Be sure to click the last July entry on the right for photos. You can read the blog there, too.

July 22
Pumpkins over-run cayenne; cherry tomatoes on top of basil; German tomatoes swiftly approach chard – all because I didn’t tie up the tomatoes and pumpkins asap. (I was busy. I had a band date to keep and work to do.)

Growing Sun Gold cherry tomatoes is a challenge. They seem to sucker from the bottom and, after waiting too long to remove them, it’s hard to tell which is the main stem. I should have taken heed of a photo I took summers ago of cherry tomatoes neatly espaliered at The Frelinghuysen Arboretum. (Click on July on the right to see nice photo.)

And how can I trash suckers that already have fruit and blossoms (the SFG way)? Can’t. I remove a few and stick them in the soil along the fence toward the road where sunflowers and melons didn’t germinate. Maybe birds ate those seeds. The birds seem to like hanging out on the fence. I need a screen from the road there and if the tomatoes will do it, why not. I won’t remove their suckers.

Flashback: My father used to tell my mother he removed the suckers from the tomato plants in his German accent. My devout Catholic mother would say to him: “Stanley! Please don’t use that word!”

The garden is full of compromises. What to do about work and band commitments (like practicing every day)? Answer: do the best I can. The plants are gung ho and the band is gung ho. The only one keeping work gung ho is me.

What will I do about having just one stem on each tomato plant neatly trained up the fence instead of sprawling suckers? I tied everything the best I could and broke a bunch off. In the future they must be planted 3 to 5 inches from the fence so they can be tied at a young age and guided.

Perhaps gardens teach about life – of fruiting plants and their life cycles, of insects that eat and pollinate them, of people learning that they cannot control something and that life goes on despite visions of perfection.