First tomato of 2011!

Tonight I picked the first tomato out of the garden. The colour of a ripe Pineapple tomato is a bit more orange than traditional tomato red. I am going to wait until tomorrow to slice into it--it's just barely ripe now, by tomorrow evening it should be perfect.

I almost left it in the garden until tomorrow. But then I thought about how the raccoons have been using the raspberry bushes (laden with almost ripe raspberries one day) as a dance floor (no more ripe raspberries). How they seem to be having food fights with the baby peppers. And even (eww) how, in recent nights, they've been DRINKING the plastic container of soapy water and drowned japanese beetles I keep handy near my rosebushes. 

And I picked my almost perfectly ripe tomato. It's safely on the kitchen windowsill until tomorrow.

Garden snapshots - July 2011

Helianthus "Lorraine Sunshine"

The thing about a garden blog is that in spring, when there's lots of activity to blog about, you're too busy gardening to sit down at your computer! Here we are in July and I haven't posted anything since May. Oops!

So, without further ado, here's a little tour of what the garden looks like now.

Front yard, July 9, 2011

View from the driveway

Rosa "The Fairy" is blooming it's heart out...

The tall scabiosa-like yellow flowers that I can never remember the name of are towering over everything... I'm sure passers-by wonder why on earth I planted them at the front of the garden and not the back. I kind of like how you can look through them into the garden.

Cephalaria gigantea

And Echinacea "Hot Papaya" is proving to be worth every cent I paid for it. I first saw it during Garden Walk Buffalo last year and had to have it (I can resist a lot of beautiful plants, but every once in a while I see one that sends me directly to PlantWorld with credit card in hand.)

Echinace "Hot Papaya"

I love shasta daisies, too bad their bloom time is so short.

Some of the clematis have started to put on a show.

I've done quite a few containers in the front yard this year.

Coleus sets off this container pair.

Trailing begonia. I planted the corms a little late but they're taking off now.

Wait until the cannas bloom!

A hanging basket of fuschias on the front porch frame my view as I look out on the garden.

English Rose "Constance Spry"

At the side of the house I have a pretty  way of capturing the water that comes out of our air conditioning unit:

Self-watering planter

There's LOTS more going on in the back yard but I think this blog site will shut down if I put any more pictures in one post (it's been complaining over the last 3) so I'll just show you the most exciting thing happening in the back yard right now...

"Pineapple" tomato

The slowest thing ever to ripen is the first tomato of summer. I have some toasted bread and mayo waiting for this one...