First major tomato harvest of the season

So, the tomato plants are doing WAY better than I thought they would. To the point that they have taken over half of our patio in a giant, delicious tomato jungle. The cherries are especially tasty... so excited to eat these all summer long.

... and my first lemon cucumber!

Backpacking Tahoe - Slideshow

Backpacking Tahoe - Panoramas

Just got back from a great backpacking trip with my mom and sister. Here are some panos I made. It was really beautiful.

First tomatoes of the season!

First harvest!

Can you believe it? It's like a jungle out there. With tomatoes hanging on every vine!

Green Zebra's are ripening!

Lots of cherry tomatoes...

Secret plums

I just discovered a hidden plum tree deep inside the hedge out in front of our house. I only noticed because a beautiful, delicious red plum dropped into my garden all of a sudden. "Are plums falling from the sky?" I asked myself. On further inspection I confirmed that there is a completely hidden, malled, and disformed plum tree hiding among the hedge...

Where I collected some plums

following the tree trunk down the hedge

I should have noticed earlier from fallen fruit on the sidewalk

Really. It does not look like there's a plum tree in there!

inside our yard where the plum fell. rather poetic.

June Patio Garden

 Amazing blossom opened today!

 Succulents in bloom

 Happy succulents

 Rex loves being outside!

 Litting purple flowers on my cat mint

 Strawberry blossom – it opened up an hour later in the sun

 Tomatoes on the vine

 Tomato blossoms, waiting for that big fat bumble bee to return...

 Beautiful iris in bloom

 Cucumber blossom

 Strawberries reaching to the sun

 Lemon cucumber hiding in the leaves

 Baby tomatoes on the vine

Rex rolling on the pavement... what a goof ball...

It's a sticky affair...

First jam of the season! Strawberry Preserves, with a hint of cinnamon. Strawberries from Full Belly Farm. There is nothing as divine as the smell of boiling strawberry jam...

9 baskets of fresh berries yielded 8 8oz jars and 8 4oz jars. Mmmmm!

WindowFarms at San Mateo County Fair

My WindowFarms display at the San Mateo County Fair is located in the sustainable living section in Redwood Hall. I was so excited when I found this IKEA frame solution for hanging the display! It allowed me to screw the hooks directly into the top shelf of the display, and attach strings etc. where needed to properly suspend the WindowFarms.

Here are some shots of the prep-work. I built the frame and tested the WindowFarms first, then the day of installation, I prepared the plants by rinsing off the dirt from the roots, placing them in the net cups with hydroton, and loading them up in my cooler with water for transport.