This garden is full. There is not an inch to spare. The tomatoes are so heavy with fruit, the support strings that I tied to the stakes have snapped. The only way to check the romas and cherries for ripe fruit is to lift matted sections of vine from the ground. I often find large red masses, and the dirty tomatoes are fine with a quick rinse. I have to admit that I have been very busy taking care of my customers, basically harvesting, delivering and eating my share. Weeding has been ignored. Today, however, I intend to weed whack the borders and weed the cucumber and flower patches. The cucumber area is, I believe, a premonition of autumn. O.K., there are still yellow flowers, and the cukes, bless their evil seed, are quite robust. At the same time, the patches, especially with the weeds removed, are thinning, and the leaves and vines are whitening, and becoming thin and brittle. Except for the edges, where new growth pushes forward. Onward, and into the Jalapeno garden.
Sometimes I am temped to just end the cucumber patches. I fantasize standing in the middle of the pickling cukes, ripping up each hill, swinging the three plants in lasso fashion up, up and over the ten-foot sunflowers. On the other hand, I love all life, even invasive vegetables. Although many of the cucumbers are swelling to seed, and flying over the wall, I am committed to caring for them, and getting as many as possible to customers or friends. All this, in spite of the fact that cukes are now fetching between thirty five and fifty cents per pound. Erg!
On the other hand, the tomatillos look like a festive Cinco de Mayo party, each fruit with its own protective lantern. The bees are drunk and seemingly unsteady from the thousands of blossoms in our tomatillo hedge. I wonder if there is mescal in the pollen, the bees so love these plants.
We'd like to harvest the tomatillos, and we have a Mexican restaurant who will take them, but they are slow to ripen. I want to make a batch of salsa with some of the tomatillos, but I am still afraid of this fruit. Debbie said to cook them under the broiler, but I also hear of some cutting them up raw and adding to a salsa. Eventually, I'll figure it out. If not this season, perhaps next.
I have to admit, this is a very beautiful time of the season. I worked my butt off today, and my hands feel a little rougher and I am tired. In my garden weeds are more than little patches of chickweed. Within weeks, entire saplings can grow as fast as sunflowers, and often as tall if left unattended. Sadly, I have been unable to identify most of the weeds that grow at Wychwood Farm, but I know they gotta go!
Perhaps, however, the most invasive species in my garden, are the plants I have planted. For example, the pumpkins continue to stretch their vines, marching over whatever gets in their way. Today I decide to take a walk through the corn rows, and as I pass by each one, I can see where the pumpkins have toppled entire corn stalks in their alien invasion.
Amazing, it is, how the early view of our grandest visions is so much clearer than August 21st with sweat in your eyes.
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