Eloquent Pedestrian

It was late coming, and it may be short lived, but we are living in the time of the tomato. This year I decided to give heirloom tomatoes a try. Two plants, nothing crazy just two specific types I'd heard good things about- the Brandywine and the Kellogg's Breakfast. The plants quickly turned into huge tomato monsters. Unfortunately the 103 degree weather hit right as the tomatoes should have been setting fruit. Apparently when it's that hot, the tomato loves to grow vines and the flowers dry up on the vine. So it wasn't until recently that we even saw the small green beginnings of proper tomatoes. Now the nay-sayers are telling us that there's no chance of our little greenies are ever going to ripen into fruit. I am putting my faith in the long season promised by Paul Douglas and the Farmer's Almanac, and in the taste of fried green tomatoes. So far I'm pretty impressed with my Brandywine heirloom tomato. It doesn't just taste like any tomato, it...

It's been slow in the garden lately, but I think I'll post a few things at once that I've been thinking of for awhile. The first thing I've got planned to talk about are my allies in the war on sure plant destruction. All of the flowers you see here were planted as seeds this year. The lilypad looking leaves with orange and red leaves are nasturtiums. They aren't as impressive as they were last year (I'll look through my old pictures to see if I can find the small trees they grew into last year), but the nasturtiums are very reliable for color and to freak out visitors to the garden by popping a flower into your mouth. The leaves are also supposedly edible, but I've only eaten the flowers, which are peppery and really pretty on a salad.  According to my reading Nasturtiums are good for the soil, especially planted around apple trees, which I have yet to do with our apple tree, and can be mild pest deterrents. I'm also told to be cautious as they are sup...