Last of the season....

This is a picture (a rather blurry one at that) of the last of our heirloom tomatoes for the year...

I was surprised at how late our tomatoes ripened this year; in fact only about 10% of our plants actually ripened at all. All of the tomatoes I was most looking forward to, stayed an emerald hue... 'Goldman's Italian/American', 'Striped Roman', 'Big Month'.... I had so hoped to get to try them out and save seeds from them. :( 

Our garden did pretty poorly this year, due to a wet, cool summer that had sporadic heat waves. The plants just couldn't seem to handle the weather variations. I did however learn this year, that our soil is deficient in calcium, magnesium and sulfur, by seeing what weeds were growing (ahem, yes I did get a little behind in weeding).

Next year, I'm hoping to use raised beds with a hoop house over it. The raised beds will allow me to use good fertile soil for the plants, and the hoop house will raise the temperature within. Hopefully it will raise it enough that our tomatoes will do better! 

I think tomatoes and pumpkins are my two most favorite plants to grow.... They're so fun! ;)

~Caitlyn