With the eager assistance of our two young helpers, my mother and I planted 24 tomato plants and some herbs (basil, cilantro, and dill) today. We originally planted 18 tomato plants; and after I finished pounding the stakes into the ground to hold them up as they grow, I and my aching arms were DONE. And then I walked back onto the porch and saw another 6-pack of them staring me in the face. I had completely forgotten that when we were at a nearby greenhouse to buy plants a few days ago, I had been unable to resist the "Mr. Stripey" tomatoes, so they came home with us, too, and needed to be put in the ground. In the late afternoon, after the boys had quiet time, we again went outside and finished up the job. What a good feeling to look outside and see our rows of young tomato plants...although if they all grow, we'll be having tomatoes coming out of our ears this summer!
~ "The Professor" getting ready to mark out a row...if only he was a little taller and stronger and could actually move this contraption! (for the past few days, David has been thoroughly enjoying this pair of silly old sunglasses with the lenses popped out...he looks so hilarious with them on that I can't keep a straight face when I look at him, which is not a good thing when I need to correct him or comfort him but crack up instead!)
~ my painted toenails in the dirt...sometimes I love being a girlie girl drinking tea in a flowing skirt, but other times I love getting my hands (and feet) dirty in the soil
~ our friends, the earthworms...according to David Kline or David Alleman--and now according to David Fisher as well--it's such a good sign to dig up a shovel of dirt and find a few of these squirmy fellows crawling about
~ these are NOT our friends!...I couldn't believe how huge some of the rocks were that we found today...I don't think they were there last year...I was reminded of how the earth beneath us is constantly changing and pushing up new materials to the surface...now I know why my parents joke that we grow a good crop of rocks!
~ ah, yes, a newly-planted tomato plant...I can almost taste a tomato sandwich: two slices of wheat bread spread with mayonnaise on either side of a thick slice of tomato sprinkled with salt...that, along with fresh-from-the-garden corn-on-the-cob and just-cut peaches from the nearby orchard, is the taste of summer
8 comments:
Oh, I can't wait to get our garden in. I'm hoping to get plants this coming week, but I think its a bit cold yet to plant them. And they're prdicting rain for the next- um,long time. :0(
Tomatoes always say "summer" to me. Sadly, ours have withered in the last frost ... so I bought an expensive truss of vine-ripened tomatoes from the market today, just to have that summer feeling linger.
Dirt definitely does a body good! I used to always go out barefoot into my Mom's garden in the first warm days of spring--when the sun was shining and the earth was rich from a long freeze-thaw cycle. Yummy.
Sometimes I planted a cool weather crop or two just to see if it would work. One year I planted spinach during our yearly false spring--one week in the middle of January--and I ended up with Spinach come April. Go figure!
from one country gal to another....you didn't have your feet in that dirt for long! We have our ways of tellin'! (smile)
OK, country gal...you're right about not having my feet in the dirt for long. I actually took this picture close to the beginning of my time in the garden...and after I started digging holes for the plants with a shovel, I decided I'd better slip my feet into my old garden shoes because stepping with my bare feet on the top of the shovel blade to give more "umph" to my digging was really starting to hurt! Maybe it would have been more convincing if I had taken a picture of the BOTTOM of my feet! :)
My husbands side of the family likes to eat fresh tomatoes - thickly sliced with some real mayo (none of that "light" stuff) plopped on top. I had never heard of such a thing, but apparently tomato and mayo are a good combination.
That is a lot of plants you have there. You'll have your fill of soup, salsa, and sauce by summers end! :)
Mayonnaise!!! YUCK!!! :) Tomatoes!! YUM!
If you DO have tomatoes coming out of your ears, you know where you can get rid of some!! :)
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