by our goal of July 4th!!!

Irisis

I planted a few new varieties and they look really nice. I love iris and have a nice variety. Teh white and yellow are some of my favorites. The white ones have a divine scent and some times they bloom again in the fall.

Tomatoes looking good!

Tomatoes are growing, more tomatoes and blossoms. I water everyday now, the weather is still cool but tomatoes in garden are beginning to bloom even though they are on the small side.