Can We Talk 2

Summer's Short Season

         About 6 weeks since I picked my first ripe tomatoes from my plants. Those plants are pooping out. Granted their fruit was so sweet and delicious, but now I'm down to 7 or 8 tiny green tomatoes that will probably never ripen, and may not get much bigger. I water regularly and make sure they're getting sun, but I think they've quit. I've heard from more avid gardeners that their crops have quit. I guess it's time.

         Funny how they can vary in taste. All of mine were sweet and juicy. My neighbor gave me some yellow tomatoes and some mini Asian pear tomatoes, also yellow, and they were sweet like candy. Someone at church gave me red cherry tomatoes that actually tasted a little bitter. But they're all a big step up from those plastic-like tomatoes at the store.

         My grandfather used to talk about carrots. They were sweet, according to him, or bland, if the soil was "sweet". I guess he was referring to the acid levels of the soil. We didn't have sweet soil at our house, and neither did he. He did not allow for different varieties or breeding; just the dirt made a difference.

         Although, I am glad to end the 90 plus degree weather and the humidity, I am sorry to see things stop growing. I have already started gathering the seeds from my miniature marigolds. They are turning brown in both leaf and flower. I save the seeds every year for the next. Same with coneflowers. I have discovered by accident that begonias can be saved from year to year, depending on the variety.

         It makes me sad to discover these things so late in life. My age, my failing health, make me think I won't be doing this many more seasons. If I move to an apartment or an old folks home, I won't have space or outdoor access. Or if worse things happen, I just won't be able to dig in the dirt and save seeds no matter where I live. Of course, if I die, I'll garden in heaven, without deer or groundhogs as interlopers in my flower or vegetable gardens. At least for now, I can pretend that my "summer" will go on forever, and tend my flowers and herbs.