Garden 05 Sep 2008 05:52 pm
Holy tomatoes
MikeK asked me a while ago how my garden was doing. “Shit. Crap. Ugh,” is about what I said. I’d gambled on a moderate-to-good year this year in my garden planning, and did I ever lose.
And don’t get me started on the wacked-out C-to-N ratio of that compost I had delivered from Cedar Grove. It might not matter so much if our native dirt weren’t basically sand with rocks in. Josh and I have started collecting grounds from a coffee shop up the hill, the Blue Saucer, to help fix the situation. (We’ll be testing the soil acidity next spring, if you’re wondering.) You should have seen the look the owner gave Josh the first time she saw him packing the bags of grounds onto his Xtracycle. Super extra bonus hippie points!
But even the best soil would have done only so much for us this year. Brrr. I knew it was bad, all right, but this shocking news brings it home to me: the Tilth Harvest Fair is tomorrow, and the Tilth Tomato Tasting is canceled this year. Not even the black-belt vegetable gardeners at Tilth could produce enough tomatoes in this weather.
Even with this lousy year and that lousy soil, though, I’m still getting some good tomatoes from the Beaverlodge plant. That one’s a keeper.
on 06 Sep 2008 at 1:38 am 1.Ian said …
My tomatoes (first I’ve ever attempted) are turning out alright, but super late. So far, I’ve had one freakishly early cherry tomato ripen — tasty, a trifle thick-skinned. I have one full-size just on the verge of pickable, and about a quadzillion fruits ranging from dark green to faintly yellowish. So, A+ for production, serious C- for timeliness.
The plants I have are an Early Girl (on the same schedule as the other two, although ironically it’s the only plant to have no color in its fruit yet), a Sweet 100s, and a Health Kick. The Sweet 100s is the really prodigious one, with many many tiny tomatoes nearing readiness. The other two have produced well, but are taking their own sweet time coming off that green shade.
Sorry to hear your garden didn’t work out well this year. Maybe next year will be a bit warmer/sunnier.