Well this has laid dormant for a while. I think now that the winter is again approaching and we had our "Fall Back" I can write a bit again.
I have been smitten with the SOLE food bug lately. Sustainable, Organic, Local and Ethical. I am on the look out for organic beef, buffalo and grains. I have some WONDERFUL tomatoes that grew despite being frozen to little bare pegs on 6/20. I had planted 2 Early Girl and one Sweet 100 Cherry tomato plants. I bought 2 more Early Girl and one Celebrity on 6/22 and planted them. The first 3 plants were sprouting little leaves at the time, so all was not lost. As a matter of fact the first 3 plants thrived and produced an awesome amount of tomatoes.
I also planted in basil, lemon basil, rosemary and cilantro with a lining of dill along the edges for added richness of flavor and it worked! The tomatoes are dense, rich and pest/disease free.
The crook neck summer squash went all mildewed which kept the fruit from producing. Total waste. Got three cucumbers so that plant paid for itself at the cost of 99 cents a cuke haha.
The broccoli is fabulous and I snacked on it yesterday as I dug up the plants and put them on the compost heap. I will be planting more of that! The cauliflower needs to be harvested much much earlier. Need to realize that homegrown organic cauliflower will be decidedly smaller than commercial and not let it go purple lol. Live and learn! Of course the cool wet summer really helped in the cruciferous department. They thrived this year, it never got hotter than 85 and that was just for a few minutes a few days in a row. Our usual heat wave was for not. That is why there was such a halt on ripening the tomatoes. They almost all had to ripen on the counter.
I continue to look at the possibility of having edible landscaping on this plot of land. Plum and apple trees would thrive. Berry bushes would too if sheltered.
Square foot gardening principles I applied this year was the warm water watering and nutrient dense compost and compost tea. They seem to work quite well. The basil wasn't expected to be more than a flavorant for the tomatoes, so the grasshopper invasion that wiped the basil out wasn't a huge loss. Next year there will be more basil for cooking etc as well as some that gets sacrificed to the plague of hoppers.
Swiss chard and more greens in sequenced plantings next year. The greens may still be grown if I would just get out and do it.
