Design

I've been a bit late in trying to get my tomatoes properly supported, so they've been growing in all directions.  The unseasonable heat is encouraging growth! The first order of business was to get in the tomato supports and twine the leader shoot around them (I like to use the curvy poles in the raised beds, although I'm also training some up trellises in the side beds). In wider beds, I like to use sturdy tomato cages, but in the narrow raised beds that I have here in the mountains, the poles look nicer and don't take up as much space. But, in pinching back the exuberant axillary shoots, extra branches, etc., I thought I'd propagate an offshoot of one of the Cherokee Purple tomatoes, which was already showing plenty of root primordia on the stem.  As I harvest beets, carrots, and onions, there'll be more space for other things, whether more tomatoes or more shade-tolerant veggies like chard. I just received a nice e-newsletter from Fine Gardening, a favorite g...

raised beds in the mountains It's been such a busy spring that I haven't been able to get up to my vegetable beds in the mountains in over a month, until last weekend. They've been producing greens, greens, and more greens (my gardening companion kept bringing quite a bit back down the hill -- aka the Blue Ridge Escarpment). vegetable beds and sedum But finally, having a day to harvest most of the winter greens, and plant tomatoes and peppers, was welcome.  I was tired, but happy.  What fun to get quite a bit planted. And in our Clemson garden, the potatoes, garlic, and onions are doing well, although there's definitely some herbivore sneaking up to snag the pea shoots.  At least s/he doesn't like tomatoes, potatoes, garlic, or onions!

It's totally amazing how productive the tomatoes and other vegetables are in beds filled with fresh compost.  I'm continually reminded however, that, if I added more nutrients and watered more, I'd have a REALLY productive garden. But I can barely keep up with roasting and freezing the tomatoes that I have (the ones that we can't eat fresh); in fact, I have marinara sauce simmering right now to freeze for winter.  They're not the 'tastiest' tomatoes, necessarily, some being harvested early to avoid squirrel herbivory, but I hate to waste them. Here's an image of the front raised beds.  You can't see any ripening tomatoes, but they're there, in any case, and the leeks are getting quite large enough to harvest.

recently harvested tomatoes (with sunflowers) The tomatoes are producing in abundance now -  the Cherokee Purples, Sweet Million, Sungold, Costoluto Genovese, Grandma Mary's Paste tomatoes,  Summer Feast selections, and Big Beef. I'm also harvesting yard-long beans, Emerite filet beans, zucchini,  ruby chard, 'pizza' and 'red cherry' peppers as they ripen,  and Ichiban eggplant. Periodically, I harvest some baby leeks, too, and probably will harvest most of them at 1/2 inch in diameter; that's not the granddaddy size of supermarket leeks, but they'll be deliciously flavorful, and more importantly, will make space for fall crops of beets, lettuce, spinach, and greens. I'm thinking I'm going to greatly enrich my vegetable beds at home in the Piedmont, adding much more nutrient-rich composted manure than I have in the past.  I thought I'd been adding plenty, but obviously it decomposes more rapidly in our summer heat than I thought....

I do wish I could buy colorful peppers (fresh or frozen) grown nearby. My post yesterday presented the conundrum . Hopefully, we'll be able to crank up the cooperative systems that will allow local growers to preserve (freeze) their peppers at competitive prices, so we'll be able to buy them in the off-season, as well as enjoying them in our growing period. It's a complicated system. Obviously, it's still cheaper for a small Pennsylvania-based company Village Grown Organics to contract-grow organic peppers in China. Oil is still cheap enough and container ship and truck transport is efficient, so a small company's product can appear in a local Southeastern U.S. grocery store. That's essentially nuts as far as a real ecological footprint is concerned. Village Grown Organics launched their product line within the last year. Here's a trade show video that popped up in a Google search. I have zero connection with this company. I was impressed with th...

It's remarkable how clear the winter air was as we returned home. Perhaps the absence of Vietnam's tropical humidity and hazy air (not actually that bad for the developing world) makes the sparkling crispness more noticeable. We were glad everything was fine at home and in the garden -- no fallen trees, etc. Amazingly, my lettuce, collard, mache, and kale flats look great, although frozen solid. Hmmm. We don't normally have frozen soil for very long, but last winter, and now this year seem to be trying to confound the trend towards climate change (perhaps instead of global warming, we have much more erratic weather, to be sure). A wonderful aspect of traveling in a 12-year growing season climate was seeing what was going on in vegetable fields and in the markets. Photos to come -- I downloaded them this afternoon, but they await sorting, and post-jet lag choices...

In spite of the dry summer so far, the main vegetable garden looks lush and the satellite garden looks like a jungle. Yes, I do water, but I try to be judicious and soak deeply (and am thankful that the winter and spring rains have filled the lakes that provide much of our local water supply). Compared to the crushing drought conditions of the last few years, it's basically unbelievable to have so many productive tomato, pepper, and squash plants. (The beans will recover from their slump, and I'll be planting a last round of French filet bush beans tomorrow, thanks to my friend CEN's extra seeds). Her garden was lovely, neat and tidy, when I visited it last week. I couldn't help but think about the contrast as I watered this evening! It's a good thing that a 7 ct chest freezer is being delivered tomorrow, to go in the basement. I feel obligated to do something with all these vegetables, whether it's preserving the harvest or giving them away!