A Garden in Waiting

I'm waiting on my garden.  Everything is growing nicely (except for plants that got eaten by the deer but taht's another story).  Tomatoes are hanging on the plants, peppers are growing profusely, eggplants are putting on flowers, but everything has been slow to ripen!  It's frustrating but that is just part of the art of gardening.  We have to wait. We have to pick at the most opportune time for the best flavor for our fruit.  After all that's why we garden.  I don't buy tomatoes from the grocery store unless I am in dire need.  The flavor isn't in those out of season grocery store tomatoes, but it is in my garden fresh tomatoes... when they are finally ripe.
 

The wet and cooler summer has delayed the process for my garden.  Usually by now we would have had a ripe tomato or two.  The trade off has been that I haven't had to irrigate the garden as much as usual.  Our weather has been a complete opposite of our 2012 summer weather.  It's been nice but so would a ripe tomato on my turkey sandwich!

Next year I may experiment and try a few tomatoes early under a hoop-house structure. Nothing major, just some PVC and plastic put up on a temporary basis to get my tomatoes farther along the road to ripeness.   This year I'll just be patient!

I've harvested other things from the garden like potatoes, peppers, zucchini, and of course herbs. The basil is always an outstanding grower in our garden.  The 'Costato Romanesco' zuchini has been delicious! It's been one of the best zucchinis I've ever eaten.  We've eaten it raw and fried, next comes grilling.  We have all kinds of little stuffing peppers producing.  These small peppers are great for making small snack size stuffed peppers. I suspect they would also do quite well on the grill.

It's just a waiting game at this point.  Keep maintaining, keep weeding, keep watering as needed, and keep on waiting for a delicious, juicy, homegrown tomato.  That homegrown tomato flavor will make the wait well worth it!