Garden Journal: Tie up the 'maters and other blighty news...

"Please produce. Please produce." This, I have been whispering to the tomatoes since we planted them a few months ago and have only eaten 2 tomatoes in that time. They have hit some speed bumps along the way and definitely got a beating from the BLIGHT (what a fright!), along with the fact they only get a couple hours of direct sunlight a day probably doesn't help. However, they keep chugging and they even grew out of their metal frames. (They must take after their mother ;)

Blight has been a real pain in the ass this year to many tomato growers, however, it does make me feel a little better to discover it is a fungus that is killing my plants and not me. ;) To fight the blight, Tyler the resident scientist found an organic solution to keep the fungus at bay. He read a scientific study (oooh fancy) concerning a mixture of sunflower oil and water to reduce the "powdery mildew" on leaves. So we tried it and mixed a solution of water to sunflower oil at 1:200 in a spray bottle and thoroughly dampened the leaves with the mixture every other day or so...and it has worked! Now, we still don't have any tomatoes to show for it, but it has been quite hot down here lately and many new flowers are forming. I have high hopes for the next few weeks. *fingers crossed*

In other "Operation Keep Tomatoes Alive" news, the 'maters are outgrowing their cages. Solution: Tie them up and strangle them. Okay, not really strangle them, but give them some support to climb upwards and onwards towards the all mighty sun.

First, I started with a long piece of twine and tied a knot at the bottom of the tomato stalk.

Then I wound the twine up through the tomato stalk to the very top.

Lastly, the twine was tied to a hook in the porch ceiling. Yay for healthy tomatoes!

I think they look quite pretty in the afternoon glow.

I have come to the conclusion that while container gardening on a not-so-sunny porch produces much frustration and not much food, it does provide me with plenty of new opportunities to learn about caring for plants that I will be able to bring to my ginormous garden in the future. It is not an ideal size for growing food to sustain 2 people, but has been an ideal size to do battle with plant pests using organic methods. I would take one thai basil infested with aphids over a whole garden any day!

Oh, and by the way the ladybugs DID work and we only occasionally see aphids anymore in the garden. Success with the ladies!!

Happy gardening,

Marci