Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, 15 September 2010

Another month has gone by. Even though the summer didn't feel very summer-y this year, it's really starting to feel like fall. The orioles are all gone. The morning chill is lasting a little longer. The sun is setting a bit earlier. And the sun is *definitely* coming up quite a bit later. The bean production has all but stopped. The cucumber production has slowed quite remarkably. The zucchini production -- that is, the setting of fruits -- has not only NOT slowed, it has increased. The good news for me is that mostly they aren't turning into actual zucchinis for the table... or bread... or cake. And the ones that do turn into produce are doing so quite slowly.

But we're here to talk about what's blooming today. The zucchini continue to put on some amazing squash blossoms, but the rest of the veggie garden has mostly stopped blooming. Nothing in the way of California natives are blooming, but that doesn't keep them from creating a little garden "interest" such as the Western Virgin's Bower seed heads.

So, here's what's blooming in my yard today:

• Nasturtiums
• Canna Lilies
• Coral Bells (huh? They're usually done by summer!)
• Western Columbine (just a few blossoms)
• Hybrid Penstemon
  
• Roses
• California Poppies (a few small ones here and there)
• Ivy Geraniums
• Impatiens
• Trailing Lobelia
• Chrysanthemums
  
• Some garlic relative (weed)
• Solanum rattonii (white-flowered vine)
• Basil
• Purple Potato Plant
• Plumbago (both vining and creeping)
• Sunflowers (there are a few left)
• Sticky Monkeyflower (just a few blossoms)

Tomato Tip

The other day Mom picked a tomato off one of her several plants. It was smiling brightly red at her, so she assumed it was ready to go. Well, the back quarter of the tomato that she couldn't see while the tomato was still on the vine was fairly green. What to do?

Put the partially-ripe tomato in a bag with an apple or two and set it out at room temperature for a day or several (you'll want to check on it) and it will ripen for you. Basically, this is the same trick that the big growers and supermarkets do with a fair amount of their produce, only they don't use the apple directly. 

Apples put out a gas called ethylene gas that causes many fruits (e.g., peaches, pears, bananas, apples) to ripen. The growers pick the produce green (so that it will ship with less damage because the green fruit is very solid) and the markets (or middle-man) then gas the fruit with ethylene gas for a while before putting it out on the shelves.

You can use this tip at the end of the growing season when your tomato vines are still covered with partially ripe or unripe tomatoes and extend your tomato-eating season. (Of course, there's always fried green tomatoes, if you can handle the oil.)

The bad news is that the tomato doesn't really continue to develop its sugar content much once the fruit is picked, so tomatoes (and most other fruits) ripened this way tend to taste a little more flat than those picked when fully ripe. (This is one of the reasons that supermarket fruits don't taste as sparkly as the home-grown versions.)

Oh, and that saying about one rotten apple spoiling the barrel? Well, it's true. An overripe/rotten tomato REALLY puts out a LOT of ethylene gas and sends the rest of the barrel into an over-ripening frenzy.