Tomato Time
The garden continues growing and hopefully by the end of the week I'll be clipping tomatoes
If you have been following along, I’ve been growing some green things for the last few weeks out on Cape Cod. We planted on Memorial Day and did a quick check-in mid June.
The green strawberries disappeared before we could claim any. They were fenced in on all sides and even topped off with a bird net. However I suspect some over achieving chipmunks may have slipped through the fencing. I saw one scurry into the garden when he thought nobody was looking. In either case, there’s now literally no evidence any strawberries existed, green, red, rotten, or otherwise. The plants continue to grow, and hopefully will fill in more this year.
This garden bed once had been filled with herbs, and then overrun with grasses and other weeds. We really cleaned it up in 2020 trying to remove the sadder herbs. An older rosemary plant had more dead branches than living ones. A few patches of the original thyme remain (out of frame), but it’s become a totally different garden now.
As a location, the bed is close to the kitchen. There’s no better place for fresh herbs than just outside the kitchen door. But it has also grown shadier over the years as the tree canopy has grown taller. The soil lacks nutrients even with the addition of compost and occasionally sewing in fertilizer.
I’ve tried different plant components over the years with the primary focus continuing to be edible plants. The strawberries, on the left, will ideally continue to fill in over time and maybe one day produce fruit. I’ve debated adding asparagus to this section of the garden as it supposedly shares space with strawberries easily.
This year I also planted some lettuce in this herb garden in the hopes that the slightly less sunny portion of garden will keep the lettuce alive beyond the heat of mid-July when many local lettuce plants wither. I’ve lost one to heat, but since extended the irrigation to cover this part of the garden.
I harvested some oregano and hung it to dry. Our neighbor suggested freezing some in herby ice cubes, but I suspect this is how you end up with an oregano infused negroni. There’s some parsley that has since perked up now that its regularly getting water, and sprigs of chocolate mint. Currently I have mint leaves drying as well.
The primary raised bed is thriving. I irrigated this back in June with a soaker hose. It was set on an automated timer set for 20 minutes once a day. This is half the watering we did in the bed the year before, and I think the plants are healthier for it. I’ve interwove tomatoes, basil and more tomatoes. There’s also a bit of sage. Along the left side I have green beans growing. I just harvested some of those and cooked them up with lemon zest and butter (more on that later this week).
The real story here are the tomatoes. I’ve scattered tomato plants throughout the garden to experiment with different locations. Sunlight is increasingly a problem as the surrounding trees grow taller. Luckily the rabbits don’t like the tomato plants.
Last year we cut down a small fur tree that was in the middle of the garden. It produced way too much shade and was a danger to the septic system. Cutting the tree pained me, but it had to go. It’s removal has created a bit more sunlight throughout the garden.
Last week I fertilized the tomatoes. The soil out here is nutrient deficient and they absolutely need to be fed, even when they are planted in rich compost soil. We over watered and under fed them last year. I’m hoping to address both those issues.
We should have our first tomatoes of the season in a few days. Earlier this week I pruned off some lower branches. There’s a lot of different ideas about how to prune tomatoes to maximize yields.
The majority of the tomatoes are plants we bought as seedlings. The varietals include an assortment of cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, “heirloom” tomatoes, and Rutgers tomatoes. The only problem is I’ve mostly forgotten where I’ve planted each one. I guess we’ll see over the next weeks.
Most of the plants I started as seeds were too small to survive the transplant in May. I plan on starting earlier next year. I do have one pot that is going strong, though the plants in it are not yet flowering.
The other bit of good news is that four smaller rose bushes that have been abused by the local rabbits have flowered or are about to flower. The tiny plants have been nibbled away down to almost nothing. I’m hesitant to cage them up but it might be the best protection. The large rose bushes don’t seem to to have the same defensive problem. I have added them to the updated map below.
Finally, one other change that’s currently ongoing in the garden is creating a path through the center of the largest flower bed. Our five-year-old decided we needed the pathway. Now that we’ve integrated some herbs and tomatoes in the main flower garden, I think it actually makes sense to have access. Also without the pine tree, and having cut back many of the ragosa roses over the years, there’s a lot of open real estate in the middle here.
Luckily there were no perennials on this route that were displaced. A few marigolds and a tomato plant are dangerously close to this path, but still out of the way. That made it easy to reconfigure. I moved a marigold, and called it a path.
The only problem is I would like to add some stepping stones. The stones would define the pathway and create clear safe place to step. However, finding some is actually more difficult than you might imagine. Most of the landscaping supply shops are designed to service contractors. You can order a pallet of flagstones and have it delivered, but finding someone who will sell you 6 or 8 single stones is daunting. When I went searching the internet I cam across my own Reddit post from 3 years ago asking the same thing.
I have some leads. And while it is not my first choice, the Home Depot in Hyannis has some natural flagstones. I’m hoping some of the local stone companies have small batch retail ordering.
Read all about our gardening on the All The Things We Grow tag.