The Tomato Shtick...

We are finally starting to get sunny weather in Whatcom County. Some beautiful days - light overcast in the morning, sunny in the afternoon (with some surprisingly strong wind at times) and long beautiful evenings and sunsets. Voila! My tomatoes, planted in early May, are finally taking off!:

Tomatoes will grow in Whatcom County. Like all other vegetables, you need to adapt to a short (but sunlight intense) growing season, wind and rain. Some do this with greenhouses. This year I have 12 different varieties that I am growing. One, a pear tomato named "Jolly Elf ", seems popular here in the Northwest.  It certainly has a distinctive shape:

Bellingham Bay on Father's Day 2010

You won't glimpse much marine mammal life in Bellingham Bay. Plenty of bird life, signs of fishing industry, etc.   But I am guessing that because of the long industrial history of the salmon canning facilities, gas plant, pulp plant, chloroform production, shipbuilding and repair, ttreated lumber operations, the landfill/dump etc. that there may not be enough of a healthy bay to sustain what marine mammals need to survive.  But there certainly is a lot of other activity going on.  Every now and then, however, I see this sea lion...

How is your vegetable garden surviving all this Spring rain?

We are paying now for the beautiful January and February we had.  It was a rough, but I think my tomatoes are going to make it.  Next year, I won't do this without a green house.  If you are in doubt about how your garden is supposed to look, you can visit the master gardeners at Hovander Park in Ferndale from 9:00 AM until Noon on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Their greenhouse is currently hosting some very healthy tomatoes.