Boron Elgar wrote:
songbird wrote:
Boron Elgar wrote:
...
I find a measure of unpredictability and variability, even when I have
grown the same varieties over several seasons.

well sure, but after ten years of growing
them you should have some idea of which kinds
will produce.

I am too adventurous (the older I get) and try many new varieties each
year.

i'd like to, i'm getting reactive to them now
so i'm cutting back in how many i eat. Ma has
boycotted me planting new varieties because she
says they are too much work to put up.


I am an inveterate seed saver and off-season seed buyer. Whenever I
see an unusual tomato or other yummy cultivar, I grab the packets and
stash 'em.

I brought back two tomato plants from California this past Monday.
Happened to pass a sale at an arboretum and saw some tomatoes I had
never noticed here in the east or online in my usual haunts. What the
heck...we will see how they do.

good luck!


I see this in many of the kitchen garden crops, though. It is not
unique to tomatoes. Some year I get a lot more of a particular bean
variety, or huge broccoli, or more cukes than I can shake a stick at
and another year even a tried and true favorite may do poorly.

yeah, last year a lot of our crops were eaten by
animals and the weather wasn't very sunny. that
along with the rot in the tomatoes meant a pretty
varied and lower harvest of a lot of things than
all of our other years. still, we had enough of
some things and more than we could eat of others.

As it is almost every year.

yeah. life goes on. we're not in danger of starvation
so i don't get worried about such things. it's just life.


Obviously, one can only "control" for so much in these observations,
as my garden is outdoors and subject to the elements, but I still love
to try to outsmart the critters, the bugs, the weather and the rain
each season.

sure, it helps to plant a diversity of crops if
you have the space for it. it also helps to have
different soils to try things in.

I have very little space. Other than asparagus, garlic, blue and
blackberries, everything I grow is in tubs up on my deck. Even then,
it is hard to keep the groundhogs away.

those are indeed the critters. up until last year they
had not climbed into the fenced gardens to raid. they
are still around, but i did get rid of the den site they'd
dug out in one of our drainage ditches so they are not as
quite as close. i'm hoping they'll not return as i don't
like to get out the airgun. they get two warning shots...

i think there are now reasonbly good electric chargers
for fences that are solar and i'd be going that ways as
soon as i can when i can. the existing fence here is not
very good, but it is what you'd call a sunken cost (or more
like leaning at the moment ).

we have all the other usual suspects too. i try to
accept that they do some damage and plant the most
sensitive things in the fenced gardens. doesn't always
work. the other thing i do is plant some areas a ways
away and hope that will decoy the animals away from the
closer gardens. not a sure bet, but it takes some of
the pressure off.


songbird