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No
way; especially those warm season veggies!
In
July, I always plant some late tomatoes (indeterminate varieties) and have
sometimes harvested them right up to the week before Christmas.
Chilies
and other heat loving peppers really don’t even start growing well in
some parts of Alabama until the nighttime temperatures are above 65°. If
you like chilies as much as I do, try growing some of the thin-walled
colored varieties of bell peppers. Purple Beauty and Chocolate Beauty are
two of my favorites. They have a milder bell pepper flavor and make a
great addition to any lettuce based salad. These also add a nice twist of
color to your dinner presentation.
So,
by now you should be harvesting some delicious home grown tomatoes. If you
have room in your garden, now would be a good time to experiment with some
of those tomato varieties that you haven’t tried yet.
How
about some heirloom tomatoes? There are hundreds of heirloom tomatoes to
choose from. For color, grow the Black Krim, Cherokee Purple or Green
Zebra. For different shaped tomatoes, try the Yellow and Red Pear
varieties. For the best tasting sauces, grow the Amish Paste. For sheer
size (and bragging rights with your gardening friends) try growing some of
the German pink types. Not only will you get a huge one to two pound
tomato, they taste good too.
Speaking
of tasty, big tomatoes, Home Grown Tomatoes is going on the road again
next month!
On
August 19th, we’ll be at the Decatur Farmers Market for their
"Tomato Sandwich Day!" Come on out and have a great tomato
sandwich. I’m sure by then, I will have eaten over a hundred tomato
sandwiches but I will always have room for one more for as long as I live!
On
August 26th, Home Grown Tomatoes will be at the Alabama Farmers Market on
Finley Avenue in Birmingham to help them celebrate over eighty years of
business.
There
will be lots of good food, good music, and plenty of good times for the
kids. We’ll have seminars on how to preserve your garden’s bounty
provided by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, how to care for your
lawn featuring Michael Vanatta of Environmental Turf and lots more. Also,
there will be a heaviest tomato contest for adults as well as kids; and a
watermelon seed
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