Truly a Gold Medal Winner
This is my first summer growing ‘Gold Medal’ tomatoes and it won’t be my last. In fact, I’ll never not have them growing in the garden. After trying this lovely tomato out, I know exactly how it received its name. For starters, this huge beefsteak tomato produced a ripe tomato around the same time that my cherry tomatoes were first ripening in the garden. If you’re a fan of heirloom beefsteaks, you know the patience required to wait for what seems like forever for one to finally ripen. Not this beauty, even with it’s gigantic size, it still ripened quicker than anything but the cherry tomatoes.
Not only does this delicious tomato ripen super early, it produces loads of tomatoes and it just keeps on producing. This photo was taken yesterday in my garden, yesterday. It’s mid October in Maine. My ‘Brandywine’ and ‘Cherokee Purple’ tomatoes quit producing tomatoes long ago, not this baby, it’s still flowering and setting fruit. If you live in a northern climate, especially one with cold spring and fall temperatures I’d highly recommend adding ‘Gold Medal’ to your list of must grow tomatoes. I guarantee you won’t be disappointed, in fact I’m guessing you’ll be singing its praises and will grow it every year.
What’s your favorite no fail tomato?
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Making Way
I’m making way in the garden for more things next year. That means thousands of strawberry plants are coming out. There are still plenty of strawberries out there, just not the ridiculous amounts that we had this summer. I left at least half of the plants and I’m debating cutting that in half again. Strawberries do best when the exhausted plants are pulled every couple years and the young plants are allowed to get established. I also like to move them to a new spot for crop rotation purposes. The nice this about berries is that they migrate on their own.
I tried to find people locally who were interested in plants, but no one seemed to want them. Oh well, I guess they’ll compost down into something lovely to feed the garden. Yesterday I was able to finish pulling the rest of the plants and get a layer of compost spread over the row. Next spring it will be ready for whatever I decide to plant, maybe something edible, maybe just a cover crop.
What chores are you finally getting done in the garden?
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Grrrrr
When you have birds and livestock you learn quickly that predators must be controlled. We do what we can to be predator friendly, I recognize that they are valuable in the grand scheme of things and don’t have the time to be constantly watching out for them. They can become a problem when they lose fear of humans and become pests, which they sometimes do. We’ve done what we can around here to be predator friendly, we have Tara (our Anatolian Shepherd) to scare them off, we have electric fences to keep the birds contained, we have cleared areas to help keep them away from the buildings and birds. For the most part I see foxes here and there throughout the day. They don’t bother the birds unless they get out of their electric fences. I see lots of coyote tracks in the winter, but they stay away from the house & the cleared areas.
Monday, I was working in the garden and looked up to see a coyote watching me work. Tara was barking and it was unfazed. I got up and walked towards it and took this photo with my phone (my good camera was inside). It just sat down and watched me. I yelled at it and it didn’t budge. Most predators I don’t mind as they’re smaller and don’t bother the cats, coyotes can and will grab pets if they can. I know of several people who have lots pets to them. I had Dexter and the Littles out working with me in the garden right before I spotted this predator. And so begins the task of trying to figure out how to keep these guys farther away from the fields and the house. When they lose their wariness of humans and guard dogs they can become a big problem, I’m going to be doing my best to help them remember why they should stay away from humans. It looks like I might be carrying a gun while I work in the garden, just in case I need it. I’ll be contacting places about the price of a perimeter fence and maybe start looking into other methods of deterring the coyotes from getting so close. Perhaps a big fence and another Anatolian is in order, but of course that’s a pricey venture.
What predators do you deal with in your garden?
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Planting for Next Year
I love garlic because you plant it in the fall and harvest the following summer. It’s in the ground for quite a while, but it’s nice to know it’s there in the deepest part of winter. As soon as spring arrives it pops out of the ground and gives you hope that the garden will flourish for another year.
The past couple years I’ve been able to save my own seed garlic, which can really save you a bundle! Out of the 10 or so varieties I used to grow, I’ve narrowed it down to five of my favorites. ‘Music’ is a real winner in my garden, I keep thinking of only planting that variety. It produces HUGE heads with giant cloves. I like that you only have to peel one instead of a few when you’re cooking.
Yesterday, I planted about 100 garlic cloves and a small amount of potato onions. My garlic is planted 6 inches apart in a big row with 12 inches between the individual rows. I plant four rows wide with walkways on either side. I have found this to be perfect spacing for garlic, they produce very well and I have less area to weed.
Do you grow garlic in your garden? Do you have a favorite variety?
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Good Morning
Our front door isn’t very becoming, in fact, I’m always trying to think of ways to kind of hide it or cover it up. This year, I decided a climbing vine would be perfect. I had a pack of morning glory seeds and they were perfect, though they are a heat loving vine so they took a LONG time to get going. Perhaps something that can take the cold would be a better option. Something perennial would be even better, but I don’t want to make that much of a commitment yet.
I quite like having something scrambling up over the door and providing some color and distraction. I’m thinking that next year I’m going to try the Firecracker vine (Ipomoea lobata), I even picked up seed recently. There’s a native wisteria in a pot that I got earlier this summer that I’ve also been contemplating planting there. It’s definitely something I want to do now that I’ve tried.
What’s your favorite flowering vine?
