Welcome to the (tomato) jungle

For some reason, unbeknownst to either one of us, our tomato plants, particularly our heirloom tomato plants, seemed to be growing and growing and growing and growing and growing...(you get the idea).  Initially, we tried to "handle" the situation.  Using a few leftover stakes and some trellises, we attempted to reinforce the tomato plants so they would stop toppling over and tangling with their neighbors.  But, as soon as we had one windy/thunderstormy kind of day, they'd all fall over again into a massive clump, as you can see below.

Soon, it became evident that we had 2 problems:

1. Our beds were too shallow, meaning we couldn't shove the stakes into the ground deep enough in order to support the weight of our tomato plants.
2. Our stakes were too short for our plants.  Or, to put it another way, our tomato plants were just WAY TOO TALL (duh, because we are such adept gardeners). And by tall, I mean very tall. These plants, when straightened, were well above my head. 

I'll pause here so those of you more irreverent readers can get all the short jokes out of your system....

Okay! And we're back.  So yes, we were having some major tomato problems.  I bet you're all chomping at the bit, anxious to know what we did to solve this problem, am I right??!!  Well I'll tell you-

Absolutely nothing.

Maybe next year we won't plant so many tomato plants.  And we'll definitely get some taller stakes.  

Cherry tomatoes anyone?

And yes, they DO taste as good as they look.

Another harvest!

Check out my feast! I cooked a delicious dinner featuring our very own kale! Well, as you can see by the picture, the feature of this dish may have actually been the plain, store bought pasta, while the kale played a more supportive role.  But this was only because our kale, once harvested, was not as abundant as it appeared while still in the ground, and not at all due to a lack of quality or taste.  Thus....SUCCESS!

Here's the recipe if you care to experiment with kale!  

http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/winter-pasta-recipe.html 

Farewell Squash and Squash Vine Borer

While there are ways to rid oneself of a squash vine borer infestation, all seemed too costly and labor intensive. Plus, we were both so thouroughly disgusted by those slimy caterpillars, we were more than happy to uproot all the squash.  I would have done anything to never have to see those maggot looking things ever again.

And so....squashicide.
 
See below for the squash cemetery commemorating our loves ones.

Trouble in squash land

For weeks, we were utterly perplexed by our squash.  Each variety was growing, there was no doubt about that; the plants were spreading out, serpent like, all over the place- beneath the kale, around the carrots, right out of the garden itself!  And along each stem we saw dozens of squash blossoms.  Yet, we could not find a single squash.  We also began to notice that after a few days of blooming, each squash blossom was then shriveling up and DYING!!! 

Something was not right.

So we began to investigate. We donned our matching detective hats and scoured the internet for some sort of explanation. We ruled out the weather. While we've continued to be graced with ungodly heat, which, as I'm sure you remember, was the cause of death amongst our other dear friends (the beets and peas) it was not to blame for our sickly squash.  Squash apparently love the heat.  We also ruled out lack of nutrients or moisture as we've been fertilizing on a weekly basis (which by the way, is a very unpleasant experience as our fertilizer is quite pungent- and not in a nice way) and watering every day.   We also deduced that whatever the problem was, it was unique to squash as our other crops (we're down to tomatoes, kale and carrots at this point) were growing rather beautifully. 

And then...we figured it out.  We had a garden pest!!! A nefarious, foul looking creature called the squash vine borer.  dun dun DUHHHHH!!!!

The squash vine borer (Melittia cucurbitae) is a diurnal species of sesiid moth that attacks wild and cultivated varieties of squash. The moth is often mistaken for a bee or wasp because of its movements, and the bright orange hindleg scales. The females typically lay their eggs at the base of leaf stalks, and the caterpillars develop and feed inside the stalk, eventually killing the leaf. They soon migrate to the main stem, and with enough feeding damage to the stem, the entire plant may die.

But, the only way to be 100% sure that we had a squash vine borer was to cut open one of our squash stems and look for these "caterpillars" which look more like maggots.

And so we did...and this is what we saw...

GROSSSSSSS!!!!!

Yup, we definitely had squash vine borers. 

Garden Progression

Our burgeoning garden. We're so proud!

We are actually GROWING VEGETABLES!!! That my friends, is a squash. (at least I think)

Tomatoes! Whether they are cherry or heirloom is unclear, but should be evident soon enough.

How to grow tomatoes- Part 4

The next step in the tomato growing process is staking. The rationale behind this is, once the actual tomatoes start growing, they become quite heavy, and will eventually weigh down the whole plant, which is not so good.  So, you have to stake your tomato plant to provide some support.  And, as our tomatoes will obviously be succulent and bountiful, and thus very heavy, our plants definitely need the support.

So...here's how our version of staking goes:

1) Go outside and find some sticks, roughly 3-5 feet in height that are sturdy and relatively straight and no wider than an inch in diameter.  You'll need one stick per plant.

Now, in our situation, we realized that sticks are actually extremely difficult, borderline impossible to find in the city.  So, when we ventured up to Vermont to go hiking one weekend, we decided to stock up on sticks.  Before we began the hike, I collected some absolutely perfect looking sticks and left them in a neat little pile at the bottom of the mountain, so we could pick them up on our way home.  But, when we returned later that day, THEY WERE GONE.  So we learned a valuable lesson that day: no matter where you are, whether it's New York City or the mountains of Vermont, sticks are, and always will be, in very high demand.

2) If you fail at Step 1, as we did, you can always just go to a hardware store and buy some "sticks."  These usually come in the form of bamboo or plastic.  When we took a trip to our local hardware store, look what we found!!

3) Buy a pet pig.

Just kidding! But wouldn't that be nice? Sigh....

4) Place each stake next to each tomato plant.  The stakes should be pushed about 6 inches into the soil- enough so that they can stand alone.  Take some string and gently tie each stake to it's corresponding tomato plant. I tied each tomato/stake combo together in 2 places- near the bottom of the plant and near the middle-top of the plant. 
 
Below you can check out my staking skills!