A tomato obsession
While it hasn’t been the best summer (or spring, for that matter!) in this part of the world weather-wise, I must say that I’ve been over the moon with my garden. Being a gardening newbie, I’m still mostly about enthusiasm, with less on the knowledge and experience front, but thanks to good soil and exposure in our yard, I’m having decent success. So far, we’ve had a bumper crop of lettuce, swiss chard, beans, peas, carrots, spinach and a few tasty little strawberries. Leeks and beets are still on their way, and the only thing that has really gone sideways was a few broccoli plants that developed a nasty gray fungus.
But my pride and joy are the tomatoes (above left!). Oh, how I love fresh summer heirloom tomatoes. In prior summers you could find me lurking at one of Vancouver’s farmer’s markets, coveting the weirdest-looking, most obscurely-colored ones. I treat mine like little babies, fussing over and coddling them, picking off any nasty little flies foolish enough to even attempt to sully my lovelies. The funniest thing, though, is that they completely took me by surprise - I just had no idea that they would 1) survive in the first place 2) suddenly become taller than me and therefore need cages or 3) that I would have to think about things like pruning them (which I now do obsessively - look out, suckers!)
It’s currently raining cats, dogs and several other small mammals here and I am fearing for my precious ones - fingers crossed that we see the sun again soon, so the feasting can begin!
