Winter Means It's Time to Say Goodbye

A Charlie Brown Christmas

This is probably my least favorite time of the year. Despite the holiday madness -- Thanksgiving turkey with far too much stuffing (not to speak of the butter) and the task of setting up Christmas lights and the Christmas tree -- it's also a melancholy time for me.

I'm a gardener. I like to see things grow and nourish. And you just don't get much of that during the months of December, January and February. Oh -- sure -- the break does give you some time to start thinking about next year's garden. But it's a wait that is far too long for me.

Perhaps we need a new law? Perish the thought!

The wonderful wife that is Venus and I always wait far too long to tear out the summer garden. Here it is -- December 4th -- and I'm not too proud to admit that we still have a couple of dead and dying tomato plants that I still haven't stuffed into the Green Waste can yet (hey -- it can only hold so much).

Heirloom Tomato Plant Monsters

It wasn't the greatest year in terms of tomatoes -- for anyone that I know of. It started poorly with sickly starter plants in the spring -- we never did get the Sacramento summer heat needed to produce a bumper crop of heirloom tomatoes and then ended a lot quicker than I imagined with a couple of frozen nights in early November.

Heirloom Tomato Season: Exit Stage Left!

Don't be fooled by the extra large heirloom tomato plant crop to your left. It may look big -- but this was one disappointing year. This one bed produced one tomato blunder after another -- ranging from poor production to a nasty run of Blossom End Rot (BER). Nearly every German Orange Strawberry that came off the vine this year was stricken with BER.

Yet -- the Black tomato to the left -- Evil Seed -- and the Brandywine planted to the right suffered no such BER problem. They were not overwhelmingly productive -- no tomato plant was this year with the exception of the Reliable Reds -- but why just one plant would suffer from BER problems while others planted a foot away did not continues to vex me.

There are no answers here -- just questions.

So -- the goal this one fine, fall day was to move these plants into that Green Waste can pictured to the immediate right of the tomato jungle. This was easier said than done. A gallon of water cannot contain five quarts. It can hold four. And I had far more plant material than space. And this was just one of THREE beds that had reached the "end of the life cycle."

You can see why we're still tearing out portions of the summer garden.

I'm certainly not going to repeat the same mistake I made three years ago -- when I was told by a certain, high-ranking, Sacramento City employee that I could order a "special pickup" from a Green Waste Truck. I thought that was a wonderful idea -- so I spent an entire weekend day piling up my entire summer garden in the street.

Imagine my "chagrin," when I called for a "special pickup" and was informed on the other end of the line that these "pickups" were limited to three to four times per year. "So, when's the next pickup," I asked. "We'll be there in six months," the cheery voice on the other end of the phone replied.

Great...My neighbors were just THRILLED with that pile of garden waste that slowly vanished over the course of six to eight weeks. As soon as that Green Waste truck emptied my Green Waste can -- I packed it full again.

My method of removing tomato plants is fairly simple. I attack the outer edges with a long-handled pair of garden shears (which are also used for cutting back roses). Once the growth around the PVC cages has been cut away -- I employ the "tug and rip" method -- which removes the vines from inside most of the cage (you'd be surprised how far these vines can travel). At that point -- I remove the cage from around the still-visible base of the plant -- toss it aiside -- and dig up the root system with a well-used shovel.

Rip, Tug, Shred!

Removing the eight plants from this bed -- plus the numerous volunteers that sprung up around it (they kept the Vole population well fed) -- took about four hours.

Getting all of those tomato plants out of the backyard and into a Sacramento City Green Waste truck is a process that may last well into 2011.

So -- why go through all this trouble and effort? I thought you would have figured it out by now.

It's because we're gardeners. Which means -- we're quite insane...

An Interesting Observation....

An early morning walk through ye olde vegetable garden can yield many interesting discoveries...

First -- my thanks to sister-in-law Leana Barrantes -- who was kind enough to gift me with an old digital camera she no longer uses. It just happens to be the best camera I've ever had -- and the photos prove it.

This camera appears to be idiot proof. I should know -- since I'm an idiot -- First Class.

My friends -- the photo to your immediate right represents one section of the Bird heirloom tomato garden in early August. I have quite the conundrum here. Perhaps you can help me figure it out?

By looking at the first photo above -- you'll notice that the tomato plants in the raised bed to the right are much taller than the plants in the raised bed to your left. The taller plants represent the starter plants I received earlier this year from Farmer Fred Hoffman. The plants to your left represent my starters.

This comes as no surprise to me whatsoever. Fred's starter plants TOWERED over our sickly offerings this year. Although my plants are now catching up and fruiting quite nicely -- they still haven't caught up to Fred's starter plants and may never catch up to them.

Here is the same shot of the two beds taken at a different angle. The bed containing my starter plants is in front. Fred's starter plants are located the next bed over. The PVC cages that you see in these photos stand about six feet high. The starter plants from Fred Hoffman have grown through the top of these PVC cages and stand at a height of about eight feet.

My starters -- meanwhile -- have barely begun to approach the six foot level.

Why is this so confusing? Well -- to be honest -- it's not. I expected as much. When you start with tall and healthy starter plants -- you're bound to get better growth. The proof is in these two photos.

BUT -- that's not all.

There's another section in the Bird Back 40 also dedicated to our heirloom tomato efforts. It's yet another raised bed located on the other side of the backyard. This is an 8X8 wide raised bed that we use for growing tomatoes -- and another section has been reserved for all things melon.

The plants located in this bed -- pictured to your right -- are not Fred Hoffman's starter plants. They are -- or were -- our sickly starter plants. Notice how these are growing through the top of the PVC cages. And -- keep in mind -- that this bed was planted one week AFTER we planted out in the two beds pictured above.

The tomato plants located in this bed are about the same size of the bed that contains Fred's starter plants. These starter plants were just as sickly as the rest of our starters. They were nowhere near as tall or lush as the plants gifted to us by Fred -- yet as the photo clearly shows -- they are now just as tall as Fred's plants if not taller.

How could this be. Why are these plants so lush -- green and tall? Why are they so much larger than my other starters in the photos above?

But that's not all.

The tomato plants located in this bed -- again pictured to your left in a somewhat wider shot (those are wifey's sunflowers in the background) -- were slow to produce fruit this year. I had blamed the lack of production on the weather (which continues to be less than ideal) -- but yet another strange development took place about two weeks ago.

These plants -- after growing to a height of six or seven feet and not producing much -- suddenly set a large and surprising crop of tomatoes. I'm not complaining mind you -- no not at all. Some of our best heirloom offerings are located in this bed. That includes the time-honored classic of Brandywine and other varieties like Tigerella, Arkansas Traveler and German Orange Strawberry (a new addition to the Bird heirloom tomato garden this season).

In fact -- the numbers of tomatoes that have formed on the German Orange Strawberry would bring a smile to the face of any heirloom grower. The plant is simply loaded with fruit from top to bottom. The same development has taken place with the Brandywine -- which is planted right next to it and the Tigerella (which is rather hard to reach because it's blocked by melons).

So -- what gives? Well -- to be honest -- I'm not sure. This has happened once before -- with a black tomato variety that Venus and I planted two years ago. Oh -- the plant grew to an impressive size sure enough. But production was lacking. In fact -- to be honest -- this black variety didn't produce a single, solitary tomato.

But -- upon reaching a height of five to six feet -- the tomato plant stopped growing and suddenly fruited a crop of 30-40 tomatoes within the space of a week. It went from the "least productive" category to "Whoa" in the space of a few hours. I still haven't figured out how or why that happened.

It just did.

If I had to guess? I think I may have been a little too *generous* with the amendments that I added to the soil last spring before Venus and I planted. The 8X8 bed was amended with chicken manure compost -- which is a tad hotter than the steer manure compost that I normally use in the other beds. I may have also added in a tad too much in the way of pelleted fertilizers -- which I also use when I recharge our raised beds for the upcoming season.

Too much nitrogen will result in a strong and healthy tomato plant with very little fruit set. I do like to experiment somewhat when recharging these beds for the upcoming growing season (you learn through screwing up) -- and it's possible that I "crossed the line" when it came to the all important nutrient of NITROGEN. Yes -- it's essential for tomato plant growth or any vegetable plant growth.

But -- to be honest? This is really just a guess on my part. It could be too much nitrogen. It could be something else entirely.

Your thoughts?