The Garden: The Good, the Bad and the Scary

We were gone all weekend since Thursday so I knew the garden would be out of control when I visited this morning.  I knew there would be an excess of tomatoes and probably zucchini and who knows what else.  The most fabulous pick so far this year is this red pepper. 

This thing was huge.  I say it was...it is now diced into little pieces in some Texas caviar.  It was much bigger than ones from stores.  You can get an idea from that stem!  It was almost hard to cut it because I was so proud of it!  Through the years bell peppers have not ben the most successful crop of ours and I was watching this one on the plant until it was perfectly ripe. 

 

The one cherry tomato plant is really producing.  They are more than I can eat.  I gave a bag to our neighbor last week and whenever we visit anyone they get a bag too.  This bag is all from today:

 

 

Remember, I am the only one in the house that eats these.  In a few weeks I will be ready for the frost to come and end the tomato season although hopefully it will be more than a few weeks before that happens!  The kids want to play with them, especially Tessa, because they look like balls of course but they don't eat them.  I'm not worried about that.  They are kind of hard for little kids to eat because of their skins. 

 

We have four tomato plants total, and I already shared disappointing results from the large yellow plant.  There is also a plant that produces large and red "beefsteak" tomatoes.  When I left on Wednesday they were all green.  Now they are all red and to say they look unappetizing would be an understatement:

 

I don't know what is happening here.  Clearly there is some sort of disease but also I don't know what is causing the strange shapes and that one is multicolored.  In addition, I discovered the whole plant was uprooted and half tipped over in its cage because yesterday there were really intense winds.  The wind has been very hard on the garden this year.  There have been a few windstorms this year unlike any from past summers.  I tried to put it back in the ground but who knows if it will work!  Tomato plants get really tall and heavy this time of year!

In other news, Ben starts preschool next Wednesday.  You will see pictures and hear more about that when it happens but this morning was the orientation so we went to meet the teacher and see the classroom.  Ben played with his new classmates and we submitted paperwork.  Tessa was quite interested in preschool too and neither of them wanted to leave.  Too bad she will have to wait amost a whole year after her third birthday before she can start.

 Of course, Ben had a minor head injury like he does 50% of the time so I felt bad.  Last night he fell of a kitchen stool and hit a chair on the way down and instantly formed a huge purple bump on his forehead.  We applied ice and fortunately by this morning it was not very noticeable.  I don't know how because it was huge and discolored last night.  That kid is crazy.  It's not a matter of if he ends up with stitches but when.