Design

This evening's harvest yielded Corno di Toro peppers, a poblano pepper, 'Holy Mole' peppers, various tomatoes, and Lao and Thai eggplants. It's just about the last of the spring-planted tomatoes at this point. Maybe I should have been giving them more TLC with compost and organic fertilizer, but I've been distracted. The rains basically stopped over six weeks ago, so production has depended on watering. The mid-summer plantings of squash and tomatoes are looking good, and it's almost time to sow greens!

As I'm harvesting garlic and the final bit of lettuce in the main beds, I'm thinking about what to plant next. The peas are just about finished, too, and one of the pea trellises will need underplanting with beans or a climbing cucumber or squash. (The other already has tromboncino squash ready to replace the peas). I suppose if I were more orderly and less into having fun in my vegetable garden, I'd had have already planned out my rotations. And I really should think about preserving the harvest, too (wait, I'm still determined to enjoy the process) -- Barbara Damrosch in her revised Garden Primer talks about freezing whole tomatoes, then rinsing off the skins in hot water before using them in sauces in the winter. That's my idea of a great approach. We've had a nice bit of rain today, after some unusually hot weather that's now moderated, so it's a good time to put out more summer squash, beans, and a few new heirloom tomato transplants that I acq...