garden report
I came back from VividCon to find that five more tomatoes had ripened, several more pepper fruits and tomato clusters had set, and two of my four basil plants had turned into small shrubs. I picked the tomatoes, of course, and then spent a good while snipping basil flowers, checking for weeds, and reinforcing the rather precarious structures my tomatoes are attempting to use for support. (Never having had the slightest success keeping indoor plants alive, I pessimistically assumed that the tomato plants would stay small, which has not been the case.)
The tomatoes (both varieties) are both lovely and delicious; they have so little white pith at the stem end that I can simply slice them and eat them without having to core them. The basil, on the other hand, is a bit of a disappointment. It is very pretty, and it is nice enough on pizza or in small quantities, but neither of these two varieties makes really good pesto. It makes decent pesto, but not the truly wonderful stuff.
Notes for next year:
I also came home to find that the weeds are taking over the lawn, at least on the side I didn't get weeded a few weeks ago. I'd planned to go out and deal with the worst of the problem this morning, but woke up to a much-needed steady rain, which means no garden work today (and probably means that some of my tomatoes will crack, but that's a price I'm happy to pay; the drought here has been wretched, and most of the local farmers are in trouble either from crop failure or from unanticipated irrigation costs).
The problem of widening the garden paths still does not have a satisfactory solution, and the planned hedges are on hold until I can get the paths sorted. I've decided to go ahead and stake out the raised beds for next year, set down a tarp, and see how quickly I can kill off the grass, as that will make tilling a good deal easier. I am irritated to note that the proposed site for the veggie garden is perhaps the least weedy quadrant of the back yard, although I grant that's not saying much. I've also decided to dig up the small evergreen near the garden site; it's barely two feet high and by all accounts hasn't grown appreciably in the last four years, so under the circumstances I feel fine about this, especially as I am planning to plant two to four trees in the front yard next year. (I may be planting a pair of apple trees on the east side of the yard, or possibly even an apricot tree, but that has yet to be determined; the west side of the yard needs a small shade tree, also TBD.)
The other brilliant new idea is to try to find a site for a blackberry bramble. There's plenty of yard not being used, and very few existing plants; the ones I inherited are largely ornamentals that I have no strong feelings about either way (except for that damned hydrangea, which I am digging up at the first opportunity), and so I would be happy to clear out pretty much anything but the peonies in exchange for the possibility of fresh blackberries. Further research is required, of course, and I imagine a decision is at least two years down the road, but I like the idea.
Part of the thrill is that I keep forgetting, and then re-realizing, that I own this house; it is quite a little house, and a correspondingly small yard, but it is mine, and if I want to put in hedges and brambles, or rip up half the backyard to grow preposterous vegetables, or landscape entirely with native species, or dedicate the front yard to fruit trees that will need cosseting and constant care, I can damn well do that.
It's rather pleasing.
The tomatoes (both varieties) are both lovely and delicious; they have so little white pith at the stem end that I can simply slice them and eat them without having to core them. The basil, on the other hand, is a bit of a disappointment. It is very pretty, and it is nice enough on pizza or in small quantities, but neither of these two varieties makes really good pesto. It makes decent pesto, but not the truly wonderful stuff.
Notes for next year:
- Grow proper genovese basil for pesto.
- Grow several more varieties of tomato - six to eight total - and try to spread them out so as to have early, late, and a couple of varieties in between. (Growing only six varieties will require narrowing my list of possibilities by... more than half. Ah well.)
- Plant the tomatoes a good deal further apart.
- Stake the tomatoes right away, and use better cages; the current ones are all right for small upright pepper plants, but they are simply not enough for exuberant tomatoes.
I also came home to find that the weeds are taking over the lawn, at least on the side I didn't get weeded a few weeks ago. I'd planned to go out and deal with the worst of the problem this morning, but woke up to a much-needed steady rain, which means no garden work today (and probably means that some of my tomatoes will crack, but that's a price I'm happy to pay; the drought here has been wretched, and most of the local farmers are in trouble either from crop failure or from unanticipated irrigation costs).
The problem of widening the garden paths still does not have a satisfactory solution, and the planned hedges are on hold until I can get the paths sorted. I've decided to go ahead and stake out the raised beds for next year, set down a tarp, and see how quickly I can kill off the grass, as that will make tilling a good deal easier. I am irritated to note that the proposed site for the veggie garden is perhaps the least weedy quadrant of the back yard, although I grant that's not saying much. I've also decided to dig up the small evergreen near the garden site; it's barely two feet high and by all accounts hasn't grown appreciably in the last four years, so under the circumstances I feel fine about this, especially as I am planning to plant two to four trees in the front yard next year. (I may be planting a pair of apple trees on the east side of the yard, or possibly even an apricot tree, but that has yet to be determined; the west side of the yard needs a small shade tree, also TBD.)
The other brilliant new idea is to try to find a site for a blackberry bramble. There's plenty of yard not being used, and very few existing plants; the ones I inherited are largely ornamentals that I have no strong feelings about either way (except for that damned hydrangea, which I am digging up at the first opportunity), and so I would be happy to clear out pretty much anything but the peonies in exchange for the possibility of fresh blackberries. Further research is required, of course, and I imagine a decision is at least two years down the road, but I like the idea.
Part of the thrill is that I keep forgetting, and then re-realizing, that I own this house; it is quite a little house, and a correspondingly small yard, but it is mine, and if I want to put in hedges and brambles, or rip up half the backyard to grow preposterous vegetables, or landscape entirely with native species, or dedicate the front yard to fruit trees that will need cosseting and constant care, I can damn well do that.
It's rather pleasing.