Wow, what a summer it has been. Can't believe I haven't written anything here in so long. I still have the list of all the different varieties that we tried this year but it was not that good a year. I found our old favorite Park's Whopper in an online listing. That is the one we will go with next year. No trials or heirlooms. They just don't do well here. There were so many varieties that did nothing at all. No blooms and no fruits. Just took up space.

The only tomatoes growing right now are in the little greenhouse. The tiny, pea size Mexican Midgets. They did poorly outside in the garden giving us perhaps a dozen tiny fruits. Inside now, they are taking over the entire space. Growing from one bad to the other side and up to the ceiling. Incredible. Even when I neglect to water more often, the don't wilt or look poorly. Randy won't eat a tomato that isn't BIG. So, I will one of these days get out with the camera to capture their beauty and then pick all that are ripe. The lettuce is still doing great out in the yard so I could well have a fine old salad.

I was never able to get even one row of space to plant the okra. Randy doesn't like them so he wouldn't help. The tomatoes were planted so close together, it became impossible to get between the rows to look for ripe fruit. There were 3 gardens so next year we should have plenty of good usable space for planting what we do want to have.

There was just a tiny bit of blossom end rot in the first fruits. Then they did fine. It was enough to make me remember that I had used nothing to prevent it but despite the sometimes heavy rains, we have no problem with the tomatoes cracking like we often do. Odd.

Randy's cucumber bed produced well despite being out in the hot afternoon sun. They would wilt down to near death but kept on making fruit. They did tend to make tougher than usual seeds and were not burpless. They were in a corner of the garden and became most difficult to find any ripe cukes. I made a shade cover for my cuke bed but it blew around and broke off most of the vines. They did well but were all plants started inside. They made very few cucumbers and the soaker hose was always springing leaks and I finally had to go to watering with the sprinkler. Stupid moles.

But I had a surprising crop of the most wonderful sweet peppers. They were the Park's Whopper Banana variety and I picked 6 or 7 last week. Doubt they will make more though they've had a good rain. Randy doesn't like peppers of any sort so they are all mine. Yummy. My favorite recipe is to chop one into the skillet, add some onions and garlic and them when they are near done, put in a few eggs to fry. Oh that is a good breakfast.