Tomatoes Get Somewhat Organized

Anarchy.

This spring, my tomatoes fell into anarchy. Normally, I'm known as a relentless pruner when it comes to taming that New World beast. But after allowing them to know such freedom, I couldn't bear to give them the mid-summer hacking. Practically speaking, they'd invested so much energy into those skinny, desperate tendrils. I feared cutting into their yield. So, I met them halfway.

The illusion of control.

I strung up what I could, leaving a dense, tangled mass at the bottom of the trellises. And it's a mess in there. Older leaves, yellowed with age, shading out young healthy leaves. None of the air flow I like in my tomato bushes, so I suppose they're more vulnerable to blight. But I've decided to show them a little more respect this year. Let them dream big.

I'm feeling generous after harvesting this very ripe tomato.

Bootie failure

Make your apples look like Hannibal Lecter's Christmas Ornaments

Around Seattle, organic gardeners use nylon booties to keep pests like Apple Maggots and the Coddling Moth out of their apples. I'm not sure which is the dominant pest here, but invariably apples left untreated on trees are infested with one of the bugs.

I'm guessing there's a whole lot of something crawling around in there.

This year is the first real fruit-bearing year for our espalliered apples, so I set up a ladder and bootied all one hundred or so fruits. Unfortunately, I experienced a massive bootie failure.

If you look carefully, you can see munch holes in this bootie.

Tell-tale signs of insect penetration blemish almost every apple. What did I do wrong? Should I have tied the booties closed, despite advice that this is not necessary? Did I apply the booties too late (mid June)?

Last year we had only one apple. It had a worm of course. I cut it out, ate the apple anyway. It was still delicious. I guess we'll just be eating oddly carved apples this year. Or lots of applesauce.

But I may get a reprieve this year: An expert gardener suggested the brown spots might be scab! That's a fungus that marrs the peels. If she's correct, it's an aesthetic problem, not a creepy crawly problem, but it wouldn't explain the nibbles in the nylons. But perhaps the crop can be saved! Hooray!

A Martha Stewart Moment

My parents' new blue Salvia needed a little help getting through a heat wave this summer. So I harvested some dead leaves from this palm-tree thing growing in their yard and wove a shade mat for it. The idea was to shade the ground, helping conserve moisture on this South-facing bank above a concrete retaining wall. But best of all, it's 100% biodegradable.

Family members advised me to sell these.

I think they were teasing.