Caging the Beast

It's a good thing that once everything is well-established in a vegetable garden, there's not much more to do besides sit back and enjoy the harvests. However, I still had one major task to tackle today, thanks to my own hardheadedness.

Besides the squirrel thievery, the only problem I had with our first crop of tomatoes three years ago was the cages. They were ugly. So when I put the sweet new seedlings in the ground six weeks ago, I refused to add depressing steel-gray cones to the mix, figuring that if the cages were never there, the plants would grow strongly and be self-supporting.

Boy, am I dumb!

The plants were a tangled, sprawling mess. Many of the branches had grown completely perpendicular to the stem and were 4 feet long. I was loath to cut off the branches with blossoms, since I know how yummy those blossoms will be in a few short weeks. However, many of them broke off on their own as I was coaxing them into the cages. They were reluctant, to say the least. But I managed to get 4 out of 7 (the cherry tomatoes, which were much more unwieldy and disorganized) into cages. Then I ran out of cages. But the others (larger variety) will be all right, I think. I hope.

As an aside, some of the leaves on my squash plants, which are next to the tomatoes, have been turning a powdery yellow and wilting. Although Rob has pointed out that tomatoes are technically poisonous (this helpful website can elaborate) I can't find any warnings online about companion planting with these two. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

While the family's away...

June has come and (almost) gone in a blur of activity. We were on vacation for a week, during which the strong sun and rain caused everything to shoot up out of the ground. My jaw dropped when we pulled into the driveway in the middle of the night and the headlights illuminated our quickly-growing squash plants. "They're HUGE!" It's fun to watch the yellow blossoms (which are tempting not to pick and eat, for anyone who's ever been lucky enough to have had them stuffed with ricotta cheese and basil, battered and fried) turn gradually into tiny pale fruits. We ended up with five plants; I'm not sure how many are pattypan and how many are zucchini, since a few were late-blooming seedlings that I had given up on and thrown away the labeled stakes.

The pepper plants are happy; there is one tiny red one and a bevy of tiny green ones waiting to ripen into red. I also mishandled the labeling of these, and since I purchased them from a couple of different places as well as starting some of my own, we really will have to be surprised when they're ready to harvest!

The greens are growing like gangbusters. I finally thinned the lettuce plants after taking this picture; it was less painful than I'd thought it would be, especially since the thinnings went straight into the colander to be washed and turned into dinner. The spinach is starting to bolt, which I know means I should harvest and freeze the whole crop before it turns bitter. I intend to do that within the next day or so, before we leave again for a week. Does anybody know whether I can plant more spinach, now? I might try it, since I have the seeds and the space.

A few nights ago when our cat Maia was curled up on my lap, I smelled something odd on her, and it took me a few minutes to place it. Finally I realized she'd been lying between the tomato plants for most of the afternoon while Rob and I planted a new bed. Hopefully, the squirrels took note!