As the Garden Grows

Almost too many tomatoes. I better not complain though, I did plant 22 tomato plants and had visions of putting up salsa, sauce, and diced tomatoes. Which is what I will be doing this evening after bringing in a 5 gallon bucket filled to the rim with tomatoes. Yes, I said tomatoes. I have better boys the size of baseballs, beefy boys the size of softballs, Cherokee Purples bigger even yet and of course the roma tomatoes are putting on and ripening like crazy and I probably pulled 3 gallons of them alone. So everything is good on the tomato front (after all that worry at first about a little bottom rot). The only distressing thing is that the brandywine tomatoes, my favorite slicing tomato have stopped producing for now. There are some green ones still on the plants so I hope I'll get some more of those later.

It has been so dry here this week. We have not received any rain that amounted to anything substantial in over a week. I will need to water the garden tonight if I don't want all this work to go to waste. The deer have found my corn and have tramped down several stalks and happily munched on the ears. The damage is really not that bad so far though and after all, their probably hungry, no?

I need to figure out a way to store my butternut squash. It is looking very much like picking time and I haven't figured out yet what to do with it. I thought about putting it under the house, but I am afraid some varmit might get under there and eat them. Any advice? Mostly mice are the worry so maybe my cats will be of some help there. A co-worker asked me yesterday, how I keep the squirrels from eating my tomatoes, I replied that I haven't had any problems. Mostly because my black halloween cat (he's a male and very territorial) likes to nap in the garden during the day under the shade of the tomatoes or corn. I do have squirrels in the woods just 100 feet from my garden but I haven't had any to touch my tomatoes yet. Good kitty!

Lastly, I am so blessed to be living on this piece of land. Last night, I went outside to hang out some sheets to dry today. It was about 10:00 and pretty dark out but my neighbor has a safety light out back and that helped to light my way. As I stepped out the back door, I realized that the humidity hadn't let up and that the air was still very warm. I walked to the clothesline and the symphony of crickets, dry flies, cicadas, frogs and all the other night creatures was like music to my ears. I wanted to pitch my tent and sleep right there. Then I looked up at the moon. It was a little over 1/2 full and very very bright. Even with the hot humid air, a chill ran all over me and I actually got goose bumps on my skin.....