Garden to Table

Watering is about all I can do in the garden right now, apart from weeding, that is. The days have been hot, so at least some crops (like lettuce) are getting a daily sprinkling.

I’m still watering by hand, with a very long, heavy hose. I keep thinking and talking about setting up some kind of drip system, but haven’t done it yet. Although I have a start. I jabbed the soaker hose in my cane berries when I was doing some digging there the other day. So I’ve got to pull it all out and replace it. I’ll use the pieces in the vegetable garden somewhere and see how it works out.

The hot weather has also meant delaying transplanting my fall crops. They’re been ready to go in – as soon as it looks like we’ll have a cloudy day, or at least a cool morning, I’ll pop them in the ground.

In the meantime, watering gives me a chance to observe, to just watch (if I can summon up the patience to do just one thing at a time) and to “commune” with the plants. They look healthy at least.

I’m pretty hopeful about the bean crop, and I will have some tomatoes, though I expect they’ll be small and not enough to put much up. But I don’t have much hope for the cucurbits. I might have zucchini, but not much else.

I’ve had more leeks this year than ever before. The spring crop is still in the ground – I’ll probably pull some of the largest ones and freeze them for soup. If it wasn’t so hot out, I’d love to make some potato-leek soup with the stray spuds my husband keeps digging up.

There are a few good reasons for giving your tomato plants some support, and many, many ways to do so.

Staking tomatoes in some way gives you cleaner fruits and healthier plants. You will keep the tomatoes away from slugs and mud, and the improved air circulation that results helps prevent disease.

Some tomato varieties though actually produce better if left to sprawl. Most of the plum tomatoes fall into this category. I’ve found for instance, that my favorite drying tomato – Principe Borghese, does best unsupported, while the Super Marzano are too heavy and prolific to leave sprawling on the ground.

I’ll place some straw under those that I do allow to roam free, to keep the fruits clean and dry.

You’re probably all familiar with the old standby conical wire cage. Of course, nowadays they come in bright colors, too. This is my least favorite method and I never use them.

The biggest disadvantage I see is that the ripe tomatoes can often be difficult to see, and to pick deep within the cage. They also can fall over if the plants get heavy.

One advantage to using cages of some kind is that the plants do not need to be pruned or tied (more on that later). I prefer this homemade wooden cage – you can purchase kits for making them if you don’t want to do it yourself. (If you would like to make some, here are instructions.)

Other methods work best if the vines are pruned to one or two main stems. The simplest method is your basic stake – nothing more than a post stuck in the ground.

The post could be almost anything – a piece of pipe, a T-post or a simple piece of wood. A one-by-two with a pointed end is a good, inexpensive option. Whatever you use should be long enough  for the plant’s eventual height, and strong enough to hold the weight of the tomatoes. Add nine to twelve inches to the expected height of the plant to allow for what will be underground.

You can also purchase tall steel supports known as curly stakes. They now come in decorative colors in addition to the original green, which look cool. Choose them for looks. They work OK, but I’ve found that you still need to assist the plant, at least at the beginning. I didn’t need to tie this one, but I am still training it to climb the stake.

By far my favorite method though, is a hog panel (at least until I saw my neighbor’s trellis, built from discarded display racks!). It’s basically a 4×16 foot panel of heavy, welded wire. Now I know that you city dwellers probably can’t easily get a hold of one of these, but I’m sure there are other options that would work the same way.

The tomatoes are pruned to one branch, then simply woven through the wires as they grow. when the growing tip reaches a horizontal bar, I push the leaves through to the other side, which eventually pulls the stem with them.