Lots of Tomatoes

My tomato plants collapsed some time ago. I didn't provide enough support so now they just lean forward and the vines grow up, then down and eventually up again. Some branches snapped but they continue to grow. There are lots of tomatoes but so far I've only been able to pick one. And then there was this rotten one that had to go. I'm not too fussed about them this year. If the plants want to sprawl and grow where ever, that's fine. Setting fruit wasn't a problem this year. Maybe it was the location or the fact I didn't crowd too many other plants around them.

Hot Peppers

I picked this little harvest of Hungarian hot wax peppers today.  Just a small batch today with lots more to come. The only thing I can think of to do with these is pickle them. I sliced them into rings and got the lot of them to fit in a single 500ml jar. We're going to be really sick of pickles once autumn comes around.

Balcony Bee

I almost never see bees like this up on my balcony. And never as consistently as this one. I refer to it as "the bee" but it could be a different bee each day or something. I never see more than one. For the past month I've seen a bee visit my plants each day. Perhaps it's the reason I have so many cucumbers this year. It's a timid little bee. When I get to close it just buzzes off.

In July I was seeing lots of small bee-like insects. Harmless little things that hover around the flowers. More than I've ever seen or noticed during previous seasons. Usually I just end up with hornets or yellow jackets or whatever they are, going after aphid "honeydew". But no aphids this year so far. Not even spider mites.

From balcony to mason jar

I pulled this little harvest from my balcony yesterday and pickled it. The lone bush bean plant gave me a good handful of beans and there we lots of cucumbers that needed to be picked. There's no way we can eat this many raw cucumbers before they would go bad in the fridge. And I can't leave them on the vine for too long. They get too big and hollow and weird tasting. So pickling is the best way to get the most out of them because I know that not a single pickle will go to waste.

The beans were more of a do-it-because-I-can sort of thing. It's not really practical to go through the effort (45 minutes to an hour) to prepare a single 125ml jar of mustard bean pickles. It's sweet, sour, spicy, tangy and sticky. My mom's recipe. If I had grown a full container of bush bean plants, lets say 5 plants, I would have ended up with 5 jars and then maybe 2 or 3 more during a second harvest. The one plant I do have will probably get uprooted soon. It's shading my Hungarian hot wax pepper that I plan to pickle later in the season.

Good growing season so far

I planted a number of Hungarian Hot Wax pepper plants this year. I have six on a table near the edge of the balcony and another five in my elevated cedar box. Maybe I should have only planted four in that container. Those also share space with a rogue wax bean plant. I seeded that container with beans in the spring but none sprouted.  The seed was kind of old so I didn't expect much. After I planted all the peppers one of the seeds decided to pop up. So I let it go. It has a handful of beans on it now that need to be picked. All of the peppers need more time to ripen.

The cedar box also has a contraption I created to water the plants. A bucket below the container has water in it and a small pump. Once a day the pump fills the jug mounted just above the right side of the container. Water leaves the bottom of the jug through a pair of 1/4" waterlines that feed several drippers that slow drip water onto the soil. The pump is controller by a little electronic controller box I made that sits under the container, along with a 12v battery to power the pump.

The cucumbers are forming a nice dense wall on the balcony. Three containers (totes) with a pair of plants in each. Probably could have kept it down to one in each container.  Lots of cucumbers to harvest now. But the vines have nowhere else to grow. I'll have to find some more sticks and things to extend my trellis.