Tomatoes or frost? The race is on

Black pansies.

Cherry tomatoes

Fireweed blossoms reached the top of the stalk around July 9 in this neighborhood. Folklore has it that means six weeks until snow on the ground. Well here we are in the August 20s and no snow even on the highest peaks out the front window. At the time some folks suggested the strange hot summer caused the fireweed to peak early and that probably is the case. And that is probably the reason there's no termination dust on the mountain yet. That snow on the high peaks has shown up earlier than this in the past and if there isn't any by Sept. 1, consider it an abnormal year.

The largest of at least three acorn squashes.

Another acorn

So in the garden there are small tomatoes and three fair sized acorn squash, growing but not ready to pick yet. Low temperatures are still in the high 40s or low 50s so no danger of a frost yet and there's plenty of sunshine during the day, but the hours of daylight are diminishing at 6 minutes a day. And, there has been snow and frost farther to the north, so it's coming. The question now is will these late bloomers grow to maturity or will the frost get them before they can?

A better beefsteak

Much as I want to see a winter with plenty of snow after last year's debacle, I am hoping it will hold off until I can pick at least a few tomatoes. We shall see.

If the state fair had a category
for ugliest tomato. I don't think
I will try beefsteak again.

In the meantime I pulled potatoes for the plants that were damaged by the excessive light and heat and got a bowl full of edible sized ones. There are still a dozen plants thriving so they can wait for a while to try for some real bakers.

The flowers are doing quite well. And the race is on.

Harvest