Tending the Neglected

I have reached the stage of garden neglect. I think I must do this every summer: go on vacation and come back to a sad looking garden. It has happened again.

One tomato is trying to rule the world and is beginning by knocking over its cage and growing half way across the garden. The weeds have multiplied. One plant looks like it's been a victim of either underwatering or a pest of some sort. The dill is growing, going to seed, and simultaneous sprouting seedlings. The onions are going to seed. Many of the onions are just bulbs now, their green tops having dried and turned brown. The greenhouse has cooked, well, everything. And so it goes.

So today I:

-harvested the ripe tomatoes

-composted the over ripe tomatoes (and cooked tomatoes from the greenhouse)

-staked up and pruned the monster tomato

-weeded a little

-brought in some of the green-less onions

-collected onion seeds

-watered the greenhouse

-composted the cabbages which were rotting and infested with earwigs and slugs (gross!)

I might have just been procrastinating. But the weather was beautiful (70s with a breeze) and the garden neglected.

The coolest thing about the greenhouse is the tomatoes re-growth. A little while back, someone decided to use the very hot greenhouse as a sauna, in a very traditional (read: nude) sort of way. So the doors were locked and as the temperature rose to the 90s outside of the greenhouse, the plants cooked. My tomatoes literally looked as if they had been baked. The lettuce and onions just plain died. The pepper and carrots are on their last legs. Even the ginger looked brown and wilty. Only the okra looked happy.

But as the tomatoes adapted, they have been interesting to watch. They have preferentially grown on the north side, which is also closer to the wall of the greenhouse. The new growth has consisted of much smaller leaves, much closer together. It looks much different than before.