The Falling Blog

Had ourselves a fantastic thundershower with wind last night. Knocked over my tomatoes. Not to worry, the stems are in tact. So I staked them together and tied their cages together. The sad part is I’ve got some windfalls. I’ve done some research about this, and the consensus is not necessarily complete. Some people think you can ripen in a windowsill, some say a carboard box and some say a paperbag. The key I think is warm and ethylene gas (produced by ripening apples and bananas.) Trial an error. If you get these windfall tomatoes, give it a go and let me know how you make out. I will post my success or failure as well. 

Also, funny enough, right before the storm I braced my prize sunflower and he survived the storm! 

And to give me a little hope, a rose blossomed next to my garden beds. I thought that was pretty fantastic given how late in the season it is. 

Have a great week everyone!

Feeling quite a bit better, I decided to stroll through the garden this morning. 

The light is really perfect, the flowers are blooming, the bees are buzzing, and I just couldn’t help putting together an update. 

The sunflowers look amazing, though I’m dealing with some kind of leaf blight. I’m dealing with it with a dilute baby shampoo and baking powder solution. I’m also removing some of the more far gone leaves. Some research has yielded that it is likely a fungus, and I’ll be rotating out of the edge beds next year. Thank goodness we don’t have the same stink bug problem we’d had last year. The few that have come into the yard I’ve captured with a dish soap water solution during my morning walk in the garden. The same fate happens to the Japanese Beetles. They are bastards. 

The garden is thriving despite the few little blights and pests. I haven’t mentioned it because I feel like the whole “green” gardening thing has gotten terribly pretentious, but honestly it bears mentioning. I do not use any chemical pesticides. I sparingly use plant food, most of my phosphate and nitrogen comes from my compost bin. I therefore have to work a bit harder for my plants health. It is worth it, let me assure you. To paraphrase the modern bards: I also don’t care about spots on my apples, I want the birds and bees. Ok, off of my soapbox. 

Tomatoes have become quite a thing. We’ve over 45 in the garden by my last count.They are quite sizeable, as you can see (with just compost!). I would have not planted my tomatoes quite so close together if I had imagined they would have gone as buck wild as they have. Next year, I’ll rotate them to the edge beds. 

The potatoes have flowered and have gone to wilt. This is great news. This means that it is almost harvest time for my spuds. I hope my efforts have not been in vain. 

Also, as you may or may not know, I am an avid home wine maker. We have started this years blueberry wine. 36 lbs of blueberries have gone into this years recipe as well as all of the notes we received from the competition. Our starting gravity was 1.080. Dry blueberry table wine here we come! 

Have a great weekend everyone. 

Brief garden update.

Before my camera ran out of juice, I snapped a couple quick pics. 

My tomatoes have just started bulking up since I pruned them a bit. The cucumbers are on their third or fourth picking with no abatement of flower production. The moths and bees are helping quite a lot. 

And Bees. I said it! Honey bees are all over my garden. The sunflowers opening up may have something to do with it. So excited. Happy Fourth! 

I put together the three week progression of my backyard garden.

Take a look at the progress of the sunflowers, the tomatoes and the cucumbers. They just climb and climb into the sky. 

The melons look to be just about ready to start producing fruit now. SO many bees in my yard today just makes me so glad. 

The sunflowers are now ready to open up their eyes. I cannot wait to see that splash of orange and yellow lining my fence and tracking the sun. 

Have a great holiday weekend everyone!