The downhill slide
A coworker of mine, we’ll call him Eeyore, announced this morning that with the fair over, we’re on the downhill slide toward back to school.
Ugh!! Gloomy!!
The good news is August is the best month for home gardeners. We’ll be eating like kings for the next few weeks.
My beans are already slowing down. I’ve actually pulled up the wax beans and will plant something (possibly spinach) in that row. The wax beans didn’t do very well for me this year.
But I got four or five pickings of green beans and two of the heirloom dragon tongue beans. Here’s a picture:
It’s not a great picture, but I was in the middle of freezing beans and zucchini. My creative talents were pretty much tapped. Freezing veggies is not a difficult task, but it is kind of a tedious, sweaty one. My advice: Have a lot of Freezer Pops at the ready.
I am a couple days away from the first eggplant, which is exciting. I planted some peas this weekend and will put in at least one other fall crop this week. I haven’t decided what it should be.
Oh, and we have identified the mystery cucurbit! It grew up from a seed someone left last year. (Part of the charm of community gardening.) It turns out it’s a cantaloupe. It looks better than any of my previous melon attempts.
(Someday, I will write a book titled “My Previous Melon Attempts”.)
My tomatoes aren’t even thinking about turning red. They’re just sitting there, stubborn and green. They look healthy, though. I’ve heard a lot of folks complaining about blossom-end rot, which is the result of a calcium deficiency.
Drought stress and uneven watering can be the culprit. Read about it here.
If my tomatoes aren’t thinking about turning red, what are they thinking about?
Read Ann Marie’s updates from the newsroom on Twitter and Facebook.
Aug 2, 2011 at 6:52 a.m.
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EEK, say it's not over! Isn't it funny how, even with "back to school" no longer part of my world, this is the time I get excited for the New Year!??
Be watchful, your tomatoes may be thinking about blossom end rot! If you find that, you need to spray some calcium, don't try to soil amend at this point.
Aug 2, 2011 at 6:29 a.m.
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Your Solanum lycopersicum ( remember your days in biology and Latin classes? ) may well be in mourning about The Downhill Slide. Your readers know you'll be gentle and encouraging, Ann Marie
"Orange" may be correct. Perhaps Big Boy or Not-So-Early-Girl is fantasizing being host/hostess to a garden party for some good friends. My tomat's love get togethers with Cilantro, Green Onions, colorful Green, Red, or Yellow bell peppers, Sea Salt, good fine Black Pepper, and just the right amount of Lime juice. Mmmmmmm. Oh, and a good quality dippin' chip, of course. Back to Mmmmmm.
Your hold outs are very likely basking in the role they'd play with a supporting cast of good bread, fresh Mayo or Miracle Whip, and the above mentioned sea salt and good pepper. Nothing better than kicking off the shoes after a good day at the Gazette and digging in to that splendid fresh tomato sandwich. Unless the meal is TWO tomato sandwiches. [ see Mmmmmmmmm, above ]
Well worth waiting for, in my opinion. Keep 'em watered. :~D
Aug 1, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.
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Tomatoes are queens of the garden, the ultimate reward, the taste that explodes in one's mouth, but they're a pain to grow. My grandfather used to boast of having the first tomatoes of the season in that refrigerator of a city called Duluth. I should have paid more attention to him.
Aug 1, 2011 at 1:40 p.m.
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Your tomatoes are thinking about salsa,or worse yet, being squashed to a pulp and being turned into tomatoe juice
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