Garden Party

I haven't been totally happy with my garden the last couple of years. It was on the site of an old swimming pool, and the soil was comparatively poor. Because of some very high tree limbs, sections of it didn't get full sun, either. Still, it was in the most "obvious" place for a garden.

Last year, I bought a few too many tomato plants and decided to stick the extras in another part of the yard, where an old tree had just been removed. That section gets a lot of sun and the soil is very rich, albeit replete with tree roots.

In all of my time gardening, I had never seen plants grow as well as those did. Super-thick stems, very "full" looking in general, and a ton of fruit, even very late in the season.

This year, I decided to till up a little more of that section and move my entire garden there, although that meant downsizing by about two-thirds. In the old garden, I had a lot of room, and I left a bunch of space between the plants so they'd have room to grow and so that I could access them pretty easily. I figured that in the new plot I'd move them a little closer together, so I wouldn't have to cut the number of plants down that much. I also thought that last year was a banner year for that particular patch and that they wouldn't be quite as proliferative this year.

Uh, think again, smart guy.

Our weather so far this spring has been just about perfect for gardening. A bunch of early season rain followed by a stretch of hot sunny days with a little rain every three or four days. If anything, these plants look better than last year's. It's almost to the point that I can see a difference between one night and the following morning.

Three weeks ago (note the stakes and cages)...


Today...

See the stakes and cages? Me neither.

I wasn't quite expecting that. Anyone know an itinerant midget farm worker looking for a summer job? I might need one to duck under the leafy canopy and harvest the tomatoes from the inside rows.

Oh and here's a picture of one of the resident cougars. ;)

Some of them may be hard to see, but I counted 10 (!) squash already formed on that plant.

At this rate, I may wind up quitting my job and running a roadside produce stand by the end of the summer.