closing things down

Hard freeze tonight. Pulled all the green tomatoes (chutney, maybe?), yanked the plants, broke up the strawbales, and spread them out as mulch.





The dog approves.

potatoes

Pulled the potatoes. Yield was ... meh. As is usually the case, I probably didn't water them enough.

last ripe tomatoes

Supposed to freeze tonight. Picked all the remaining ripe tomatoes.





Oven-drying.

tomatoes progress

The strawbale tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. They're pretty tasty, but they're really wee! Well, the Tess's Land Race are "currant" tomatoes.






Meanwhile, the sungolds have totally collapsed the bamboo stakes. Raaaar! Sungold SMASH! We have to dig around in the bushes to get to the tomatoes.

more tomatoes

The sungolds are really tasty, sweeter than other tomatoes. It's great to be able to pick things for dinner. The dog likes to eat the split tomatoes.



Less activity in the strawbales. The Tess's Land Race plants are the only ones that made it.

tomatoes

The sungolds are taking off. Basil: completely smothered.





"You are only there for scale."

tomatoes

The Sungold tomatoes I got at this year's Garden Fair are going crazy. It's been raining in the afternoons/evenings, and the drip hose kept things nice before that.



I've been buying Sungolds at the Farmers' Market the past couple of weeks. Looking forward to things getting ripe.

apricots

Well, we did get some apricots this year. Why is it that I never see them until they start hitting the ground? Dragged out the ladder and picked as many as I could reach. I ended up with about 10 or so, some so ripe you could barely hold them without bruising them. There were enough to make a small free-form tart for me and Bram and John and Susanne after Sunday dinner. I used this recipe from Orangette.

weekend update

Put in the tomato and and basil seedlings today. Tomatoes in the strawbales. Left to right, facing the wall: Zapotec Pleated; Tess's Land Race (x2); Roma Rio Grande; Al Kuffa (x2). Yes, the Tess's and the Roma Rio Grande did finally sprout.



Basil went in the raised bed near the Sungold tomatoes, which are doing much better:







Caterpillar in the fennel. The intertubes tell me it is (or will be) a Black Swallowtail.

solstice

Pulled the garlic tonight.

weekend updates

Last weekend, planted the Sungold tomatoes I got at the Garden Fair under the Walls-O-Water.

Took away the Walls this weekend. The tomatoes were looking really unhappy — dried-up tops sticking out, wilty underneath. No photos, it's too depressing.

weekend update

Saturday: Moved the potatoes to a big plastic pot — the dog was sleeping on the potato bag! Too flat and inviting, I guess. Straw mulch on top.

Picked up supplies for a small (2) straw-bale setup in the side bed. Set up the 2 bales, topped with mushroom compost, set up soaker hose on top of compost, and more straw on top of that. Watered that all down.

Bought + planted some cosmos starts for the front bed — neighbor cats stay away!

Added mushroom compost to the raised bed, where the tomatoes will go. Set up 3 walls-o-water there. New straw mulch.

Hit the bindweed in the patio with some Roundup — we've been advised that's the only way to really get rid of it.

Bought and potted up a little mint plant. Bram: "Oh, hey! A mojito tree!"

Bram mowed and weeded dandelions.











Sunday: Roundup seems to be doing its thing on the bindweed. Die, bindweed, die! Now I need to pick up one of those big sprayer vats of it and do the rest.



One of Bram's coworkers had a bindweed horror story about how it had grown up UNDER someone's foundation and into the house. It has an urban myth vibe though, I think it happened to someone's brother-in-law's cousin's neighbor's mom or something.

seed starting progress

Almost everything has sprouted, and the little guys are an inch or so tall. The only things that didn't come up were: 1 of the 2 cups with Tess's Land Race Currant Tomato; and the Roma Rio Grande Tomato.

The larger tomato plants I got at the Garden Fair are getting leggy. I'll give 'em a couple of more days, then put them out in the walls-o-water.

weekend update

On Saturday Stacy and I hit the Garden Fair. Vendors were much the same as previous years. Cloudy, windy, and cold outside. I came home with 2 packs of seeds from Seeds of Change (lupine and pumpkin) and 2 tomato plants (Sungold cherry tomatoes). I hope I don't kill them.











Sunday I finished sewing my "potato bag," and planted the spuds. I ended up buying a roll of non-woven weed barrier fabric on my way home from the Garden Fair. I was hoping for something woven, but that was the "professional grade" weed barrier — too expensive and only came in ginormous rolls. Ultimately, I think I made the bag too big. Plus, I'm worried the dog will get into them, she was curious. Maybe I should ... I dunno ... move them to a regular planter? Sigh.

straw bale beds

A few weeks back, I picked up a copy of Fine Gardening from the magazine swap rack at the Santa Fe Library. There was an article by Amy Stewart of Garden Rant about raised, straw-bale gardens. When I saw the article, the photo in it looked familiar. Then I remembered her recent post about having to wear "nice" clothes for video shoots about gardening:



Sure enough, there's a video with Amy talking about her straw bale garden. Some more digging (ha ha) turned up Amy's original post from back when she first started the straw bales. And a link from the video comments turned up this discussion thread started by a guy who calls himself "Strawbaleman." He shares lots of great photos of his gardens:







Maybe this could work in the side bed, along the south-facing wall.

seed starting today

The franken-seed-starting setup is back. Made even more ghetto fabulous this time with the addition of keg-party-style plastic cups.

From Baker Creek:
· TM190 - Al-Kuffa Tomato - 2 cups
· TM156 - Tess's Land Race Currant Tomato 2 cups
· TM178 - Roma Rio Grande Tomato (from last year) 1 cup
· HB101 - Genovese Basil 2 cups

From Seeds of Change:
· Zapotec Pleated Tomato (from last year) 1 cup