Random Plan, make way for Back Up Plan

During the last few springs and summers, I dedicated much time and energy to our garden. I was also happy to have bought into the co-op garden in Walla Walla for tomatoes, corn, and peppers, but most of the time, we ate a good amount of produce from our garden. This year, I spent more time and energy on my tennis game than the garden, and now the consequences.

My initial strategy for planting was the "random, no plan" method. I planted things helter-skelter with no rhyme or reason, except for my special Kate H. tomatoes. To date, the planted-by-plan tomatoes are not looking so good. Although the initial heat brought growth spurts for all of them, only one has any viable tomatoes, Mugsy's favorite yellow pear variety. The others only have some miniature green balls with rotten bottoms, and one has no fruit at all.

By contrast, the volunteer tomato plants are doing great, and I expect a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes.

The zucchini plant is flourishing if you only count leaves. There are two giant zucchini I've never seen before. I tried four or five starts and at least ten seeds for Armenian cucumbers, but all I have so far are some puny leaves and no cukes.

I planted lemon cucumbers in the front yard, where others had thrived. So far, there are only a few leaves and even fewer flowers. I'm not anticipating anything from that plant.

There have been successes. We have artichokes, one large artichoke, and a few smaller ones, which we may eventually be able to eat. Another success has been cabbage. I'm on my third batch of coleslaw.

I also had a continuous crop of sugar snap peas. I left the ones on the bottom of the plant; they were too small to pick. I left them to mature; a day later, they were gone. Aha! Today, I saw Mugsy pulling at the plant and chomping on the low ones. Between the peas and the strawberries, he's getting five servings of fruits and vegetables daily, even if we're not.

My "backup plan" has been helpful, and I'm hoping it will continue to be so. The Birch Creek Farm co-op will likely be our best source of tomatoes, except for the little cherry and yellow pears. I was there last Saturday after a tennis clinic and had luck augmenting our underproducing plants.

While there, I picked lots of string beans to supplement my plants, which should be embarrassing for them as they produced only eight or nine beans. More squash, of course, and lots and lots of eggplant. Added to the Walla Walla sweets (another success) from my garden and a bell pepper from the grocery store, tomorrow is ratatouille day.

The co-op garden will eventually have plentiful peppers, many tomatoes, and the best corn ever.

I am also happy to note that the co-op garden is close to my Thursday evening and Saturday morning tennis games, several good wineries, and cheaper Oregon gas.

Maybe it's fate to have the convenience of tennis, gas, wine, and a backup garden within a few minutes of each other. Or perhaps it's Freudian to have a "no plan" garden system with the benefit of a backup plan. Either way, my summer of tennis, vegetables, and wine is humming along. Now, if the weeds stopped growing, it would be perfect.