A bit green in the shoulders and a few cracks, but at 14 oz. its got a bit to spare. And yes this is a brandywine, I forgot that the particular strain of Brandywine OTV is orange. And delicious. It had substance but was not gritty. According to SESE's site, this strain is very heat tolerant, could that be a possible way of saying that to a certain extent it doesn't just tolerate heat, it depends on it? Given how cool this summer was by comparison might this be a reasonable explanation as to why I did not harvest the first tomato until sept? I'll be holding on to the seed to plant maybe a vine or two next year since the taste is flat out awesome, but perhaps I should search for varieties which do not include "heat tolerant" in their list of attributes.
And check out the amount of flesh in these. My beloved of course puts in her two cents about the absurdity of photographing a tomato.
Now I know I have mentioned our plan to put a fistfull of fruit trees in the front yard. After having the gas company come out and mark the no-dig spots, it would appear we will need to change the layout from what we had originally intended.
Those flags are the dotted line where our natural gas feed comes in from the street. Right up the strip of land we were going to use....grrrr.
And lastly, as anyone who is married or lives with their partner knows, good relationships mean being on the same page as your S.O. In my case that means clearing and construction or other large projects with my wife before I reach for a hammer or shovel. I want to keep gardening though the winter, I could be happy with just a single row cover tunnel over one bed, but I figured what the heck, lets shoot for the moon with a hoop house and see if she goes for it....She went for it! I think I can fit this over both the beds. Winter greens here I come! Despite the frigid winters I am not going to double layer the plastic unless someone says its absolutely necessary. I'll be using it to basically extend seasons and grow spinach, some lettuces, leeks and so forth during the coldest months, and experimenting with clover as a cover in the unused areas. Clover is a big N producer and grows well in our area/soil. Since I have been doing well with compost, I think a cover crop of clover during winter, plus compost at kill/ planting time should keep the soil in shape. I will test it to see if there are measurable differences.
3 comments:
I've heard of people using bubble wrap for the hoop house covering to get the r values up a bit.
Yay for your first tomato, she's a big one!
That sucks about your fruit trees, stupid gas lines, perhaps you can still find acceptable spots for them.
Good luck with your winter garden. We are going to be attempting to grow some food in our apartment this winter. I don't have much expectation, but in reading some organic gardening magazines from the 70s, folks used to do this all the time, so we'll see.
wow look at that tomato! My seeds for brandywine never started (whine) maybe next year... I'm sorry about the dumb gas lines. Good think you had the gas co come out, I'm thinking of putting in trees in the front too, so good thing you thought of checking with the "powers that be" first... lame though, sorry man...
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