What in the name of gardening is going on here?

I left my garden for six days and apparently, the rain—the abundant, wet, wonderful rain—left, too. Upon my return I found a dry garden.

I expected my lawn would be ready to cut with a bushhog when I got back, but I found instead dry grass that hadn’t grown much.  In fact, it is starting to have that unique smell that drying grass has.

The perennials are wilty and so are some of the vegetable plants out in The Vegetable Garden Cathedral, including cucumbers and squash. I think I’ve picked the last of those for awhile, maybe until next year.

But I do have tomatoes that are ready to pick and many more tomatoes coming on. I guess that means my “right to complain” card isn’t all that valid, because did I mention I have tomatoes?

The two tomatoes pictured above are from a trial tomato plant Burpee sent me earlier this spring. It is a determinate variety called ‘BushSteak’. They included it with a cherry tomato called ‘Indigo™ Fireball’ as a “Take 2 Combo” to plant together in a container.  They should be in garden centers in spring 2018.

For a gardener who believes all tomatoes should be indeterminate types and staked, I feel like I really stretched outside my tomato-growing-comfort zone when I planted this determinate tomato in a container on the patio.  I wonder if my Dad would ask “what in the name of gardening is going on here” if he saw me growing determinate tomatoes in a container on my patio. After all, I learned tomato staking from him.

I’d like to think he would have approved because of how good the plants look and how tasty the tomatoes are.  And it is good to get out of one’s comfort zone on occasion.

But I can’t stay out of my comfort zone forever. I’ve got to get back to my garden where I’ve got my work cut out for me. I need to do some selective watering. And there are always weeds to pull. And flowers to deadhead. And what in the name of gardening do I have to complain about?

In the name of gardening, I really have nothing to complain about.

I have a garden, and that is a wonderful thing.