We had a pretty good weekend. Because the boy has stuck to his guns about not participating in the household, we didn’t plan to go and do anything for his last weekend here. So we cleaned, organized, and prepped the area by the front window to be ready for the plant shelves installation… just in time for me to get a call this morning saying it will be delayed.
We actually had a couple trips and activities in mind for his stay, but his uncooperative attitude nixed those – though we will be doing one of them this weekend ourselves. I’m looking forward to having time dedicated to ourselves and being able to address and tackle the challenges we are currently having.
Things are much better for us right now, and we seem to be approaching things as a team again. We both need to be careful to not slip back into old comfortable habits that let the issues fester and build resentment, but things do feel different right now. We are talking more openly about things and as painful as this whole situation has been, I believe we will end up stronger because we went through it.
This part is for Riley…
We have a cool day today, with the high being ~70°, and this is a nice change. It ha been so warm lately that my tomatoes have been struggling and dropping its flowers. I have a few growing fruit on my Brandywine, but absolutely none of the San Marzano. This is frustrating as I had hoped for an overabundance like last season and had planned on canning a lot of pasta sauce. If milder temperatures are here for a while, hopefully my season and plans can be salvaged.
My luffa gourd finally flowered yesterday as well – but the flower dropped off within a few hours. I don’t think this was from the heat, but perhaps wind or even the ants that seem to love that plant. I’m not sure why they love it so much, but they seem to stick to that variety and leave the bottle gourd plants alone, even though they are intertwined in places. Those are doing great, and I have several growing quite well and getting fairly sizable.
I also have several watermelons growing right now – one of which has already reached the “personal size” melons you see at the grocer. There are also a few golf ball sized ones and one softball. I did realize that I need to figure out a different solution for growing melons – they sprawl out so much it makes it a bit difficult to maintain the upkeep on the area without risk of damaging them. Next season, I’m thinking I’ll put them on the ends of the raised beds so that my paths between them can be kept clear.
I also need a better trellis system. I’ve been using cages for the tomatoes but since I’m growing indeterminate varieties, they really need a trellis. Almost everything else I’m growing, aside from the daikon and plants in grow bags and pots, are climbers. My cucumbers have outgrown the hog panel fencing I used as a trellis and is now starting to strangle itself. The two gourds have grabbed onto the deer fence overhang and are now using that to continue their climb.
I’m considering building a frame around the raised beds with wooden trellis fencing as the top. That way, they can grow high and their fruit can hang down for harvesting. That will also provide some needed shade for the tomatoes – when a plant wants “full sun” they mean 6-8 hours, not the 12-14 we get here.
My strawberries are dead. The hydroponic experiment seemed to work well until the first big heat wave and overheated the nutrient solution. I ordered and received the reflective insulation to use moving forward, but that will have to be next year, as this attempt has already failed. I moved my Kratky bucket hydro tomato inside the screened portion of our deck and it seems to be doing well. I want to get a couple more buckets and see how they do for the larger varieties next season.
The garden is calling me, and I need to get to it so…
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