Yes it is. My last online seed purchase was Baker Creek and I got a couple new tomatoes and several peppers. Some herbs too. I get the "typical" seed varieties from the local Bi-Mart which always has seeds on sale.
I asked because I have been growing Baker Creek heirloom tomatoes for a few years now, and I immediately recognized the tag, "Barry's Crazy Whatever" tomato that you are growing. I know Baker Creek carries a number of his varieties. I have become so entirely undecided on Baker Creek Tomatoes. Their catalog is stunning. I'm drawn in every year. But, I order their seeds, grow 'em, and I just never get a decent harvest.
Couple of updates on the garden for this year. First, the fence finally is complete, but the fucking groundhog does NOT GIVE A FUCK about my fence. He's dug under it twice already and he's eaten all 4 of my cantaloupes which were very close to being picked. Fucker just ripped it off the vine, chomped straight through to the bottom and just feasted on all the melon goodness. I'm engineering a solution which involves a rock fence around the fence, but we'll see. The harvest is almost done for what's left in the garden, so I might just move on to figuring out something for next year. For those of you who have apple trees, is this the start of the tree trying to fruit, or am I just being optimistic? I don't think it's going to create an actual apple, but if this is the potential for the future, the trees will do quite well. I think the trees are about 4-5 years old, so I'm guessing they won't actually fruit out for a couple more years?? Here's my San Marzano tomato porn. There's at least another 100 tomatoes on the vine I'm waiting on. Going to be lots of sauce making this year.
Wow! Nice haul! They look gorgeous and I bet they are going to make you some tasty sauce. Your garden is so tidy and lovely. I love all the marigolds tucked around. I think this was the first Baker Creek order I've made. It was mostly for peppers and then I had to add a few more things. My original variety of heirloom tomatoes are from Myseedneeds.com and I've been super happy with the price and viability of seeds from them. I used the same seeds for several years and then saved my own. I had some early season issues with the peppers but they mostly recovered and are thriving. I had a lot of difficulty with the ajvarksy pepper. Poor germination and not a lot of healthy plants. I might have a single one of those in the garden but it's not fruiting yet. And the scotch bonnet plant from their seeds is in a sad state as well, but perhaps the super hots are more difficult? These Barry's crazy yellow are the first new tomatoes I've tried in a few years. I think the additional calcium helped because I'm noticing fruit development and no more bud drops. The tender ends of some of my tomatoes are showing wilt in the heat but I'm still getting a lot of growth and fruit set despite the heat. We do have a period at night and in the morning that's cool enough to offset our 100+ temps.
@binx bolling what are some of the heirloom toms you had underwhelming experience with? I read about a tomato recently called Mr Stripey. It's an heirloom that's incredibly sweet with very little juice/pulp/wetness inside. I'll be finding seeds to try next year.
I’ve pretty much left our garden for the woodchuck. With this drought someone or something may as well get some food out of it.
I know that feeling. I planted 7 cucumbers weeks ago, and they seem to be doing not to badly, albeit late. Over the past couple of weeks, something has been coming up and nibbling on the plant, and then pulling it out of the ground. I'm now down to 2 of them left, so I dug out the cayenne pepper and went to town.
Follow up on both of your posts, @bewildered. Up front, this is mostly likely to my gardening inexperience and ignorance, but, I've tried to grow Cherokee Purples, Green Zebras (I'll never grow a green tomato again, you just can never tell when they are ripe), Paul Robeson's, Cajun's, Black Beauty's, Vernissage's, Solar Flare, the Tied-Dyed Collection, Woodle Orange, I mean almost half the collection of Baker Creek varieties. I typically get about one harvest and the plants just fade in the heat around late June. That one harvest is delicious, but, just want more. I did grow Dr. Wyche's Yellow from Baker Creek this year, and it was the most productive out of all listed above. Like you were saying with Mr. Stripey, VERY little "goo" and seeds inside and a wonderful and meaty tomato. I would grow that one again. The Cherries that I have gotten from them have been moderately productive - Black Cherry and Sunrise Bumblebee, in particular, but nothing I would go nuts about.
Damn @Nettdata , a poor showing from you this year. It's damn difficult to have a decent garden and go camping for any length of time, isn't it? If you're going to be gone any time during the season, you may as well not put in the effort, right?
Between that and having a new puppy, yeah, the gardening has been given up on this year. Plans are afoot for next year, mind you. I have high hopes.
Yes, I am! I am mulling over some ideas now. I'm thinking snow peas, turnips, radishes, maybe some cabbage. Definitely another try at bok choy, which bolted this year for me. What will you be growing?
I paired up the lone duckling with a single black duck every day for the last few weeks. I tried the whole flock at once and they kept snipping at the baby, making it keep its distance. Ducks are social so if the baby is the only game in town, I assumed that they would get over it and mingle. It seemed to work ok. I had the whole flock with the baby and there was initially some snipping but they got over it and the baby is orbiting them and ate with them. Now, to deal with the Welsh harlequins.
I don't normally like tomatoes all the much, but that is a tomato i would love to try, not a lot of the seady liquid stuff.
I'm not a fan of overly wet, slimy toms either. These are heirloom beefsteak and I grow them every year. They are delicious and you can see how meaty they are. I dehydrated tomatoes last year and far preferred these beefsteak dried compared to the San marzano, which got a little tough. Dehydrated beefsteaks are almost like tomato candy.
I have volunteer tomatoes that come up from compost. I let this one go and only did 1 trim when it was just too congested a couple months ago. Motherfucker is giving me tomatoes as big as the carefully trimmed San marzanos in the garden and it's just loaded up with green babies. I think careful trimming really helps with the beefsteak and slicer sizes but more modest trimming is better for the cherry and clustering paste tomatoes. Indeterminate tomatoes can be a real jungle to deal with if you don't have a plan, whether that be trimming or staking or trailing.