We are in the midst of a drought. Sort of. It’s been raining with some regularity for the past week or so, and that’s been great for my garden, but not so wonderful for my tomatoes.
You see, I operate my garden with benign neglect. I pay attention to it when I HAVE TO, but other than that, it’s more or less left to its own devices. This would explain why I have no fewer than six zucchini on my kitchen counter at the moment, each of them weighing in at over 4 pounds.
I suppose I would get better results if I paid more attention to my garden, but I make up for it by planting approximately 34 zillion plants. Statistics are in my favor, is what I’m saying.
Anyway, tomatoes are fairly delicate and thrive under regular, controlled watering, not this drought/flood situation I’ve got going on. In the beginning, I did try to get out there at least every other day and wave the hose around, but you guys, it’s been SO HOT. So I haven’t been watering the plants as much as maybe I should have.
And lately, it’s been raining. The tomatoes are so happy about it that many of them have split their skins in appreciation. My garden’s name is now Mr. Creosote’s Garden, because shit be exploding all over the joint.
The good thing is that even with the splits, most of the tomatoes are salvageable. I have to get some heavy-duty stakes out there because the plants are so enormous and heavy that some of them have fallen over and tried to crush the others. I think the jalapeno plants are done for, smushed as they are under the weight of my giant tomatoes.
Gardening! How does it work?
This is the fourth year of our not-quite-raised garden beds. Once the tomatoes have given us everything they can, we are going to pull it all up and start anew in the spring with actual, purpose-built garden boxes that I might just pay more attention to. Maybe.