Tomato tally

It feels like summer only lasted about a week here in Western New York. I am not sure we even made it past 90 degrees, but that is just fine with me. It is much more pleasant to work outside when the temperature is below 80. Most people that I talk with are saying it has been a tough year for their tomatoes with all of the rain and cooler temperatures. I think we are doing better than most. The cherry tomatoes are reaching well beyond the 7 foot trellises that I built and are filled with ripening fruit from top to bottom. The larger tomatoes are also looking lush and producing lots of fruit. I don't know whether this is due to the superior qualities of the Mel's Mix (square foot gardening soil mix) or something else, but the tomatoes are what are giving me the greatest pleasure from the garden these days. We started picking cherry tomatoes at the beginning of August, maybe four cups up to the 16th, then we picked six cups of cherry tomatoes on the 16th, four cups during that week and another four cups this past weekend (this is from about 8 plants). We have picked about 4 of the larger tomatoes at this point. The lettuce stand that I started in July has been rather disappointing, with scanty growth. I think it is the seed variety or perhaps the variety is intended to be planted more closely together. Fortunately, we have been receiving donations from other gardeners and CSA members who have gone on vacation and have no need for their farm share (including the Squash People). We also have another lettuce stand developing and quite a few parsley plants. Next year, I think that I will focus more on growing garden greens, carrots and beets and less on the cole crops. As soon as I have time to build another frame, I will be planting garlic for next year.