A fantastic day in the garden.
- I picked a handful of tomatoes in my home garden. Lots of cherries and my first two big ones: New Girls - picked on the orangey side to ripen inside because I'm afraid late blight could hit them any day now.
- I bagged the top half of my compost pile, getting rid of all the tomato and potato waste that is contaminated with late blight. Interesting to see what/who was living in the pile: lots of worms and a very bug garter snake.
- I removed one more tomato plant from the community plot. I should remove them all, but couldn't bear to. All are showing signs of late blight, but plants are so big and green I thought I'd give a few more days. (Someone today told me they are just cutting out the blighted half of the tomatoes and eating the good half. My blighted ones are going in the "blight bag".)
- Harvesting: a beautiful head of purple cabbage, a big head of broccoli, 5 or 6 summer squash, a small cucumber, and 3 big purple zinnias.
- Then I took 131 photos: photos of all the flowers in the garden, my little wild tomatillos, my 7 foot tall popcorn, and lots of little winter squashes and pumpkins.
- And last, lots of weeding.
- Then I walked around a bit while Skippy chased rabbits.
I finally pulled up all of my tomatoes in Rock Meadow. I'm at the edge of the woods and for some reason my blight seemed more advanced than much of what I have seen elsewhere. It was a sad day, but I'm enjoying planning the mid-season plantings...
ReplyDeleteI have read that once a tomato starts to turn red on the vine, all the sugars are locked in. So the ones you picked orange should still taste fantastic! I'm so sorry to hear about the blight problems you guys have been having in the Northeast!
ReplyDeleteKathy ... lots of tomatoes live till the Fall with some small amount of blight ... most of my Brandywines for example. I'd watch a strong plant carefully and if the fruit develops OK and if the plant is still putting out good new growth then keep it in. Just try to not plant tomatoes or potatoes there next year and next year, work with some advanced blight resistant varieties even if you want to to heirlooms.
ReplyDeletePaul
I just got some beets from my local farmer's market and I was wondering if the beet greens are edible, if they are, do they taste good?
ReplyDeleteJack, Sorry to hear about your tomatoes. Its a shame. I saw some serious fungicide use down by the woods. Wonder how that will work.
ReplyDeleteAbout beet greens, these are my favorite green. (Those and collards.) To my taste, they are a lot better than chard. But its all personal preference. I don;t use the stem. And beet greens don;t seem to keep well. Generally only the smallest newer leaves are good. I think they get more bugs and more critter damage because they really are the best tasting greens.