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September in the garden

Monday, September 6th, 2021

It is September, and the monsoons are still going. This is the longest they’ve lasted while we’ve been here. Portal just broke a record for rain set in 1967. The mountains are green, and the grass is getting waist high. There are tadpoles in the puddles, frogs jumping around, and turtles all over. It is truly marvelous.

The garden is doing well. We have had the best tomato harvest in years, and I am canning and freezing sauce and salsa for the rest of the year, as well as enjoying fresh tomatoes with every meal. 

The weeds are phenomenal as well. I’ve spent many hours this weekend trying to clear out beds to start on fall planting. And this is the year of the caterpillars. (Each year, there is something that seems to thrive to an unbelievable degree. This year it is caterpillars of every color and stripe, including hornworms.)

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Weather

Wednesday, October 21st, 2020

As I’m seeing pictures of the first snow in many parts of the country, here I staked tomatoes today. 

We had an unusually hot couple weeks (even for here) this summer that prevented my tomatoes  from fruiting. Then a couple weeks ago, we had a dramatic drop in temperatures. Since then, it’s been a pleasant 80-90 during the day and into the low 50s at night. Perfect weather. And my tomatoes have done well since then.

Next week it’s forecast to go into the low 40s, so a freeze could happen anytime. Until then though, we’re enjoying it.

In other news, we’ve been working on refinishing the outside wood doors before winter comes. The sun and wind here is very hard on exterior surfaces so there is always work to do. One new twist on this is our recently adopted cat. I didn’t designed the house with a cat in mind and having no interior doors makes it difficult to contain her. She is the best thing that’s happened to us this year though, and we aren’t complaining!

For those interested, I’m also working on a project now to encourage people here to eat local. We’re on the web, FB, and Instagram if you want to follow along. In the spring, we’ll be doing a couple “big reads” with virtual events and online discussions that anyone is welcome to join.

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Earliest edible tomato we’ve ever harvested

Tuesday, May 30th, 2017

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Garden update

Monday, May 8th, 2017

I have about a half dozen little green tomatoes on plants. This is the earliest by far that this had happened. Chalk if up to starting with starts instead of seeds.

And the gourds are progressing along.

It’s been windy here this weekend so I’m hoping everything weathers it ok.

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SpargelFest and the fence

Saturday, April 1st, 2017

The asparagus is coming in well now, and so tonight we’re having a SpargelFest (something I didn’t even know was a thing until today; thanks, E). When I saw this recipe for asparagus and green garlic soup, I thought it was time to experiment with green garlic, which is really just baby spring garlic. Here’s what I pulled up. They smell so good!

And our fence is up! Yay! Attractiveness was a big consideration, since this is right in front of our living room mountain view, and I think it came out nice. (This picture only shows about half the length of the long side — it’s a big area.)

For the first time ever, my tomato seeds didn’t germinate, so I bought starts. It feels a bit like cheating but I have to say that the starts look healthier than mine from seed ever do. I prepared the bed for them today, though I probably won’t put them out for a couple weeks. I read that marigolds are a good companion plant and can help fight off tomato works and gnarly root nematodes, so I put some seeds in for those. With the fence, I’m feeling confident that the rabbits won’t eat them this year.

 

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A lesson in resilience

Monday, October 6th, 2014

I’m learning a thing or two from my tomatoes this week.

About 10 days or so ago, the javelina came back and decided, having eaten all of his preferred sweet potato greens and watermelons, he’d give the tomatoes a try. He gave two beds a good stomping through and ate as he went, destroying some expensive insect netting as well.

I mindfully reflected on all the many tomatoes we’d eaten, given away, and canned. It was our best tomato year ever. So I declared it the end of the season and tried not to be unhappy.

Going out to start clearing the beds today, I found though that the tomatoes are having a mini-resurgence. Huh.

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Oh the tomatoes!

Monday, September 1st, 2014

This weekend we canned salsa, chutney, plain old tomatoes, and a few jars of sweet yellow tomato jam. These will be so good this winter! And there’s lots more coming. We’re going to need more jars.

 

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Garden update

Friday, August 8th, 2014

Despite the trials and tribulations of this summer, most of our garden is doing quite well. The monsoons have been good and steady, and after a very hot stretch in May, it’s been more moderate.

This is what the beds look like full of plants. They grow to fill the shape of the netting.

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The tomatoes have done especially well. I’m not sure what to attribute this to, but possibilities include good seed (all locally seed saved), continued enrichment of our soil, new organic fertilizer, the weather, and/or a new method of watering which involves not only drip, but a low level sprinkling (generally sprinkling is thought to be bad for tomatoes, but we speculate that this cooled the beds, possibly allowing for fruiting during hot temperatures, which is normally our biggest problem).

We are currently getting a good size bowl of tomatoes every other day, and the bulk of the tomatoes are not yet ripe. There must be well over a hundred green tomatoes with some getting quite large. Definitely the best tomato crop so far here.

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Other crops are doing well. We continue to eat lettuce and have had yellow squash and cucumbers as well. Cantaloupe and watermelon should be ready soon. The beans are thriving as usual. Even the sweet potatoes appear to have come back from their run-in with the javelina (though it’s hard to tell with the actual potatoes being under ground, but the greens look very healthy). Barring any particularly bad insect invasion, which could come any time now, we should have a lot of food here.

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December 13

Thursday, December 13th, 2012

For the gardening record, today was the day I finally brought in the last of the green tomatoes.

Just enough for a pint or so of green tomato salsa.

We spent most of the morning here battening down the hatches in preparation for a big storm that is approaching. The winds are blowing fiercely, and ominous clouds are amassing on the horizon.

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