Dog Days

It has been unusually hot here in Sewanee, like most other places this summer, but it has started taking it's toll on the garden. The tomatoes don't even seem to like this heat and many of them are rotting on the vine. According to my garden-loving great aunt, that's because they have had inconsistent watering. With school in session now, I hope to get out there and water more regularily in the morning. This really is one of my favorite things to do. I just find watering the garden so relaxing. It is not relaxing however with 2 kids nagging about how hot it is and asking every 5 seconds if we can leave. So today after I dropped the kids at school, I spent about an hour in the garden alone. It was slightly cooler and so nice. I re-staked some of the tomato plants so the ones that are still doing well could keep producing. RB says that tomatoes will keep growing taller as long as they have something to grow on, so I made sure some of the taller plants had a cage nearby to cling to. We may want to consider stacking some cages to let them keep going. Many of them that look scraggily at the bottom actually have nice growth and new flowers on the ends. The cherokee purple are so pretty and I hope the tiny sunsweets keep producing, they are such a treat!

I also weeded the strawberry patch as we have new fruit and flowers and the plants are thriving and sending out new runners. I'm so excited the ones we transplanted from our home garden seem to be doing so well too. I'm not sure how much fruit we'll get from them, but it's fun even to find one strawberry and eat it warm from the plant. I also de-flowered the basil and most of the cilantro. I got stung by a bee while doing the cilantro so I sort of stopped mid-way and moved on to watering. Most of the cucumbers are still producing flowers but sadly the squash plants are getting eaten by something. The ones on the far ends still seem to be alive and may have a flower or 2.

While there I was pondering what we might want to start planing for the Fall. We have some open spaces now so I'm going to go look in our garden books about what crops might be good to start now. Any ideas? I'm thinking pumpkins! :)

Pesto Recipe

With all of this beautiful basil, I just wanted to share my recipe for pesto in case anyone didn't have one yet.

2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
3 T walnuts or sunflower seeds (pine nuts are too darn expensive!)
2 1/2 c fresh basil leaves
1/2 c olive oil (added very slowly)
1/2 parmesan cheese
1/2 t salt

Combine all in a food processor and enjoy!

I also had a couple pictures . . . the first is of the garden about a month ago. Amazing how much bigger it is now!

Passenger seat coming home from a berry-and-basil-picking trip (also about a month ago) . . .

I think my tomatoes will be the last of the group's to ripen, but I am getting so excited about them.  We have one better boy plant and one yellow pear plant.  I think I sent the yellow pear one into shock by trying to stuff it into a cage after it was too big.  It still has some fruit on it, but I think I damaged the plant and really hurt our yield on that one.  Live and learn to make tomato cages an early priority!  Our red plant seems to be making up for the loss, though - I counted 26 green tomatoes on it yesterday!

We're also still waiting for our peppers to ripen.  They're big and green right now, but we're waiting for them to turn red and orange, so there's still a little time to go.  We have a couple swiss chard plants that are making it so far, and a couple beets.  At first I couldn't distinguish the two, but they're finally getting big enough to show their differences.  I think it will still be a long time, though, before either will be ready to eat.  Our sunflowers along the fence somehow got the tops chopped off - I'm guessing by deer - so I'm not sure they will continue to grow.  We'll just wait and see!

I'm looking forward to planting lettuce and spinach when this heat starts to lift a little.  Bring on the rain today!

Tentative Garden Blessing Date

Hello! Fr. Walter has on his calendar to bless the garden on Tuesday, June 22nd at 6pm. It was confirmed by his secretary but he's been out of town and may decide to change it. Stay tuned for confirmed plans and hopefully everyone can make it!

Garden Update

Posting for MB:

"Brennan, Aidan, and I spent some time in the garden last night.

The Good News:
The tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, basil seedlings, cilantro seedlings, green onions, squash, zucchini, beans, peppers, zinnias, the three carrots and six lettuce seedlings that came up are all doing great!

The Bad News:
The other 97 carrot and 94 lettuce seedlings.

On the Fence:
Eggplants, strawberries (although I saw one new bloom!), broccoli (is it too late for these guys to produce adequately?)

We have more carrot and lettuce seeds that we can plant. Need to hoe out the non-producing area and reseed.

What would be cool to do but would like some men-help: Clear out the area behind St. Francis all the way to the fence. Plant goliath sunflowers & smaller flowers there in an L around the corner area. To the right of that, plant pumpkins to be ready in the fall. I have all the seeds for this, just need it cleared.

Go Happy Gardeners, Go!"

Red plastic

Hi all, you'll notice next time you're at the garden that our two tomato plants have red plastic around them. This is something my mom gave me and swears by for her tomato plants the last couple seasons. I'm not sure about the science behind it, but it supposedly helps produce higher yields. Anyway, I have a some left over, probably enough to go around 2-4 more tomato plants. If anyone would like to try some, just say so, and I'll leave the extra at the garden next time I go. Just didn't want anyone to think it was trash.

Weed Control

I've seen mention of using straw as mulch to keep down the weeds. There are potential problems with that. Straw usually contains seed of whatever plant from which it is made, generally some type of grass. Pine straw is fairly acidic, which can be neutralized, but that creates more work. Well aged compost is the best mulch, and newspaper works well, too. Here are some tips for keeping the weeds in check.

I was at the garden about 6:30 last night, and it was such a respite after a long day at the hospital. Friendly kitty came by for a visit--I've seen him chasing a squirrel out of the garden before, so I welcome his presence!

Garden Evenings

I was lucky enough to go out to the garden alone tonight to check on things and have a few moments of peace after a long week alone with kids (thanks Mom!). I've decided 5:30 pm is my new favorite time in the garden. The sun has gone down just a bit and the world looks and feels just perfect. We've had some nice rain this week so I'm not sure about anyone else, but I haven't had to water.

Things are starting to perk up, especially the tomatoes and squash. And, we have a bitty-baby broccoli emerging from the leaves! Whoohoo!

The strawberry transplants are looking a little weak, perhaps the transfer was too much for them or perhaps we're getting past the season for them, I hope they'll make it a little longer. The beans and radish seeds are growing nicely and many of the basil and lettuce seeds are poking though. It's kind of hard to tell how the carrot seeds are doing as we are in need of some serious weeding. Hopefully we can tell as they get a little bigger. I was able to weed a bit around the basil and radishes but a cute kitty friend kept laying down right where I was trying to weed...so I gave in and played with him instead.

Maybe we can get a group of us to have a weeding party soon. I like the idea of straw too as that will kill off many of these weeds but we need the seedlings to get a bit bigger still.

We're in the process of arranging with Fr. Walter to come to the blessing, so we'll keep you posted. Looking forward to more evenings in the garden soon.