High Yield Pruning Results & Full Harvest | June Garden Update 

My wife and I believe that each of us have slightly different gardening techniques and so long as you find joy in your garden, then put on the imaginary headphones and mute out the neigh sayers why you sing a happy tune. Life is too short to let others steal your joy. Your garden is beautiful, keep up the great attitude and wonderful videos, we love watching you both. We are in the tip of the mitten and we finally got a little rain, but the garden is booming thanks to creative tenting of plants during the freezing temperatures of 2 weeks ago. I envy the squash, but we have tomatoes and peppers on plants, and way too much Chinese cabbage and lettuce. This is when we get a months worth of green leafy vegetables consumed in a week. But we remember that 2 weeks ago we had none. So relish the harvest. We will be scape harvesting tomorrow morning, thanks for showing us how to....for our first time. May the bee's be with you!😁🦋

The blossom is multiple flowers fused which results in what is called a catfaced tomato. Lots of nooks and crannies making for a yucky tomato. I usually pull them off so the plant doesn't waste energy on making them. Your garden is stunningly Beautiful!!

Rachel the Tomato Blossom you showed is what is called a fused blossom. It may be 2 to 3 or more and happens mostly in Heirloom tomato varieties. The tomato will be very wide.

Rachel - You are the Spitting image of my Sister-inlaw its like your Twins its Frightning ,Love your Garden!!

Please don’t feel you need respond to those folks who are negative, don’t agree with you and just plain mean! You are amazing, love to share what you know and your garden is beautiful!!🌱💛💚 You inspired me to let my natural gray come in and it has been great. Many thanks and love to you and your beautiful garden/farm!

I enjoy your videos, and I've learned many gardening, cooking, and preserving the garden techniques from you. Don't listen to the negative comments. When I watch a video, and I don't agree or dislike something, I just move on. No need to make negative comments people!

My yellow pepper has a white bloom, the CA Wonders & hot ones are still small. Ornamentals are getting bigger. Picked our first 2 tomatoes Father’s Day, Cherokee & Better Boy. Been harvesting zucchini & crookneck squash for 2 weeks. Picked 3 cucumbers so far. Green beans are climbing the trellis. Earlyburpee peas are not growing bc of the high temps. Still pulling up onions. Carrots are a little bigger. Cantaloupes are blooming. Okra is getting leaguer. Giant sunflowers blooming. Having to water with the hose, no rain in middle TN for a week. Basil, dill, thyme, oregano, rosemary, lemongrass, lemon balm, mint, parsley all doing great. Love your garden video. 👩‍🌾👋

Such a glorious garden ...

Please bring us along and show us what you do with the garlic scapes. Especially the mayo you talked about. I would love to know how to do more with the few i have. Thanks in advance. I so enjoy coming along with your garden updates and harvests and preserving. I have learned so much from you. You are so kind to share. I can tell you love what you are doing.

Hi Rachel. The lord is with you and the garden. It looks so wonderful to see. A Big Happy Birthday to Todd's mother. 🎂 God Bless you and the garden, and God Bless the family. Take good care of yourself, and stay safe. 💁🖐️💁🖐️💁🖐️👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👌👌👌👌👌👌👌🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏😷😷😷😷😷😷😷😷😷😷😷😷💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙❤❤❤❤❤❤❤💝💝💝💝💝💝💝💝

Rachel - many of my tomato plants are splitting into two leaders all on their own this year - I always have some of that but not all the plants. Also that blossom could very well be a couple of blossoms fused and the resulting fruit is called a "cat face". Often first blossoms do that. Very much enjoying your videos. Thank you.

Make sure you keep after that honeysuckle that stuff takes over really fast. I had so much on a property I cared for I had to finally brushing it go get it under control. It had been ignored for 5 years and it completely took over a 30 by 50' garden plot and wipes out the strawberries and was heading to the asparagus.

I pruned all my peppers as you instructed , they are growing like crazy ... Thank you

Enjoyed the new video today Diesel dave like's it so much.Hope there more to come.

There are few things more beautiful than being in the garden on a cool summer morning! We may not have smell -o-vision but I had sense memories of the cool air, birds singing, and dappled sunlight. Nice...

I love watching your videos. You have been like one of my fav friends during the pandemic. LOL. My garden is taking off too and I love it. I'm way over in the Willamette Valley Oregon.

Your hair looks ultra cute today! Love how you’re gradually letting it grow out! 😌

Hi 👋! Love the vlog! The large tomato 🍅 blossom is actually called a fasciated blossom. This happens when more than one flower fuses together. “A fasciation of flowers can cause two fruits to fuse and grow together.” I’ve heard these large deformed tomatoes 🍅 called cat-faced tomatoes. We are located in an extremely humid climate, so we always pinch most of our fasciated blossoms off. I leave a few sometimes, just to see what will happen. More often than not, either bugs 🐛 or moisture ends up getting inside the crevices and the tomato ends up rotting before it can ripen. Maybe I’ll try to document it this year and make a video about it, so it’s more helpful. Always helps me to have visual learning aids. 😊 Anyway, I always love your videos. So beautiful and peaceful. Keep up the good work! ❤️❤️❤️

Thank you for walking us through your process of topping peppers! It has been a game changer for my peppers! They are so bushy and have so many peppers blooming - so far my peppers look amazing and my mind is blown! Thank you for the tips!

Those blossoms you say are on your Kellogg’s look like double or triple infused blossoms which if they are, will produce cat-faced or fasciated tomatoes.

Your garden is beautiful.

Rachel, that harvest looks soooo good. Isn’t it exciting to watch things grow, harvest it, and then eat it??? It’s thrilling. Even in my little container garden, I freak out when I see a yellow squash, cucumber, and tomatoes!! I know, I should probably get out more! Lol You guys did great! ♥️❣️🙏🏼❣️♥️

That garden is looking great Rachel!

I topped my peppers for the first time this year and they look fab, just like yours. I love walking thru your garden first thing in the morning. Thanks for your great video

I never realized honeysuckle could be harvested for eating. I just grow it because it’s beautiful!

Hey Rachel❣ HAPPY Wednesday. I pinched my Peppers too and they are so bushy, thank you. The Garden is Gorgeous. You guys stay well.

My Kellogg's Breakfast blossoms look the same. First year growing large slicing tomatoes. Amazing blossoms

Don't forget to please do a tomato video of your "canning" flavored tomatoes sauces and your salsa and all your pickles!!!! We want to see it again, oh, yes we do😁Thank you so so much!!

I ❣💕LOVE💕❣ your enthusiasm for the garden! Thank you for brightening my dreary day. It has been raining here in Oregon for almost a week now... On another note...my beans are also getting eaten by something I cannot see or figure out. I agree that it probably won't hurt the harvest, but sure doesn't look pretty!

That garden is doing amazing. Happy birthday Todd’s mom.

Love watching your videos! I would love to see a day in the life. And maybe some more cooking videos. With both of you having full time jobs and running the homestead, how do you balance everything and get it all done? Give us your tips and tricks! ❤

Those are called fasciated blossoms! It is a couple of blossoms fused together and will give you a cat faced tomato that will be big and have a lot of rot spots in them. Best to pull them off and let the plant put energy into edible fruit! 😄

I love your videos. I live vicariously through you in your garden. I have about 100'x20' garden in my backyard and you have helped me maximize my space with the planting placement. Thank you! I am trying to figure out where to plant my corn. They are about 10" tall and need to be planted. Will be planting my zucchini in mounds tomorrow after I make a run to Home Depot to get the dirt for the mounds. Have purchased netting to put over my garden since the birds are loving it too much. Thanks again Rachel. I love watching your videos and have learned a lot.

All of your garden is growing so, so good, Rachel! You should be so proud and happy! You show your hard work and efforts well. Great video, and I love the Honeysuckle!

Check early morning or late evening for snails or slugs on the beans. The slugs in my garden have demolished my baby pepper plants. They are eating my peppers, brassicas, bush beans, radishes, and horseradish! I hand picked 57 slugs off my plants last weekend in one morning! Slugs are my guess on your beans.😤

Those blossoms are doubled or more. If you leave it and let them fruit they will turn into a tomato that is conjoined which is oddly shaped and sometimes only half of that tomato will ripen. Some leave them and others pluck off these blooms to let the plant focus on producing energy for the other fruits.

I feel so far behind in gardening this year. Every year I struggle to get everything out and planted in a timely matter because fibromyalgia flare ups keep me bed bound sometimes for weeks. I got a LOT done today and hopefully I catch enough of the season!

Dear Rachel, Thanks for this early season tour of your garden. The tomatoes are doing great, so far so good. I pray that all your good work will yield an abundant harvest. Enjoyed the section on the garlic scapes, very informative. Thanks for going over the early pruning of pepper plants again. Good to see the early harvest of some vegetables. Also, thanks for showing us that something is eating away on the leaves of your beans. It is good to know that some bugs seem to be invisible, and that one is not blind. I really do enjoy these progress tours of your garden. Sincerely, Larry Clarence Lewis, Canada.

That is sooo funny that you say that!!! I just said it the other day I have those on my Black Krim Tomato plants Rachel ...you sounded exactly like me 🤣🤣

I had never pinched pepper plants before, or heard of doing it. Saw your video and pinched mine the same day. My plants look just like your now. Bushing right out. Thanks for that tip!

Great video garden is starting to produce some lovely vegetables 🌶 can’t wait wait to see more ,you are going to be worn out this garden season !! But food happy 😃!!!

You get those double blossoms usually on heirloom tomatoes, called cat facing. Also your double leaders are a sucker right before the 1st set of flowers. Easy to miss a sucker. Never hurts to leave a sucker, increases your yield.

I'd never heard of garlic pesto, will have to try it! Your garden pest sounds just like the slugs I've been dealing with. Stumped me at first then found them under my wood chips. I was just spreading sand around everything today. Getting more diatomaceous earth asap! Thanks for sharing your garden!🌱

It's all because you planted them from seed! 😉 P.S. Love you guys, thanks for sharing.

I' m an exactly 6' tall man, from Pa, my corn was knee high at the 4th of June. Idk what it is about this year, but its growing like crazy!

Your garden looks so good. All I have growing is a bush sunflower plant and something is eating the leaves!!

You might have inadvertently tipped the tomatoes to make them double stemmed, however, temperature also could have played a role. I cannot remember if you were the one with the fasciation of a group of tomatoes. This is normally a single plant occurrence, but temperature will cause a group rate. You could try making a beetle trap-- many ideas surfing around.

I pruned like you did and mine are great! My season is about two weeks ahead of yours so in two weeks you will see lots of little peppers!

I sprinkle egg shells around my beans it did help, then followed with DE!

Those are fused blossoms, several blossoms fuse together to make one. You should try to pull them off when you see them. While it will create a large tomato, it will be catfaced. So several tomatoes fused together to creat one and have a lot of spots you’ll have to cut out and toss.

I have a love/hate relationship with honeysuckle. The smell is delicious and intoxicating on a summer evening, but here in Georgia it grows wild as a noxious weed. I fight a losing battle with it every year.

Your garden looks fantastic. Everything is growing beautifully, can't believe you have a zucchini already. I have flowers on the squashes and the pumpkins have several on each plant but no fruit so far. I am going to look more closely in the morning to see if there are any fruits.

I have a Garden Master dehydrator and I do tomatoes then grind into powder, great for sauces etc…all greens even broccoli , cauliflower, cabbage leaves and green onion stems go in and makes a great green powder….add some of those powders to broth and you have veggie soup or tasty gravies.

Well, deer took care of pruning my pepper plants. Have been using repellent since then and they do seem to be recovering nicely. Just moved in at the end of May. So getting a very slow start with only a couple of plants. Just hoping for a tiny harvest and a full garden next year!

Your garden is amazing! Your garden prep and methods have really paid off. I am also in SE Mich but my tomatoes look nothing like yours. The double blossoms will grow a catfaced tomato but still edible. It's the large 3 and 4 fused blossoms that will rob the plant of energy to produce a deformed, almost inedible fruit. They say this condition mainly affects the large heirloom plants and is partly caused by severe fluctuations in temp and by overfertilizing. The high temps have caused my flowers to drop on toms and peppers. I think they will be ok with coming cooler temps.

Those massive flowers are conjoined tomato blossoms, it happens with some heirloom varieties. Not bad. Just produces cat-faced tomatoes. Totally edible fruit just interesting looking. No worries just one of the many neat things heirlooms produce. ❤

Those i do believe where two blossoms meld together and become one are called a cat faced tomato . Its worth checking out as the end result could have lots of ends and divets throughout the tomato

Wow Rachel your garden is just amazing, I can't believe the growth. I really wish we could grow our summer salad stuff in the season we want to use them but unfortunately our summers are far too extreme here in Brisbane Australia even though I put a huge sail over my garden in summer. My lettuce & tomatoes etc grow far better from now until about November but who wants to eat salads in winter. Cheers Denise- Australia- Have a wonderful day :)

The garden is looking lovely! How exciting!

the dappled lighting was nice :-)

Your garden is bursting at the seams! So exciting to see it all responding to your love and care. I just harvested onion and leek scapes, so I’ll have to look for your pesto recipe. Garden on! daisy

your "dandelion" blossom is a double or a fused blossom. They tend to catface, some people pull them off, however I usually leave them to see how big I can grow the tomato :)

That blossom looks like my San Marino blooms, I also thought they were double cat face blossom. My beans took a beating from earwigs so I have been using DE on my plants right after watering, so the powder sticks to the plant. Yours could also be slugs, set out a small dish of beer and see what you find tomorrow. I just enjoy watching your channel and all the things you are doing. Have a blessed day.

They say if you don't see the insects it's probably earwigs. There is a recipe I saw, mix 1 part soy sauce one part oil. Place in a container at dirt level. The soy sauce is the attractant and the oil kills them.

Migardener said when you have two stems on tomato plant,which one has the blooms on it cut the other stem off.

I read that fasciated tomato blossoms are common when temps are too cold during pollination. This would explain why you and I both have this issue. May was strangely cool here in Maryland. I assume it was even cooler in Michigan.

Looking good! I have had a few get away to double leaders this year too and I feel like I’m out at least twice a day pruning! That is a Kellogg’s blossom!

Everything looks awesome !!!

I'm definitely pruning peppers next year! Thanks Rachel.

Wow! I can’t believe how quickly everything is growing. If you get time can we please have a look at the progress of the flower bed? I keep straining to see it when you walk past it ;)

I have 3 of my tomato plants with double leader stems. I was like what happened here? So thanks for explaining this. The garlic scapes look amazing and I can't wait to see you do the pesto, well hope you do. The garden looks really good Rachel.

Topping and pruning Pepper plants is a fantastic way to increase fruit yields. I assumed everyone did this! I haven’t read the naysayers, but I think that’s a pretty strange thing to be against. This summer just passed (here in Australia) I couldn’t find enough families to give our spare peppers to. We have 10 plants and they were LADEN with fruit 💚 I can’t wait to see your Super Moon Pumpkin Rachel! I have a thing for white Pumpkins, I think they are the most beautiful of all varieties. Oh, actually, if you would like to grow a naturally white Heirloom Pumpkin (Super Moon is hybridised), that you can save the seeds from and regrow true to type again and again (providing you don’t let cross-pollination occur) then ‘Flat White Boer Ford’ is a great choice! It’s an African Variety that boasts a beautiful Cinderella shape, with a flavour that is out of this world good! Sweet, dense, creamy, bright orange deliciousness that stores for up to 12 months too! It’s my favourite out of the 18 varieties that I’ve so far grown 🤍🤍🤍 Anyway, happy gardening, your patch is growing beautifully! And I am enjoying living vicariously through your channel while the Winter frosts and storms hit my part of the world with a vengeance.

My son some honeysuckle jelly last year...its really special

My beans get damage that looks like that from grasshoppers. They'll take out a whole 6 x 16 bed if I'm not careful. I put up some birdhouses to attract birds and planted some trap plants this year. I've got my fingers crossed this year.

I’m so excited to see you just now harvesting your scapes! I put garlic in for the first time last oct (Yooper here...) and I’ve been panicking that something is wrong because I haven’t seen scapes yet, I’m guessing the next week or so ill start to see them?! PS hoping you show us how you do your garlic scape pesto!!!!

Grasshoppers were eating my bean plants like that last year. It doesn't harm the plants production in my experience.

Travis with Hoss Tools/Lazy Dog Farm picked a HUGE Kellogg's breakfast tomato on his latest video you should check out. Got several nice tomatoes from that plant but one was particularly massive. I'm growing those also but just getting mine in the ground tomorrow and/or Wednesday. The rain and heat here in Louisville, Ky zone 6b has been crazy this year.Finally got peppers planted about a week ago. I read somewhere to pick your garlic scapes young; pretty much as soon as they appear. That's what I did this year so we''ll see. Of course, they're smaller than last year because I waited longer for the "curl" but will be interesting to see if it makes a difference. And, yes, I LOVE garlic scape pesto. Soooo yummy!

Garden looks fantastic! Thanks for showing me how to pepper prune! Mine are done and looking fab! Love your videos! Garlic scape pesto? I need to make this!:))

I always snap my scapes off, pulling them looks like less waste! I have a couple left outside. I'll try the pull instead of snap with those!

I just harvested the Las of our radishes. Most other plants are slow growing . Your garden looks great

Great looking garden! Oh, so you could say you have two corn-ers…. Sorry for the corny joke 😆 🌽

Gary Pilarchik (The rusted garden) is going to make a two-minute tip on vine borers soon. Looks like it will be an easy solution.

Beautiful garden

Hi Rachel! I have a ton of earwigs eating my zinnia plants, they are leaving holes similar to the ones on your beans....I think it was beans lol. Take a look at night and see if that is what you have going on too.

Looks like Mexican Bean Beetle damage on your beans. They prefer bush beans over pole. They like to hide under the leaves, spraying with neem oil helps. I have them every year, their eggs are fuzzy yellowish little balls.

Looking awesome 👏

Catfacing/ fasciated blossoms. Very typical of an heirloom, especially first flush of blossoms. Can happen with all tomatoes though.

Alot of my tomatoes ended up double stemmed also this year.

The deer are getting most of my peas, but I will plant more of them in early fall ... 2 growing seasons in Texas. Right now time to plant okra. Getting lots of zucchini and yellow squash. Rain for weeks has decimated my tomatoes, which went in late. Now, no rain for 3 weeks and a possible hurricane forming in the Bay of Campici near Cancun headed North in the Gulf.

love the tomatoes and the tour

Its deffenetly a double or Triple blossom. I would pick them off.

your garden is so cute

Everything looks so healthy!! What happens if you don't wait for them to curl and harvest them early? Asking for a friend 🙄

That looks like a faciated (sp?) blossom

Slugs and earwigs will go after beans here in my part of Michigan

I see many squash flowers that I would be picking and frying up like a green tomato.

garlic looks great! my garlic instant looking to good.

You need to get a copper alembic (still) to make hydrosols so you can make some soaps, bath and body prducts with the honeysuckle or other plants.

I would like to see how you make your garlic pesto. I’ve never had any, sounds good though. Blessings

Same thing is happening with my purple running beans I cant find a darn thing maybe it's from my compost but I'm at the point of eh let's see how it goes if not I'll find something else to plant in its spot 😅