Friday, August 24, 2007

garden bust

i'm very disappointed in the garden. after a spectacular explosion of green growth, we actually have very little fruit(or vegetables) to show for it. having read up on gardening (way past the point of no return), i realized that the plants were overcrowded and should have been thinned out. but granny and pooka insisted that this was THEIR garden, and they neglected it. granny visited only about 2x in the 3 months since she planted it.

the one unqualified success is the tomato harvest. the plants quickly eclipsed their cages, and are heavily weighted down with as-yet-unripe fruit. the monsoon rain we had this week helped to push them down further. they are leaning at a 45 degree angle but the fruit is intact. we have, however, lost a few individuals to the local fauna. we came home one day last week to find two half-ripe, half-eaten tomatoes abandoned on the picnic table, each with a corona of tiny teethmarks.

even if we don't get to enjoy all the results of the plants, i have enjoyed the garden. i LOVE the smell of the tomato greens, although i was reminded that they are NOT to be eaten. as a member of the nightshade family, they are poisonous.