Tag Archives: Tomatoes

Sunny Sunday

I keep thinking we’re headed for an early fall. After a cool spring and a mild summer, the signs are there. The daylilies are done except for the rebloomers, which are about to do what they do in fall. The chrysanthemums are budding. The sedum Brilliant and Autumn Joy have flowered. My cottonwoods are losing leaves–not unusual in a dry August. But leaves on my tulip trees (yellow poplars) are also changing, and that is unusual.

We have too many tomatoes. Fortunately, our neighbor didn’t plant this year. Whew.

Lots of gardening still to do, and I’m also needing to put more time into my work in progress. I have submissions out that need following-up and submissions still to–well–submit.

It’s a busy time.

Here’s hoping fall comes at the precise right time for you.

Windy Sunday

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Sunrise, Sunday morning. We’re expecting four days of rain. Meanwhile the temperature’s dropped and the wind chill is in the 30’s.

I’m a little worried about my tomatoes even though they’re protected by buckets. And so glad I waited before putting out the Ophelia eggplant.

Meanwhile, it’s a good day to stay inside and write.

Frustration in the Garden

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It’s been a frustrating day in the garden.

March was a wet month, and it looks like our potatoes have rotted instead of germinating. They’re hilled, in raised beds, so that shouldn’t have happened. So, darn.

All our soaker hoses–we use them for irrigation–have humungous holes. Time to invest in five new 50-foot long soaker hoses.

The black plastic mulch we put down for the scallions blew away in the wind, despite anchoring with earth staples and bricks. So hmm… that didn’t turn out the way I thought it would.

And the red plastic mulch I bought to save me from excess weeding of tomatoes? It’s just too windy to even try. My new tomato babies need protection from the wind more than I need a break from weeding. Today, we planted them, with old kitty litter boxes as windbreaks. Jim cuts out the bottoms (drill a hole, then cut with a saber saw).

In the photo, you’re seeing a newly planted tomato, grown from seed and nurtured in the basement under fluorescents. It’s inside one of those bottom-less kitty-litter box. Most years, I’ve left the plants in the boxes until the tomatoes grow taller than the tops. If it’s windy where you are, these plastic boxes are a great hack.

For new folks to the blog, welcome. If you are following for #amwriting, that’s Thursdays. Lately, I write about the novel querying process.

If you’re following for #amgardening, that’s today, Mondays. I write about what it’s like to garden in Kansas–today it’s been disappointing.