Our plot in the community garden is producing well, with harvests three times per week. Friends are beginning to avoid us, lest they be burdened with squash. The watermelons are growing, so perhaps sharing some luscious orange-fleshed watermelon will bring them back. When you grow your own vegetables, you can choose what color flesh you want, so we have orange tomatoes and orange watermelon.
When we started the garden, heirloom tomatoes were running about $5.00 per pound in the markets. Now, when our garden is starting to produce, they’re around $3.00. Still, we have the satisfaction of wresting the fruit from the clutches of worm, bird and disease ourselves. Unfortunately, our wresting is not always successful and some fruit becomes a rotten mushy mess because something bit a hole in it or it happened to touch the ground.
Next year, I’m going to change the system for the tomato supports, although nothing so elaborate as a neighboring garden in the photos. Although their feat of engineering is marvel to gaze upon, I want something that’s easier to move every year for crop rotation.