Celebrate Your Garden’s Successes

Written by Amy Sinclair on August 18th, 2009 — 4 Comments

Blight, Black Rot,and Mildew all threatened to crash 2009’s garden party, but as I look around the community garden here in Maine, I see there are many more successes than failures. The corn has overcome its late start. The cukes and squashes are producing right on schedule. Lettuces are delicious and abundant. In other words, there’s more than enough to fill out a salad bowl.

As gardeners, we must learn from the farmer’s optimism and work with what Mother Nature has delivered. Yes, I did have to pull my blight-ridden tomatoes, but now I’m looking forward to a bumper crop of bush beans. After I yanked the tomatoes last week, I threw in some bush bean seeds and the seedlings burst from the soil yesterday, determined to deliver a crop before the frost hits.

Just Add Water Garden In Early May

Here in Maine, that’s a gamble. This variety, “Provider” from Johnny’s, takes 50 days to mature. That’s plenty of time for those of you on the Cape and in Connecticut, but Vermonters and Mainers have to keep their fingers crossed come late September.

Just Add Water Garden Mid August

I’m also harvesting loads of basil. Of note, I direct sowed basil seeds the same day I transplanted 7-week old seedlings from my house. Guess what? By mid-August I can’t even tell the difference in the plants. Note for next year: I’ll save the indoor greenhouse space for plants that really need the indoor growth time, like flowers.

4 Responses to “Celebrate Your Garden’s Successes”

Mittleider gardening guy says:
August 23, 2009 at 5:13 pm
I am in upstate NY the blight was very bad this year, but my peppers did fine, also had a problem with powdery mildew because of all the rain. It is good to see some of the community gardens survived, Do you know any tomatoes that are blight resistant?
Volunteer opportunities says:
August 27, 2009 at 7:12 am
Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity.
karen says:
August 30, 2009 at 8:56 pm
I have a couple of questions — I would love some guidance from anyone with answers…:)
1) when I tore out my (rotten, mildew or blighted??) tomato plants. I threw them in a non-compost area. Should I have destroyed them in some other way?
2)with the tomatoes that we did get, is there any risk in eating them?
3)can I replant seeds? plants? in the same soil where the tomatoes were?
thanks for the help! karen
Amy Sinclair says:
September 3, 2009 at 8:58 am
Hi Karen,
I was just reading MOFGA’s latest dispatch on late blight and they addressed your questions. Freezing kills tomatoes and tomato plants so you should be fine, UNLESS, the area where you tossed the plants is unlikely to freeze over. If that’s the case, you should move the plant debris to a surface area where they’ll get a hard freeze. Eating tomatoes is fine, although I’m told tomatoes from blighted plants may not store as well. Enjoy them now!
You can replant in the same area next year. Just be sure all old plant material is moved away. If you’re saving tomato seeds, MOFGA says to make sure the seeds are properly fermented. The spores can survive on potato tubers..so if you’ve got potatoes, you’ll want to get them out of the garden and start from scratch next year.