Odd cucumber growth

I'm thinking maybe some of my cucumbers are growing oddly due to maybe too much heat or not enough water? The cucumber on the left is pretty normal for what I'm growing, but I pulled a few that seem to grow very fat and short, and several of them even yellow. I can't remember if they're bitter - probably are - going to eat one today to see - but it's odd that different vines are growing differently. Any ideas? Let me know.


Here's some other photos of note from today (click images for bigger pictures)

The larger Romas are starting to turn red in a more consistent way. The first few weren't the best tomatoes. These seem to be ripening more evenly.


And here's a little surprise left from last year. All of these plants just came up from seed left over from last year that had just dropped to the ground. They're a smaller variety of Roma - bigger than a cherry tomato, but smaller than the larger Romas in the picture above. I really like these tomatoes.


... and my redneck efforts to put some twine around them to keep them from falling all over the place - yes that's the front porch - they grew awesomely there last year though. there's probably 5 or 6 plants in total growing there in the cluster.


And finally, here's a picture of the progression in vertical gardening. The cucumbers continue to take over. (click for bigger image)

More from the lazy gardener

I figure my 18 square feet of garden in the back yard is progressing pretty well. I've decided to see what happens if I fix it up for the cucumbers to grow vertically by stringing up some line similar to what I've done for the tomatoes. Those that know me can appreciate my enduring laziness - especially my reluctance to bend over unless I really have to - so I consider this laziness as the root cause of innovation in this case. Gardens above the ground can only be a good thing.

My wife went and got some more posts from Lowes and from there we'll just see what happens. The cucumbers might take over, but I figure I'll have more tomatoes than can possibly be eaten, so I'm just curious.

Here's some pics with the "trellis" type setup.




Also - most of my tomatoes are still green, but I do have the first red one of the year that I snuck a shot of, along with pics of some of the cucumbers which are close to being ready to be eaten.





Most of the tomatoes are still like this though:

My tiny little garden

Just wanted to post a few picks of my tiny little garden. CLICK THE PICS FOR A LARGER IMAGE.

Tiny garden plot in back yard. Essentially just some Roma tomotoes and cucumbers. The broccoli and cauliflower seeds didn't come up. I put some potato slices out there just the other day to see if they come up:


Here's a pic of the tomato beside the house:


All of the tomatoes have little green fruits on them right now similar to this:


While I was at it I took a few other pics of other stuff around the house:

Hostas



Rose


Trumpeter vine


And a bee making a stop at the grocery store!!!

19 tomatoes

19 tomatoes - it sounds like a drama - a secret stash with each tomato having it's own tale to tell, but no - they're all just normal vegetables that'll end up in my belly.

I went out and pulled 19 tomatoes off of our 2 Roma tomato plants this morning. We've been grabbing 2 or 3 at a time for a while now, but this is the first really big batch to be ready. I love slicing the Romas in half, salting the sides a bit and eating them that way. There are lots others out there that are just a day or two away also. It's about to the point where I really don't have to worry about running out.

We also have 1 cherry tomato growing, but it seems to want to come "in" later than the Romas. There are lots of green ones one it, but they're not ripening much - no reds one on it right now. I've had a handful of ripe cherry tomatoes so far this year, but the plant is just slower to develop.

Planted some tomatoes

Welp, we planted 3 tomato plants today, 2 Romas and 1 Cherry tomato. Hopefully we'll have better luck than last year.

Two years ago we had an excellent results with only 2 plants. We really had more tomatoes than we could eat.

Last year results weren't so good though. I think the heat was too much for them. We had planted them in pots like the year before, but they just didn't produce much at all. I think the combination of the pots and the heat kept the roots too warm for proper growth.

This year, we planted 2 plants in the ground and 1 in a pot, and placed them in different places (hot evening sun, a cooler area, and an in between area). I dosed them up with Miracle Grow, so we'll see how it goes.