A lot has happened since the tomatoes were set out in June. My main focus has been on the idea I had of a non-staking, tie-up system for the tomatoes. This has occupied much of my time. Digging holes for support posts, running wire through the posts, tying-up tomatoes as I go, and now I'm finishing the whole project with guy wires & turnbuckles to support those supports!
All of my hard work with the supports was well worth it. It's great to have an idea brought into the real world.
Below is a photo of my father standing in the row of the now HUGE tomato plants! I had to do a second winding of each of these plants last weekend (July 19th) because they have grown so fast in the past few weeks.
I must make mention that this has been a very wet, rainy summer so far. In fact, my weather station verified that it rained 15 out of 30 days in June, 2009. As for July, it has rained 15 out of 26 days - total rain for July so far stands at 6.25 inches (but we have thunderstorms in the forcast for tonight, so that number will grow soon).
Once in a while the sun was out and the skies were blue, as in the photo below of my Borage flowers.
The Borage flowers re-seed themselves year after year. I take note of where they appear each season and till around them. The leaves and flowers taste like mild cucumber with the flowers ranging from deep blue to violet and occasionally white. This photo was taken on Sunday, July 12, 2009. That was before all of the trouble began....
The furry bastard is back! If you want a better look at him, check the blog entry from September 22, 2008 for a good close up. I kinda didn't mind the ground hog / wood chuck, in 2008 because he only ate a few things in the gardens like broccoli and some bean plants. But this year he's gotten into everything - even the tomatoes! The tomato photo below is one of about 30 that the ground hog ate the tops off of...
The furry bastard is back! If you want a better look at him, check the blog entry from September 22, 2008 for a good close up. I kinda didn't mind the ground hog / wood chuck, in 2008 because he only ate a few things in the gardens like broccoli and some bean plants. But this year he's gotten into everything - even the tomatoes! The tomato photo below is one of about 30 that the ground hog ate the tops off of...
Here's my lovely Borage flowers - nothing but a stump of a stalk. This is what is left of the plant originally pictured above the ground hog. Only good news is that new leaves are appearing and I may get more flowers as long as the fat furry rat doesn't attack it again! He got into my prized Charlevoix Beans too by crawling under the fence I put around them. He got a piece of nearly all of the 300 plants. Amazingly, these too are growing new leaves and there are many white blossoms appearing on the abused plants.
I now have an electric fence defense! Many folks say I should get a .22 and shoot the ground hog, but I couldn't do that. The little bastard has a right to live and eat what ever he can. I've decided to outsmart him, not shoot him. The beans are safe, but the rest of the gardens are still vulnerable. I will eventually fence the entire big garden full of heirloom tomatoes. I'm just happy that he doesn't seem to like garlic plants...
The time was right to harvest the garlic last night (Saturday, July 25, 2009) as the leaves were starting to die-back. I wrote on my calendar that I cut-back the flowering scapes on June 21 so roughly a month goes by until the harvest. Cutting back the scapes (which would otherwise flower and go to seed) gets more energy into the roots for larger bulbs. If I wait too long to harvest the bulbs, they will begin to grow apart and separate underground.
Digging-up garlic is a delicate operation. I use a mini shovel to go around the plant, then dig it up from underneath the bulb. Never pull on the stalk! Garlic bruises easily, so I carefully tap the bulb on the bottom to loosen the surrounding dirt until most of it has fallen off.
It's not a good idea to wash the garlic at this stage, simply tie them together and hang them to dry for 4 to 6 weeks. I have them tied up in the rafters in the breezeway between the garage and the house - and believe me, it smells fantastic!
Final garlic note: These 10 cloves of German Extra Hearty, from SSE were the only ones that survived. The store bought garlic failed miserably! (see original post of October 5th, 2008)
The good news is that those 10 cloves produced wonderfully, meaning if each bulb has at least 6 cloves;
6 x 10 = 60 cloves to replant this fall!
:)
