August 9, 2006

I'm attempting to update even if I don't have pictures (which seem to be the item that's holding me back a lot) Pictures don't appear to be working today anyway, better get with the website host.... grrr...

So last weekend I strained my back, but in the end I have a much better looking yard. I dead-headed (is that what you call it?) the lily stems that were making the whole area near the deck look unkept, trimmed up the wild Japanese Maple by the top of the railroad tie steps, and used Dan's father's day gift of an electric hedge trimmer for the first time on the three bushes that we actually try to shape (the three just on the other side of the deck railings near the waterfall)

Last year a lot of my yard clean up turned out to be quite the issue. My garden had done so poorly that I just left everything out until one fine day in November, where I was out from sunrise to sunset ripping up everything dead and re-shaping everything green. I found out the hard way, that's the wrong time of year to do that.

Last year, because I waited until November to prune my bushes, I ended up cutting off the buds that had formed over the summer and this past spring there were hardly any flowers on them. I also cut them back waaay too far. Also a word of caution... hydrangeas. During my massive yard clean up sweep last November I dead-headed the hydrangea out front. Also... not supposed to do that. We're supposed to leave the dead flowers sitting there on the bush all winter, and cut them off in March. Oops. This year I only have about 4 or 5 flower bunches out front, and none out back. My massive late chopping of the forsythia bush also whacked off all the yellow flowers we should have had on it this past spring. This year I cut that sucker back in June, a little while after it had bloomed, but hopefully not way too late.

The basic instructions I've heard from Cisco is that if you have a bush that flowers in the spring, prune it back just after it flowers. Well... now I know.

So with that history of bad pruning, there is a question floating around between us and the neighbors as to whether or not I've just destroyed my tomato plants. Last week I read a little blurb in my Vegetable Gardener's Bible that you are supposed to cut off any "suckers" from the vine... those are the branches that have only leaves and no flowers, because they suck the energy of the plant away from the fruit. This made sense to me, and I also figured that the fruit would then get some sun and actually ripen. This is Year Three with tomato plants, folks... and I have yet to get the massive yield I'm looking for. Year one I had tons of fruit, but a rain storm knocked down the big plant in mid-August and killed it. Year two... I tried planting along the fence and there was never enough sun or water. So... year three I figured I should try something different.

After a few clips on the Heirloom plant, I realized that not only was most of the plant leaf, but the branches with fruit didn't have any leaves at all. I'd make three clips, pull out three branches, and have a huge gaping hole. This can't be good... a plant needs leaves to feed itself, right? So I left tufts of leaves at the very top of the plant. I worked on the early girl in a similar fashion, then moved on to the roma. Now that one, I didn't even know I had fruit on that plant because the leaves were so dense... it really needed a trimming. I took it easy though, leaving some branches in the middle so it wouldn't look so scrappy.

Dan took one look and said I killed them all, and to be honest it did look really odd. My folks grew tomato plants every year, we never trimmed off the leaves - but they also planted them against the front of the house where they were fried all summer and riped really early. At any rate, I checked on them yesterday and the all-green fruit is starting to shift to the slightest hint of yellow. The vines look healthy and the tops are exploding with new growth. I'm hoping this means I might get a tomato or two out of my garden this year.

Here's another issue... you're "supposed" to trim off the top of the vines to prevent them from growing too big for the cages, but I can't bring myself to do that. I see more flower buds and I want more tomatoes, so I let them continue to grow. The heirloom is huge, and all vine... I might end up stretching that across the other two cages just to hold it up... and ordering larger cages from my dad for next year.