Gardens at Mathews — the season log

Week of 24 August 2026 — The three hundredth pepper

2026-08-24T00:00:00-04:00

Twenty-one crops, more than any week yet, and 268 tomatoes among the week's 57.3 lb. Honeydew and oregano both started on the Thursday; the three hundredth pepper came in on the Tuesday, and tomatoes passed seven hundred on the Monday and nine hundred by the Friday. Most of the week's photographs are peppers, caught green, colouring and ripe on the same day — squat lobed Scotch Bonnets still dark green, a Santa Fe Grande shading from a green shoulder to a yellow-orange stripe, and long Ristra Cayennes over a straw-topped grow bag, three gone fully scarlet while the rest stayed pale. An eggplant was in flower that same day, pale violet with five pointed petals swept back around a cone of yellow anthers.

57.3 pounds, 21 crops

First this week: Honeydew, Oregano

Week of 17 August 2026 — Two hundred tomatoes

2026-08-17T00:00:00-04:00

Two hundred tomatoes in seven days — 17.3 lb of the week's 44.1, across sixteen crops. The five hundredth tomato of the season came off the vine on the Monday and the six hundredth by the Thursday; the fiftieth strawberry came in on the Tuesday. The photographs from that week are wet: peppers and tomatoes beaded with rain, one Chinese 5-Color carrying a dusky purple fruit and a swollen apricot-orange one on the same stem.

44.1 pounds, 16 crops

Week of 10 August 2026 — The heaviest week so far

2026-08-10T00:00:00-04:00

Just under sixty pounds, the heaviest week so far. Watermelon appeared for the first time on the Monday and potatoes on the Saturday — three watermelons, 20.9 lb between them, and one of them cut open on the 11th, deep pink-red inside and scattered with flat dark seeds. A hundred and twenty-three tomatoes came off the vines, taking the season past four hundred on the Monday and four hundred and fifty by the Thursday, and the hundred and fiftieth pepper came in on the Tuesday. The season's running total reached 204.5 lb by the end of it.

59.5 pounds, 18 crops

First this week: Watermelon, Potatoes

Week of 3 August 2026 — Nineteen crops in seven days

2026-08-03T00:00:00-04:00

The first week to pass fifty pounds, and the widest so far — nineteen crops in seven days. Cantaloupe and bitter melon both began, chives joined on the Wednesday, and the hundredth pepper came in on the Thursday. Tomatoes alone accounted for 26.7 lb of the week's 51.9 — a hundred and forty-six of them — and the fiftieth zucchini came off on the Tuesday. The peppers were coming in pale yellow, glossy and flecked with water.

51.9 pounds, 19 crops

First this week: Chives, Cantaloupe, Bitter Melon

Week of 27 July 2026 — Cucumbers find their stride

2026-07-27T00:00:00-04:00

Half again the previous week's weight. Cucumbers came second by weight behind tomatoes — fifteen of them for 8.2 lb — and by the end of the week two jars were standing in brine under airlocks. The hundred and fiftieth tomato came in on the Monday and the fiftieth pepper on the Friday. Onions and cucamelons both started, the ghost peppers had begun turning from green to tan, and a small netted melon lay out on the black ground fabric with its spent yellow flowers around it.

37.6 pounds, 16 crops

First this week: Onions, Cucamelon

Week of 20 July 2026 — The hundredth tomato

2026-07-20T00:00:00-04:00

Eighteen crops in seven days, and sixty-nine tomatoes — more in that one week than the whole season had managed before it. The hundredth tomato of the year came off the vine on the Friday. Basil, tarragon, leeks and shallots all started. The purple basil had filled its black fabric pot, almost aubergine in full sun, and the tomatoes hung green at every height.

24.6 pounds, 18 crops

First this week: Basil, Lemon Verbena, Tarragon, Leeks, Shallots, Blackberry

Week of 13 July 2026 — Cucumbers and peppers begin

2026-07-13T00:00:00-04:00

Cucumbers, peppers, tomatillos and beets all started this week — four more crops joining the run, and the first four cucumbers came to 2.2 lb between them. Twenty-seven tomatoes came off, and the weight went down even so: 10.8 lb against the previous week's 15.8. The peppers were coming in dusted chalk-white, leaf and fruit alike. The strawberry pots were throwing dozens of pink flowers and trailing runners while still carrying pale unripe fruit.

10.8 pounds, 10 crops

First this week: Cucumbers, Tomatillos, Beets, Peppers

Week of 6 July 2026 — Five times the week before

2026-07-06T00:00:00-04:00

Broccoli, squash, raspberries, dill, parsley, bergamot and thyme all began — seven crops starting in seven days, eleven picked in total, and five times the weight of the week before. Thirty tomatoes and nineteen zucchini came in, and the tenth of each came off on the same Saturday. Blueberries were the week's heaviest crop at 5.8 lb, with zucchini next. The peppers stood in straw-mulched grow bags carrying slim green fruit and white flowers, one plant hung with long tapering green chillies.

15.8 pounds, 11 crops

First this week: Dill, Raspberries, Bergamot, Broccoli, Parsley, Squash, Thyme

Week of 29 June 2026 — Four crops begin

2026-06-29T00:00:00-04:00

Tomatoes, blueberries and wineberries all crossed into harvest on the same Thursday, 2 July, and zucchini followed two days later — seven tomatoes and a single zucchini, three pounds across the four crops. The peppers were already hanging with round glossy green fruit and long tapering pale green ones, though nothing had come off them yet. Out on the black ground fabric a young fruit banded yellow and green lay under thick bristled stems, its shrivelled flower still attached at the tip.

3.0 pounds, 4 crops

First this week: Blueberries, Tomatoes, Wineberries, Zucchini

Week of 22 June 2026 — The week the sky took over

2026-06-22T00:00:00-04:00

Still no harvest, and this is the week the sky took over the watering: rain fell on a hundred and forty-five plants, against a hundred and thirty-nine watered by hand. Fruit set on eleven plants, twenty-seven more went into the ground, and eight were mulched while eight were staked. The photographs from the 23rd are wet — water beaded across a pepper's broad leaves with small green fruits at its centre, blueberries hung with clusters of pale unripe berries, a tomatillo already carrying green lantern husks.

0.0 pounds, 0 crops

Week of 15 June 2026 — Five strawberries, all week

2026-06-15T00:00:00-04:00

Five strawberries on the 21st, two tenths of a pound, and that was the week. The work was elsewhere — cucumbers and zucchini in fabric grow bags with their long stems already trailing over the rims onto rough grass, peppers set into a raised bed of dark perlite-flecked soil beside green metal stakes. June is like this: the garden is growing and the record has one line for it.

0.2 pounds, 1 crop

First this week: Strawberries

Week of 8 June 2026 — The week it went in the ground

2026-06-08T00:00:00-04:00

Nothing was picked at all — this is the week the garden went into the ground. A hundred and fifty-four plants were watered, twenty-one moved into their final bags and beds, eleven fed and six staked, and no rain fell on any of it. The melons went in after dark, caught by flash: seedlings pressed into slits cut in black woven ground fabric, a white label standing at the foot of each one, and netting over three of them. By the end of the week the tomatoes stood in black fabric grow bags set out across the mown grass, a hose and spray wand coiled in front of them.

0.0 pounds, 0 crops

Week of 1 June 2026 — The first cutting

2026-06-01T00:00:00-04:00

Three cuttings of lettuce on the 4th and a handful of cilantro on the 7th, under a pound between them. Everything else was still in pots and bags: tomatoes in fabric grow bags with their labels lettered in pink, squash seedlings small enough for a plastic pot, a tomatillo already carrying one open yellow flower. The scale had barely started.

0.9 pounds, 2 crops

First this week: Lettuce, Cilantro