tomatoes
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The remaining two Bur Oak trees in the garden made an abundance of acorns this year. They are weighing down the branches so they almost touch the ground. Acorns are welcome nutrition for squirrels who took up residence in trees I planted after moving to Big Grove in 1993. These particular oak trees were planted… Read more
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Tomato-growing has become a way of life in Big Grove. I planted tomatoes at the rented duplex in which my spouse and I lived in 1983, the first year of our marriage. With one or two brief exceptions, some tomatoes found their way from garden to kitchen every year since. The best part of the… Read more
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The forecast is cold and windy today: marginal for working in the garden. As temperatures climb to around 40 degrees, the wind is forecast to pick up, resulting in a wind advisory beginning after lunch with gusts up to 45 miles per hour. Once the sun rises, I’ll go out and see what can be… Read more
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Some parts of Iowa had a frost warning last night but not here in Big Grove. At 3 a.m. ambient temperatures were in the 60s and all was well with the gardening world. That is, except for little green worms devouring kale and collards as they do at the end of season. Despite the kale… Read more
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I could eat fresh from the garden pasta dishes all summer and hopefully will. At the same time, summer is turning toward fall so we’d best enjoy them while we can. There have been crates and crates of garden tomatoes this season. I sorted a crate of yellow and orange, cut ripe ones into a… Read more
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When a gardener plants more than a hundred tomato seedlings they expect to harvest tomatoes in August. Expectations met! “I made weak coffee Sunday morning,” I posted on Twitter. “I hate weak coffee. I got distracted while measuring grounds into the French press. Distracted by the tomatoes taking over the kitchen. TOMATOES ARE TAKING OVER… Read more
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I didn’t take any chances with a potential freeze last night. I set up a space heater in the portable greenhouse and took trays of tomato and pepper seedlings indoors to put them under a grow light. It doesn’t look like ambient temperatures made it down to freezing. Better safe than sorry. Story of my… Read more
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It’s time to plant peppers and tomatoes in channel trays. Saturday morning I took three drawers from the seed sorter and reviewed what I had. There were 25 packets of tomato seeds long past their sell-by date. They went to compost and the envelopes to the shredder. The end result is 22 varieties to plant… Read more
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Walking to the garden I searched a row of Roma tomatoes for ripe ones for dinner. There were a few so I picked them. Nearby I had planted basil and picked some as it was beginning to go to flower. I carried the produce in my t-shirt and made my way to the kitchen where… Read more
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The great tomato give-away begins! Despite best intentions the garden produced an over-abundance of tomatoes. I posted this image on our neighborhood Facebook page with a description of where to find them. Within a couple of hours most of them were picked up by neighbors. The food rescue non-profit in the county seat has been… Read more
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