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July 12, 2010
Neglect
I know. So soon! I swear it was only a week. Okay a little over a week and the garden exploded. The tomato plants are so huge the cages can no longer support them. I'm loathe to prune beyond the base because there is so much fruit and the new growth is sporting flowers everywhere. The black cherry especially, has overgrown its square and I need to prop up its wandering branches on another cage alongside the box! Again prune or not to prune? Its hard to change my approach when the growth is this lush.
All this in six inches of soil, no fertilizer and crammed with companion plants. There are other miracles of course. The onion turrets have blossomed.
This is one of those pictures that makes me really glad I'm new to all this. Had I grown up around vegetable gardens I might have taken blossoms like this for granted. Soon after a bumblebee sampled the flowers on this blossom. They smell like onions to me but maybe nectar is nectar. Although, the flowers bees visit do affect the flavor of the honey. There's lavender honey, clover, even woodsy honey. What flavor would fields of alliums impart? I thought the smell was supposed to deter insects. Maybe not all?
Which reminds me, I have varmints. Very few I must say. A couple of japanese beetles AND a mystery villain that has been eating my sunflower seeds as fast as I can plant them. I suspect two resident chipmunks. The amount of insects that visit the garden is overwhelming. I don't know what this is but the color is amazing.
Next are preserving strategies. I've started drying and freezing basil but my repertoire needs to expand fast because that's not the only thing that's ready.
