I should be fired from gardening. Or from vacationing.
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| Healthy cherry tomatoes |
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| Nascent jalapeno peppers |
After June’s drench-fest, I decided to just leave my plants
be, while we were away, and let them take whatever rain came their way during the week. And that turned out to be none. It was utterly hot and dry.
Because I live with scientists, I am construing this experience as a science experiment, with n=1 in each group. Group A was the pot with potting soil, properly nutrified and appropriately porous. Group B was the pot with soil from somewhere in the yard.
Here is what my potted tomatoes and jalapeno plants looked like when we got back on Sunday, after eight days away.
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| The plants in the pot with potting soil looked like they had been blasted by Voldemort. |
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| The plants in the pot with regular old dirt did okay! |
But, lo and behold, after a few days of my tender care,
which consisted of watering them once yesterday and once today, here’s what
they look like. God is merciful. The pepper plant
revived itself right away. There are
even a few peppers on there! I have never before grown peppers, so this is
exciting to me.
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| Resuscitated plants |
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| This is the biggest jalapeno. There is another teeny-tiny one! |
The tomato plant still looks dismal, but the fruits are
turning red!
Where there are almost ripe tomatoes and teeny jalapenos, hope
springs forth.
What's looking hopeful in your garden?
9 comments:
I usually grow tomatoes and cucumbers in pots, as well as herbs, and they do reasonably well. Last year, Norman had grand plans for MORE gardening . . . at least until he decided to move to China. Then I figured that I would be doing NO gardening this year, since I would be spending this summer with him in China Well, by the time he broke up with me and I recovered enough to do anything, it was too late to plant anything and have a harvest in this climate. But I still have my herbs, because as far as THEY go, Hope springs perennial!
I have nothing...but I am experimenting with some succulents. We shall see if they survive.
For most of my plants, I was lucky that we got 6 inches of rain during the 3 weeks we were away. There was one plant that suffered: my hens and chicks in pots. Many of them died from drowning. (I had planted a few in the garden, and those are doing fine, because it drains better than these pots, apparently.)
My tomatoes have been odd this year. Usually I have a jungle, but not this year. I've got lots of tomatoes on the vine, but the plants themselves look kind of sickly. The leaves tend to yellow early at the bottom of tomato plants, but my plants just never grew many leaves. However, some of the larger fruits are turning red, so I'm hoping they'll still be harvestable. Yesterday was the first time I've watered anything in my garden all summer!
You are basically growing salsa right there, which makes you a miracle worker. I loved seeing the revived plants, but it also reminded me I need to drink more water.
I hope you do a better job with soy yield.
Finally, after eight years in Louisiana, I finally managed to get tomatoes to do fairly well. The secret is to plant them early before it gets too hot. So, we had lots of tomatoes, but some strange beetley spidery bug made it's home on the plants and had babies and they were just all over my tomatoes and, well, some of the tomatoes didn't turn out very well. Sad. My peppers were also a bust, not sure why. A few herbs, they're always hearty. But my stars this summer were the cucumbers. They've been fairly prolific, despite the fact that the cardinals love to nibble on them when they are very young and tender, barely pickles.
My in-laws left our 19yo in charge of their garden for 3 weeks. He has spent half of his time here, 2.5 hours away from said garden. I am really wondering about their expectations and hoping that the irrigation sprinklers are properly aimed and timed.
I was gone for three weeks this summer. three weeks. my husband faithfully watered my flowers twice a day and they survived. now i feel guilty every time i want to skip watering them. august is the most challenging garden/yard-wise in georgia.
Lo, though you crack me up through the dark days I shall invigorate my soul and search for the blooms in mine own garden. Sunflowers, tomatoes, beets and also peppers.
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