Wanted to share my tomato garden with you in the only way I can. Last year, I had to plant six weeks late because I was in the hospital, and my caretaker at the time did most of the work, This year, I’ve done everything myself, from digging the holes onward. Bending over is often a vertigo challenge and tying strings to stake them is a fine motor challenge. We’ve had optimal weather in Tennessee this year. My wife eats the Cherokee Purples, but I give most of rest of them away to neighbors. It’s probably been my best therapy.
Tomato-tastic! You could always cook them and then freeze for tomato baste for pasta sauces and the like, though I bet the neighbours appreciate your efforts. That’s a good haul. Mine are coming along slowly, despite the heat here at the moment. For me, one of the best sandwich fillers is homegrown tomato and a slice of cheese.
Fantastic achievement & what a great crop of tomatoes. I bet your neighbours really appreciate the ones you can’t eat. We have had some nice tomatoes so far this year & have an abundance of courgettes which we are giving away as there’s only so many you can eat. Well done…yum yum
A lovely harvest there, @TennBob. I’m a bit behind you, my tomatoes are only just ripening. I’ve also got a nice crop of chilli peppers coming on and more cucumbers than I’m going to know what to do with. Best of all, after years of doing nothing my grape vine has produced four bunches. Worth waiting for.
Nicely packed and organised greenhouse there. Your chilis look to be growing very well, I heard that after you’ve harvested your chilli crop , you can snip the plant right down and it will stay dormant over Winter and produce new foliage come Spring. I haven’t tried this method but I have one chilli I grew last year for my son and it survived all Winter and is making a healthy comeback this year.
I’ll give that a go. I’ve grown some new varieties this year that were quite expensive for seeds, so it’ll be nice if I can get them to come back next year. Especially these:
Love those grapes! This is my go-to for refrigerator pickles, if you need an idea for those cucumbers. I love this recipe and my brother even started using it for pickles in one of his restaurants. I use half the coriander seeds that she does, btw: https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/quick-and-easy-dill-pickles.html
Tricky, tricky, tricky, don’t want to make a guess and then have you posting from hospital. However, I’m sure the little clusters of leafy vegetation are forget-me-nots? Are they not? They should produce a delicate blue flower at some stage.
The caterpillars have stripped mine too. I’ve been told you can just let the kale revive from this, but I’ve never had any luck with that method. With younger kale you could probably steam the stalks for eating. At a stretch, cabbage whites are edible, you could fry them up and have them as a side dish, I imagine they would be quite bitter, so recommend a squeeze of lemon to brighten the flavour.
I have seen some white butterflies “dancing” around - it was quite nice and I tried to capture it on movie but it’s quite tricky. I did capture bees pollenating flowers and that was something to see. I can’t post it on here and I don’t have a YouTube channel, but if I ever create one I will put that on.
This kale is living proof of this. Caterpillars have been doing this for the last 10+ years but the kale keeps growing. Every now and then we take a cutting and start a new plant because they do get tall and heavy.
This year we have had lots of robins and lots more butterflies than normal including white butterflies spinning round each other. The year before it was wrens. Since I have been ill we had to get someone in to chop down a willow that did not survive the drought from two years ago.
Everything apart from the trees out the back we have created or planted over the last couple of years. My next project was to create a bog garden at the back where it was more shaded.
Most times these days I just sit outside and watch the birds and the other insects.
Just sitting down and watching things happen is my biggest joy.
And today has been a tough day. I am had to go to hospital for tests because I have been told in the past I have a rare form of heamophilia and its main symptoms are strokes and brain bleeds. Now waiting for the results in 10 days.
I can see why - these are amazing pictures
It must be very relaxing to sit in this garden.
Not only that Simon, you can also earth yourself on that luscious grass.
