It is SO HOT. We are now at 28 consecutive days at over 90 degrees. This morning I went out to the garden, and in the way out I asked Google Home what the temperature was. “It’s currently 78 degrees…
A Bug’s Death
Chugging along
There’s not a lot happening in the garden right now besides ... disease. I’m getting squash and zucchini every day, and the blackberries are putting on, and my Stupice gives me at least one tomato every day. I have had…
Fourth of July Tomato!
It’s A Thing here in Virginia that those who can get a ripe tomato by the Fourth of July have really accomplished something. Well, here’s my accomplishment: Vine-ripened Stupice (and Sun Gold) It’s a ripe saladette, not a slicer, but…
Can you have too many tomato plants?
Really— can you? Nichole came through and gave me three beautiful Italian tomato plants yesterday, so I filled up the last three spots in my garden with them today. She gave me a San Marzano, which I grew last year…
Back home
My daughter decided to move to Utah to be closer to school and to try and get her driver’s license at the beginning of the month. She got everything lined up, we found an apartment to move her into, and…
Angry birds
I went out this morning to spray because I saw some bug damage yesterday during my daily walk-through of the garden, and a Very Angry Bird started chirping and dive bombing me. I ignored it, figuring it was just surprised…
First blossom! And the winner is…
I was surprised to see my first open blossom today on a tomato plant that I grew from seed! So exciting! My sister in Houston already has first-sized tomatoes, Daddy has tomatoes, even Del has a legitimate double tomato on…
Cucumbers planted!
Jared finally fixed the broken trellis, so I put in my little baby cucumber plants today. I had planted three indoors thinking that at least one of the seeds I put outside would sprout. Nope. It was probably the frost.…
Catchup day
Today is garden catchup day. It’s been too cold to work, so today we made up for it. We cut grass, weed wacked some spots that needed it, made two trips to the dump and two to the woods, cleaned…
Tomato planting day!
It finally came! I’m like a kid waiting for Santa, except instead of being excited to play with toys, I’m excited to get to play in the dirt! After arranging my tools, I decided to pot up the tiny plants…
Self-control when gardening
It is taking every bit of self-control I can muster to avoid planting my vegetables out right now, even though I know we got another frost warning for tonight. Ideally I’d have had my plants out last week, but this…
Italian grape
The Italian grape tomato plant — last of the seeds I stole from Italy six years ago, and the only seed to germinate — is progressing, but very slowly. I fertilized last week with a foliar spray (diluted Neptune’s Harvest),…