Home is where you hang your heart

Tomato: Anna Maria's Heart

Summer didn't wait for me. I have been busy with my studies and rarely spent time in the garden. But it grew quite happily. I was able to steal away with a few tomatoes, handfuls of green beans for dinner, Swiss chard and arugula into my stir frys. However, the zucchini rebelled against the automated drip sprinklers. For some reason they didn't produce much this year, except for flowers.

One of the best parts of my summer garden was the flower bouquets I would bring in for my desk. The dahlias, sunflowers and cosmos seemed to be endless.

So last weekend I decided to remove the last of the tomato vines. I was excited to find these large ripe Anna Maria's Hearts towards the back of the bed. I hadn't noticed them until the vines had died back from the cold air. I gathered all the green tomatoes and pondered if I could let them ripen. Most of the time, I just leave the vines in the garden and pull the fruit off as they color. But I thought it's November, what's the point of tomato vines? I decided to clean up, amend the soil and add in my winter crops.

So many green tomatoes, what to do? The picture is only one-third of the green tomatoes I picked from the garden. I mentioned my dilemma to a friend and she suggested Green Tomato Mincemeat. I love mincemeat. She even stopped by last Saturday to show me how to make it, and to help process all the tomatoes. Not a huge crop, but I'm glad to have the quarts of tomato sauce and mincemeat ready for winter. And my greens are happily transplanted, ready to grow during the winter rain.

A rainy night brought a sunny day

A photo of the terrace from August. Now, it''s looking rather bare.

The rain yesterday was light but persistent until evening. Then it really came down. After months without rain, you sort of forget what it sounds like when it comes down. I was glad that I'd gotten most all of the transplants in on the weekend. I put in some more cabbages (Red Jewel), some Giant Red Mustard, and Bright Lights Swiss Chard. I transplanted some of the Walla Walla onions, but not all of them. Most of the transplants went into the terrace but I also was able to clear and plant bed 2. Now all I need are some flowers that will survive the cold and wet; probably some pansies, icelandic poppies and calendula. I put in some poppy seeds, but I'm not sure if they'll sprout as they are a little old.

Precipitation 1 1/2-inch