It's mid summer and my small garden is starting to produce food for my table. It isn't nearly as impressive as other gardens I've seen; I'm still learning, trying to remember what my dad said about pruning tomatoes, how to compost, recognize problems and what to do about them. I've forgotten a lot. Thank God for the Internet!
But often what I find on the Internet about pruning tomato plants, for instance, is as varied as the varieties of the plant. One had you prune off most foliage except for the ones producing fruit, others say no, leave some leaves on to protect the fruit from the sun, others say only trim off 1/3 of the leaves. So I guess it's up to the grower to experiment and see what works best.
I tried growing some plants from seeds this year. That was much more difficult than I had imagined. Only 4 of my bush beans out of the package survived. They don't look as healthy as I would like to see, but they are producing just enough for my husband and I. The one zucchini and crookneck squash are giving us ample amounts and the strawberries in one picking is just enough for desert for two. That's after sharing some with the Guinea Hens from a neighbor's house who have discovered them for a treat after lunching on whatever else they find. I get just enough food not to overwhelm me and there is satisfaction in that from the effort. When I'm ready to preserve, then maybe I'll want to get more yield. But for now, this is wonderful.
Next year, use my compost. Amend the soil more and utilize the two extra tiers we have left and learn how to grow a more compact garden.
2 comments:
Wonderful!!! Bounty comes in many sizes and yours is a well earned effort! I am having trouble with my tomats with "leaf curl" and I also have questions about pruning the bushes. Your basket of produce looks wonderful Connie. I will need to upload a bounty I had a few years ago too. You inspire me to keep on, keeping on in the garden.
Pruning has been my question this year and I remember my dad saying to take off leaves that will not produce any tomatoes. I Googled "How to purne tomatoes" and found videos, here's one http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-prune-tomatoes. This is just one of many and each gardener has just a slight or major differences in points of views. But they say the same thing. The pruning gives more energy to the plant to produce fruit. I also saw a video on diseases. Leaf curl on old leaves, usually at the bottom are normal. You can remove those and make your plant look better, or leave them.
Post a Comment