Mighty Mato Tomatoes

We love tomatoes & Bruce is very particular when it comes to what tomatoes he plants in our vegetable garden.  He like early & mid season ripening tomatoes.  Well this year I have an appreciation for why.  At this time of year we are usually overwhelmed with tomatoes and eating them as fast as they are ripening.  This year we have mostly late ripening tomatoes & while we have been eating them for the last 3 weeks we are definitely NOT overwhelmed.  The tomatoes we planted this year were mainly Mighty Mato the varieties are Bumblebee Purple which is a small red cherry with stripes, Indigo Apple which is a red with purple shoulders, Big Beef & Brandywine.  All are later ripening varieties.  The only variety we planted that are not Mighty Mato is Golden Honey Bunch which is a small yellow cherry tomato.

Golden Honey Bunch Tomatoes

Golden Honey Bunch Tomatoes

Mighty Mato Bumblebee Purple

Mighty Mato Bumblebee Purple

Mighty Mato Indigo Apple Tomato ripening on the vine

Mighty Mato Indigo Apple tomatoes

Mighty Mato Big Beef

Mighty Mato Big Beef

Mighty Mato Brandywine

Mighty Mato Big Beef, Golden Honey Bunch,
Mighty Mato Bumblebee Purple & Indigo Apple tomatoes

RedStart Peppers

 RedStart Pepper

DD#1 & I love Swiss Chard, Bruce & DD#2 do not really like it.  In desperation this year I tented the Swiss Chard with Remay cloth to guard against the Leaf Miner.  Last year we did not have much of a crop as they decimated our Swiss Chard.  The Swiss Chard looks really good under the cloth.  Time to harvest and eat!!

Swiss Chard tented with Remay Cloth.

July & August in our Garden

Summer is flying by.  I am not sure where July went but we entered August with a bang!!  Bruce came home from the hospital on July 31, 2013.  While he was in the hospital our neighbours were the recipients of a basket of tomatoes that happened to ripen while he was there.

These are what were harvested when Bruce was in the hospital
Neighbours loved them.

We also had figs ripen on our Hardy Fig.  I have never had fresh figs.  Wow!! these are delicious.  Now to see how this fig tree performs over the winter.  Bruce is going to heel the Hardy Fig tree into the vegetable garden for the winter.  If it dies down to the ground it should sprout again & give us figs on new wood next year.  I am really looking forward to this.

Ripe Figs from Hardy Fig

Hardy Fig in container - front
Sunflowers in background

Other plants in our garden that were either blooming or doing well were the Gyphon Begonias.  This plant has no flowers, it is for foliage only.  This is my favourite container in the whole garden.  We started off with very small plants but it has really grown and taken over the container.

Gyphon Begonia

Gyphon Begonia

Gyphon Begonia taken over the container.
There is supposed to be other plants in this container.

 My favourite flower has always been the Freesia but since it does not do well in the Northern Hemisphere, my second favourite flower has taken its place--the sunflower!  I love all the different kinds of sunflowers.  We get our sunflower seeds from Renee's Garden.  This year we did get a packet from Stokes Seeds as the squirrels dug up all the sunflowers & ate them.  I was not pleased!

Valentine Sunflower

Believe this sunflower is 'Van Gogh'

Junior Sunflowers -- Great for containers

Stokes Seeds
Don't remember the name & lost the tag.

Stokes Seeds - Sunflowers not blooming yet

Mexican Shell Flower

Containers lined up.
Looking west towards the neighbours

DD1's Succulent collection.

Visting Buffalo, NY -- Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens

Last Saturday we decided to visit Buffalo.  Our first stop was the Albright-Knox Art Gallery on Elmwood Street in Buffalo.  We didn't get to visit the Frank Lloyd Wright Darwin House as the line was too long and we didn't have a reservation.  The next stop was the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens.  Our first priority at the botanical gardens was to see the cactus & succulent house.  We were not disappointed

Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens tickets

This is the entrance to the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens.  The architecture is absolutely stunning.

Entrance to the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardnens

Conservatory -- looking up!

Cute Statute in the Cactus/Succulent House

 Here is a collection of some of the pictures I took.  We finished the Cactus/Succulent house and then proceeded to go through all of the other houses as well. Very enjoyable time.

Rattlesnake Plant

Rattlesnake Plant
Close Up of leaves

 There were a lot of plants in flower when we where there which was rather nice.  I have seen many bonsai but have never seen one in bloom so I took photos.  They looked lovely.

Bonsai

Bonsai flower

Unusual flower

Cactus in bloom

Another Cactus in bloom

I love these Living Stones.  I would like some for a succulent garden but Bruce says they are too hard to grow.  I do not have a green thumb.  That's one of the reasons I keep Bruce! LOL!  I can kill a Hoya!!  Enough said.

Living Stones

Living Stones

Living Stones

This cactus is aptly named, Brain Cactus.  It looks like a brain.  These are quite easy to grow, so we may have one of these instead.

Brain Cactus

I really liked this round cactus.  It was quite large, like a giant pincushion.  Flowers were nice as well.

Round Cactus in bloom

Close Up of the Round Cactus bloom

This was quite a large hibiscus bloom on a bonsai hibiscus.  I thought the flowers would be smaller, in scale with the plant.

Hibiscus bloom on a Bonsai

This bloom was like a cup.  Very unusual. Really liked it.  The pictures below are the front of the flower and the back as well.

Very unusual flowers

Back of the unusual flower above

This looks like the bloom of the Hoya that I killed.  I had that Hoya for years but it was so pot-bound that Bruce had to re-pot it.  I never did get the watering right after that.

Hoya bloom

This plant flowers were hanging from what looked like string.  Very interesting.  You had to be careful when you walked on the path, not to run into them

Thunbergia mysorensis
Clock Vine

Close Up
Clock Vine

This is a seated area in one of the houses.  It is enclosed by plants--great place to sit & your view is the fountain below

Girls sitting in the enclosed area

View from where the girls are sitting

 While in this area you can have an impromptu game of giant checkers

Giant Checker Board

We rounded the corner of one house & thought we had traveled back in time to the dinosaur era.  This dinosaur topiary is completely covered with a vine.  In the bottom of the picture is a baby dinosaur as well.

Mama Dinosaur & Baby Topiary

Magnificent Waterfall

Side of the waterfall with vines growing all over it.

Mossy rocks with Koi pond below

Well fed Koi

The girls absolutely loved the architecture of the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens that they bought a print.  The artist is Daniel Predmore.

Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens
Daniel Predmore

The only other stop we had after the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens was Wegmans on McKinley Road.  We stocked up on the gluten free food we cannot buy in Canada then headed for the Peace Bridge.  There was a Buffalo Bison's game that night so I am glad we headed for the bridge around 7 pm.  We breezed through customs as there was absolutely NO line-up--a first.  Would not have wanted to try to get back to Canada later in the evening. 

Had an absolutely wonderful time in Buffalo so will definitely be heading back in the future.  We are already looking at the 'Upcoming Exhibitions' at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.  Definitely a stop next time we go to Buffalo.  Loved it.  Also have to make a reservation for the Frank Lloyd Wright Darwin Martin House along with the Graycliff House as well.