Well it has been two long months since I have written to you and when looking at the photographs from the August 2nd post, not all of my hopes came through but enough did. Sometimes it is like that.
On August 2nd the tomatoes were not yet in full swing and while they never came in the abundance of most years we did get some and since mid September Katy and I have had all we could eat and cook. These past two months the stars of the garden have been greens, zucchini, and cucumbers. This is peak season for greens. The zucchini has hung on and is still making the occasional fruit. They are not producing like they were, but they are still growing and one of the plants has traveled twelve feet from its origin. Last year for the first time we grew a variety called Costata Romanesca Zucchini and this variety has transformed how I think about Zucchini. I can’t imagine ever doing without it. For cucumbers we planted both National Pickling and Suhyo Long Cucumbers. There were days in August when I would wander around the neighborhood giving away cucumbers and after I put up 16 quarts of pickles Katy told me that was enough. I planted a late crop of cucumbers dreaming of a second crop in September and October but something attacked the plants and they never amounted to anything. Sometimes it is like that.
That is what happens in the garden. Sometimes the promise happens and all the hopes of the sowing are manifest and sometimes there is nothing.
In the last post I wrote about both collards and tomatoes. The collards have rebounded from insect attacks and have done well. But the tomatoes — in early August I had dreams of piles and piles of tomatoes but they never really came into their own. It was a combination of wet, windy weather that prompted tomato blight and also attacking animals. I had particular hope for two volunteer tomatoes. I wrote of them with great anticipation in the August 2nd post but they only half filled their promise. The red cherry produced lots of good tomatoes but the brandywine type did almost nothing. What fruit it did produce was pecked at by wildlife just as it was ripening. In time I started to pick the big tomatoes from all of the plants as they were turning ripe to be ahead of the animals. That move has helped get fruit but not the glorious perfect tomatoes of other years. Sometimes it is like that.
The two pairs of pictures below tell those two stories. The story of the collards — good news and the story of the tomatoes — bad news. The collards were able to overcome their attacking pest and the tomatoes succumbed to tomato blight. Tomato blight is exacerbated by cold, wet, windy weather and we had that in abundance here in Hull. Anyway we had enough tomatoes for Katy and me and the black cherries were delicious.
There are times of glory for different vegetables at different seasons and the time is now collards time and the time of cucumbers, zucchini, and tomatoes is past. It should also be the time for butternut squash but somehow I did not time the planting of the butternut squash just right and they will amount to nothing. Sometimes it is like that.
With Indigenous Peoples Day and a week of forecast with lows in the 50’s and highs in the 60’s it is time for the cold frames and for parsley. Parsley is one of the world’s finest cool weather vegetable crops.
This blog is about gardening but it centers on carrots and the main carrot crop planted on Juneteenth is thriving. I also planted an early crop in a cold frame and think I will continue to have an early crop as the joy of pulling carrots when we have grandchildren visiting in summer is not something I want to give up.
I pulled that first crop of carrots but not before five or six of the plants got confused and thought they were two years old and produced flowers. As you can see in the left hand photo below those confused carrots were tall and leggy. The photo on the right is of the Juneteenth crop and I think come the last week of November or the first week of December we will have a wonderful carrot celebration. Sometimes it is like that.
I am looking forward to hearing from you all after your frost kissed carrot harvest. It is together that we celebrate Carrot Day. I am excited to learn what your “sometimes it is like that” turned out to be this year. Hope it is glorious but it will not always be that way.
Carrot Day Massachusetts 2023 