Notes from Windward: #63


July Garden Update

A note on what's happening in the gardens

a patch of rescued tomatoes takes root
  

Terry writes:

     This year's kitchen garden is providing us with fresh lettuce, spinach, endive and onions. The lettuce and spinach is still good in spite of the frequent hot spells this summer. Also, now the garlic is ready to harvest. And, thanks to the diligent efforts of Heather and Gina, many of the tomato seedlings that Walt rescued from the trash bin are now healthy plants starting to bear fruit.

     [Walt: As I was heading into the grocery store, I noticed a clerk stacking flats of tomatoes into a shopping cart. It was late spring, and they were going to throw away the plants that hadn't sold.

     The tomatos were out-growing their pots, starting to turn yellow from a lack of nutients, but I knew that Heather and Gina would be able to save them. It's nice to be able to purchase plants at their peak, but it's even nicer to be able to salvage plants that otherwise would have been lost.

     Usually, we only grow one or two types of tomatoes; generally, some type of table tomatoe and some cherry tomatoes for salads. This year, because of the tomato "windfall," we're seeing all sorts of strange and novel tomatos showing up in the kitchen.
]

     The food industry is incredibly wasteful, and by keeping an eye on e in the midst of a food industry that wastes tremendous amounts of food. While we do eventually want to take over the bulk of our food production, for now we try to take full advantage of the
raspberries and cherries coming on
  

     Cherry bushes, raspberries and blueberries are planted in the orchard nursery. The cherry bushes are doing very well. We only lost one of the bushes we planted last year. In fact, many of the bushes are bearing fruit. The raspberries are growing so big so fast that we should be able to start transplanting some of them next year.

     Hopefully, we will have some raspberries to eat next summer. The blueberries need some help. Some of them look dead and others are struggling. We are finally getting the PH down to an acceptable level. However, it appears that we may be drowning them. Gina's hydrometer says their soil is wet even though it appears dry on top. We may need to augment the soil for better drainage.


one of the baby plum trees
  

     The three surviving fruit trees - two plums and an apricot - are doing very well. They look healthy and they have grown several feet this summer.