More Than Enough

We usually plant too much stuff in our garden. What I mean by that is we have too many different types of veggies that we usually end up not eating. Don't worry though, it never goes to waste. It always gets fed to either the goat, sheep, or cows if we don't get to it ourselves.

Last year we decided to plant only what we knew we would eat. We saw a trellis thing in Sunset Magazine which we thought we'd like to try. We took an extra cattle panel and bent it over, wiring it into place at the four corners to t-posts. We planted snow peas at the bottom, the idea being that as they grew they would wind in and out of the spaces.

The other thing I wanted was a salsa garden. We already had volunteer cilantro from the previous year's self seeding. We would need to plant onions, hot peppers, and tomatoes.

When I went to the garden center at Lowe's I guess I went a little crazy. This was the first time that I could recall them ever having so many different varieties of tomatoes, including heirloom types.

I ended up buying five different peppers, from mild to very spicy hot. But the tomatoes! I got one six pack of "Mr. Stripey" because I couldn't find a single, and eleven other singles of different varieties each. Seventeen tomato plants! That was a little ridiculous, I'll admit, but fun.

They quickly grew from sweet little six inch tall plants to three foot tall monster bushes. Some did better than others. Mr. Stripey was a disappointment. The little yellow pear (two different varieties) tomatoes went crazy and we could not keep up with them. Then there were the old reliables, like Early Girl and Better Boy.

The box I planted my mini roses in (see yesterday's blog).

My sister (the cheese maker) is actually the one with the green thumb around here. She would have made a note for future reference of the different varieties and how they fared. I, on the other hand, rely on my faulty memory. I'm not quite that dedicated to the garden, I guess, but I do enjoy the "fruits of our labor." I have to give a lot of credit here to my husband, who is probably more of a gardening aficionado than I. He actually did most of the weeding and watering.

We did have several batches of home-made salsa which we enjoyed while sitting on the back patio with neighbors Dean and Nancy. They brought the chips.

Kids: don't try this at home. Dean decided to test the hotness of the Tabasco pepper one day and bit straight into it. Perhaps he did it because of too many red beers? Or maybe he wanted an excuse to have more red beers? Regardless, I'm sure he wished he hadn't!

The snow peas rarely made it to the inside of the house. They were deliciously sweet straight off the vine. The cattle panel trellis worked great and we left it up to do again this year.

The changes we made for this year are that I only got two pepper plants; a jalapeno and a serrano, and five tomato plants. It was supposed to be four, but I accidentally got two Health Kick and just had to go back and get a different one. The other tomatoes are Heat Wave, Red Beefsteak, and in honor of my German side the German Queen. Also this year I put a little rabbit fence around the perimeter of the garden to try and keep the dogs out. And maybe it will deter the lady from the east end of the street from stealing our tomatoes again while she's walking her dog.

the poop pile

We didn't mind so much that she took some, it was the manner in which it was done. One morning the dogs wanted out a little earlier. When my husband let them out they immediately started barking towards the animals. I looked out the window and at first I saw her dog strolling through the garden. Meanwhile my husband pulled some pants on and started striding barefooted to the back.

The barn was blocking his view but from my vantage point I saw the lady straighten up from behind the tomato bushes and start walking away. By this time my husband had reached the back gate. He said it was obvious that she was cradling something on the opposite side from him.

Several weeks later my husband was tending the garden when the same lady walked by again. This time she stayed at the edge of the pond as far as possible from the garden and totally avoided even looking at him. And even funnier was instead of walking around the running sprinkler (which would have brought her closer to my husband) she opted to walk through it.

Really! We'd be happy to share. It was obvious that we had more than enough. But I just have to shake my head at the silliness of it all.

tomatoes, foreground; trellis, background

Anyway, we're going to do it again this year. Last year's cow and pony poop has been mulched and spread. The far back lawn by the garden is greening up. That stuff really works! I'm going to try and be a little more proactive in the garden instead of letting my husband do most of the work. Maybe I'll even try to can the extra tomatoes in the new pressure cooker I got last year specifically for that purpose (but not yet used).

I'm on NutriSystem now and hopefully by summer I'll have lost a few more pounds so I can again indulge in the fresh salsa, chips, and margaritas!