This week was the first time in this gardening season that I’ve harvested my tomatoes. Although summer has been really hot, the cold spring and slow soil warming had delayed my tomatoes. But, finally, tomatoes are ready, and I’ve harvested the first 1,5kg of tomatoes. (3.3 lb).

Some of my tomatoes, the ones near the cucumbers, cracked due to the heat and watering. Tomatoes can’t absorb the water due to the excessive heat, and this causes them to crack. Usually, I plant tomatoes that are crack resistant, but this year I bought seedlings, so I have no idea what varieties I have. This can be prevented with a watering schedule, but when the tomatoes are planted with cucumbers, it can be difficult to control them. Cucumbers need more water than tomatoes. 

I’ve also harvested the last of two spring lettuces, they were starting to bolt, and the lower leaves were drying, so there was no point in leaving them in the garden. Now I’ll have to wait for the lettuce I’ve sown a couple of weeks ago to be ready for harvest. 

Kale was also ready for a second harvest. Leaves are starting to grow faster since I’ve started to harvest the big leaves. If the weather continues to be hot, I will be harvesting every 2 weeks, and if we finally get some rain, I’ll probably be harvesting every week. I prefer very young leaves, they taste better and don’t take so long to cook.

Another vegetable that loves continuous harvests is my peppers. The more peppers I harvest, the more new peppers appear. This week I didn’t harvest much, only one jar, but next week’s harvest should be bigger since there are many little peppers on the plants. 

Beans are still struggling, Blauhilde is producing pods, although the wines are really small, the rest of the beans are standing still without any new flowers. If the plants survive until September and rain, we will have some nice harvests, if not beans will be a total bust this year. 

On the plus side, the Kybria cornichons(gherkins) are starting to show little gherkins. There are plenty of fruits on the plants, and I think I finally found gherkins that like to grow in my soil and weather conditions. Next year I’ll create some trellis for them for easier harvest.