Wednesday, December 22, 2010

At the other side of the fence December update

It was a nice surprise coming back from our trip to find that the Evening Sun sunflowers that was sowed about 3months ago have blooms. One plant is so tall that it is the same height as our roof and we can see it from the house window. I hope many of them will grow taller than the fence.

A close up look of the tallest of them all. The Evening Sun sunflower has many blooms per plant.

Some of the tomatoes has ripen as well.
I have not the time yet to sort this mass of tomatoes branches and stake them properly.As the fruit gets bigger and heavier the plants are leaning towards the ground. Some of the tomato fruits that touch the soil is a bit burnish. So for temporary measure, I use the coriander branches that I have harvested under the fruits so it won't directly touch the ground.
Our first attempt at growing onion from sets and this one is already the size of a tennis ball. I am not sure when is the correct time to harvest them. Any tips?

9 comments:

Mr. H. said...

Your sunflowers look amazing and so do those tomatoes. Good job on the onions, we usually harvest ours after the tops die back so that they will keep in storage but they can be eaten fresh anytime you wish.

Sue Garrett said...

Lovely tomatoes - do you get blight in your country? Outdoor tomatoes in the UL often fall foul of it but we maybe have more humid days in our summer.

Makarimi Abdullah said...

I like your sunflower...very beautiful ;-) Lovely tomato...so healthy. Happy New Year ;-)

Malar said...

That's huge sunflower plant with big flower! Sunflower is among the expensive cut flower here! They are so radiant!
Your tomatoes look so juicy! good idea to protect them using coriander branch.

miruku said...

Your sundflowers are all growing so tall! A pack of seeds (about 10 seeds) is selling at RM4.90 here and a pot os sunflower is selling at RM10, you can get very rich if you open a sunflower shop here, lol.
By the way, i hang my sunflower heads (with stalk) upside down hoping to get some home saved seeds, but i checked them yesterday and found that they started to mold.. maybe too much rain here lately? The seeds were fat and healthy but now they have shrunk and feel so empty inside, the shells are soft too :( No luck again!

Stephanie said...

That's tall one! Yellow is a pretty colour. It makes the flower striking and very noticeable. In fact, the whole stretch of sunflowers is a wonderful sight to behold.

rainfield61 said...

The sunflower really look like the sun, it brighten up me.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Mr. H~ Thank you for the advice. I will stop buy onions now and finished the ones in the kitchen. So happy that we can taste our first fresh onions!

Sue~ We do have blight this summer as it been wet and damp like winters. I have been doing some pruning for good air circulation and the part that has been affected.

Orchid de dangau~ Look like the tomato is doing well this summer, last summer was a big failure for us.

Malar~ This is the biggest Evening sun sunflower we ever grown:). I guess home-saved seeds has been very reliable for us.

Milka~That expensive! WoW! I always dreamed about doing charity with my home-saved seeds for children in need. The seeds always shrink a bit after they are properly dried. Different variety of sunflower has different shape of seeds. Maybe the damp weather causes mold.

Stephanie~ With my tiny plots of sunflowers, I imagine I am in Spain where they grow vast area of sunflowers.LOL.

Rainfield61~ It brighten my day as well.

Bangchik and Kakdah said...

That tall sunflower is like the king, towering above the rest..... for tomato harvesting, my rule of thumb is to cut when the eldest tomato in the cluster is ripe...

Cheers
~bangchik and kakdah.