Back again and still Optomistic

I've been away from this blog for as long while so Google closed it down and I now have it back online once again. This past summer I had loads of tomatoes from the previous years' plants but I have not been happy with them.  I wish I know which tomatoes are best for growing in the San Fernando Valley.  My soil is really bad and I have to continually add compost and whatever to it.  We have little or no rain in the summer and it garden has to be hand watered.  I try to keep it as organic as possible and encourage birds to come and eat the bugs and other critters.  Back to the tomatoes--I have not liked the way any of them tasted--either too sour or too thick skinned.  All very disappointing. I have not tried growing any in the greenhouse this winter.  Maybe I will next year if I can decide on a good variety. I would be very happy if I could get a good crop of tomatoes and cucumbers. I hope to start them in  March or maybe earlier in the Green house.

Right now it is early January and my garlic is coming up nicely and I hope it does not get too cold for them I have quite a few beds of garlic growing-- hard neck and soft neck, early, middle and last season so I hope that they will last through the summer. I need to find out when is the best time to fertilize them.  We are having unusually cold and wet weather here so I don't know how this affects garlic plants.  I did notice that some of the leaves are getting a bit  yellow so that is bothering me.

Winter Gardening

 Too Cold to Save the Cucumbers

Cucumbers, tomatoes and all the rest were doing well and in this climate should have survived to give us a nice crop.  Unfortunately, weather patterns have been changing and not necessarily for the better. It's either too hot, too cold, too dry or too wet.  Something is wrong here. Don't you think?
Well, anyway we had a couple of  nights of cold and frost here killing off the cucumbers and tomato plants.  Strawberries, lettuce, cabbage, onions and garlic seem to be okay but the lost cucumbers really hurt.  The ones we had this summer were so very delicious and we were hoping to get more. Those cucumbers brought back memories of days when fresh vegetables abounded and were bursting with taste.  We don't find those veggies anymore. Wish we could remember which seed packet gave us those special cucs. Now we start new plants, this time in the greenhouse.

Tomatoes in my garden- To Prune or Not to Prune

I was very happy to find the above video on YouTube as I was very concerned about how to go about pruning my tomato plants. I have no idea which plant is determinate and which are indeterminate, designations which determine pruning or not.

I am starting to get a bunch of green tomatoes and loads of yellow flowers. I have been pollinating the flowers with an electric toothbrush to help shake the pollen lose and get the ball rolling. Let's see if this action results in loads of delicious fruits.