Saturday, August 29, 2009

Garden Notes, End of August

-It's more fun to throw rotten tomatoes at the wall than into the compost bin.

-Planting basil right next to the tomatoes is a very bad idea. They won't get enough sun and die, and by the time you have a lot of ripe tomatoes all the basil will be gone.

-Late blight hasn't hit my garden (yet), but some of my tomatoes have an unknown disease, especially the Brandywine and Mule Team ones.

-Ignoring the okra for 2 days leads to 10 inch long pods or pods with a 2 inch diameter. It's okay because they still taste good.

-We all agree that eating fried okra every night is not a bad thing.

-Sun helps make tomatoes sweet, and a weird, wet, cold Summer means none of my huge red ripe tomatoes are sweet. The Hawaiian Currants are sublime though.

-Cutting the Hawaiian Currants off the vine is better than pulling them. They tend to split easily, then get moldy before you can eat all of them.

-It's impossible to convince an 18 month old not to pick the green tomatoes.

-By late Summer, the squash have mildew and the zinnias have rust.

-Even with a small garden, sharing the harvest with friends and family is necessary.

-With a small garden, it is hard to do a second planting for Fall, especially if nothing is dead yet, leaving you with no empty space for the dreamed about chard and beets.

-The unknown volunteer winter squash are still unknown. Prolific but unknown.