Garden Notes: Sunday, May 23

Not much brewing, ‘cept some genuine Authentic Havens brand compost tea, sent to me gratis by Jodi at westerngardeners.com. I have a 5 gallon jug of it ready to fertilize the tomatoes and peppers. Will use the rest to help condition the soil in one of the side beds.

Been noticing more types of caterpillars on the tomatoes, particularly something that drilled a bunch of holes in one cluster of smaller tomatoes. That peeved me a little, but it’s on the bush that’s so productive I probably won’t miss the 5 tomatoes it ruined. And I caught the bugger, too, red… mouthed? and hanging out of one of the tomatoes it drilled. It was not a hornworm. Could have been an army worm, but I dispatched it without I.D.-ing or photographing it, so I’m not sure. Sadly, there will probably be more.

The tomato vines themselves are going gangbusters and I’m having to prune them. Next year I need to do a better job of this before they make it to the overgrown and unruly stages the are now. I also need something better than these 56″ wire cages. The bamboo trellises would be good here.

I’ve picked a half-dozen cherry tomatoes and one jalapeño pepper to date. The tomatoes have had wonderful sweet flavor, while the jalapeño had absolutely no spiciness at all. Zip. Tasted like a bell pepper. So I treated it like one, chopped it up seeds and all and tossed it in some organic ground beef I was sautéing for tacos last night.

The basil is at the magic point where I need to use it before I lose it. Pesto is probably in the wind. Need pine nuts and cheese I suppose before I can do that.

Spent a fair amount of time picking off dried seed pods from the bluebonnets yesterday, too, and shucking them like peas to get their little stone-like seeds. (Bluebonnets are legumes, so it makes sense their seeds are like peas). I distributed a lot of those around the yard in places that could use a few bluebonnets next year. The seed pods have a spring mechanism in them so that when activated, it flings the seeds a short distance. Kinda fun to play with.

Also visited Boggy Creek Farm yesterday, but alas we got there too late for blackberries. Hard to get out the door early on a Saturday with an infant. We did get some nice yellow onions and some new potatoes. I sautéed one of the onions for the tacos last night, too. Even if the produce purchase was a little anemic, it was fun to watch the chickens and see the rest of the farm.