Garden: Compost & Tomatoes

We've always loved the idea of compost. It does so many great things for the soil of a vegetable or flower garden. But the reality of creating our own compost just hadn't worked out for us. Either through a dearth of material, or lack of maintenance, I was never able to produce any useable compost.

The gardening classes we took in April of this year definitely helped us to manage our composting better, and now we actually have some output! On Sunday I worked and sifted through our three composting piles, and produced approximately two wheel-barrow full of compost. We haven't used any yet, but we will likely work some into the soil when we plant our fall greens. By spring we should have even more, and we'll gradually be able to build up the organic and nutrient content of our garden soil.



If we were to grow only one crop in our garden, it would be tomatoes. So we were disappointed with how our tomato plants had been progressing; compared with those of some friends, they looked pretty small and scraggly. But now that it is a few weeks later, it is clear that they are going to produce fruit!

These Golden Nugget Tomatoes are the first to ripen; we get about a half dozen to a dozen every couple of days from the two plants we have, and boy are they tasty. It will be another several seeks before any of the larger varieties can be harvested, but they are bearing fruit.




- Mike (& Corinne)