the garden

By the way. I'm starting Cat Hand's motivations. I am going to put them all on the same page, here.

http://lindyslovelies.blogspot.com/p/motivational-morsels-inspired-by-cat.html

so far there's only one there, but I will keep adding them as I do them, and will post another link when I am all done. You can get there any time on the main page, "pages". 

THE GARDEN

The word "garden" makes visions of loveliness and calm and peace. Being in the garden up the hill WAS lovely and calm and peaceful, except for the times when snakes were found in the strawberries.

My garden is neither calm, peaceful, or lovely at this time. It is dry and full of rocks. And I just pulled out the last of the tomato plants. There's still work to do, since I need to clean out the bed where they were. 

This year has been strange tomato year. The bees were nowhere during the early season when the tomatoes needed to be pollinated. Well they weren't NOWHERE... they were out front in the Rosemary. Next year I hope for more pollinators in the BACK yard. This year, early, there were lots of wild geranium and mallow and a few other wild things. I dried a bunch of mallow, and glad for that, learning a lot about herbs, and from the mallow made a wonderful soothing throat tea. 

Tomatoes. Not sure I will try to grow them again. I planted Romas from seed, but they didn't set on well at all, I got about ten of them tops, and they ripened small. I planted a yellow pear, but they weren't yellow, they were red. Same for them, not many, ripened small. Cherry tomatoes... got more of them, but they also ripened small. I think it's because of the amount of sun, or lack of. Early in the year the area got a lot, but soon the house shaded it too much. I wasn't paying enough attention. I miss my dad who knew everything and I am sorry I didn't learn more!

 See how tiny? They still pack a punch of flavor, but they are TINY. Not all of them, but now at the end of the season, they are doing it a lot. Maybe lack of light...

Another strange thing was this. I think it was off of the yellow pear bush, and there were a lot of them like this. Crazy, huh. Not like a tomato I have ever seen.

The last of the tomatoes. They are ripening pretty quickly inside. Great on salads. I also have a small bag in the freezer, because I love them just from the freezer to the crock pot, works great. 

I am discouraged this year, but we will see in a couple months how I feel. I WANT TO GROW THINGS but I am not that great at it, and since it's just me doing this, I just don't know if it is worth it or not? Of course hubby eats the tomatoes, he ate some potatoes, and there weren't enough beans even for one serving, but they did well in soup. 

Sometimes I think it's because my head is getting worse at hanging on to things. It feels all full of cobwebs. Maybe next week it will look better.