Just wait 'till next year

16 years ago

Hey guys ... thought this anonymous RANT from a CA paper might tickle you...? It's for sure my tomato 'crop' is nothing to brag on. As the poster said .. 'wait 'till next year'. In the mean time, laught to keep from crying. All the heat we didn't get this summer is hitting us now.

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RANT: All our high hopes, our turning of manure deep into the soil, our stealthy efforts to lure the ground squirrels away to neighboring parcels in need of aeration, led sadly to a disappointing tomato crop. Brandywines and green zebras with little squirrelish teeth marks mock us as we harvest cherry-size Celebrities and Aces.

When we see the neighbors approaching, we duck into the side yard to avoid the question, "How are your tomatoes doing?" because we know what they really mean is, "Our garden is a bust. Do you have any tomatoes to spare?"

Just wait till next year.

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Comments (9)

hosenemesis
16 years ago
Dang funny. We just got enough for ourselves and our next-door neighbors, so I guess we had a good year!
Renee
peachymomo
16 years ago
We have barely enough for ourselves, only 2 our of my 6 plants are producing reliably and 1 hasn't set a single tomato all year. I just harvested my dry shelling beans... what a disappointment! I got enough beans for one small soup.

On the positive side my figs just started ripening, I was worried we wouldn't get any this year but at least I was wrong about that.
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wanda
16 years ago
My "harvest" was definitely sad. So far the count is 1 raw string bean off the vine before the rats/squirrels/?? ate not only the beans, but the actual vines too. 5 grape tomatoes. 7 lemon cucumbers, 3 bell peppers, 0 tomatoes from 7 plants.

Dang rats/squirrels/??? Arrgghhhhh!
hosenemesis
16 years ago
Oh, Wanda! I would be so disappointed.

I'm seriously considering building cages for my veggies. If I had the money, I'd build a wire greenhouse, with a retractable shade cloth awning so my peppers wouldn't burn.
Renee
peachymomo
16 years ago
I visited a garden this year that made me drool... the entire thing was enclosed in a sturdy chicken-wire cage, tall enough to protect the dwarf fruit trees next to the raised vegetable beds and impenetrable for birds, rodents and deer. I want one!
hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
16 years ago
We had a bumper crop of 'maters this year. I have no idea why.

The peppers were the best ever, dozens and dozens of them. I think they liked the cooler summer.
deneciepie
16 years ago
Well Dang it all Hoovb! There goes our theory that it was weather! We got a pretty good crop from the super-earlies (glacier, Manitoba, etc.) and a few from the "main season" types. Oddly, the main tomatoes had their little flurry of production back in July then just grew non-productive towering vines. Sigh, next year...........
trillianh
16 years ago
Oh my gosh, so happy to have run into this post! I just moved to a new house with these huge tomatoe plants. No fruit on them when I moved in mid-sept and only minimal and small fruit since. I thought for sure I was doing something wrong, I have watered and feed and semi-trimmed. So happy to find out it wasn't me who made these lack luster tomatoes!
calistoga_al ca 15 usda 9
16 years ago
Be glad you are not a farmer depending on your harvest to pay the bills. When I lived in Watsonville about 1960 a couple of farmers planted acreage in pole beans, and were blessed with an exceptionally warm summer and a bumper crop at a good price. Next year several observant farmers jumped into the big money crop. Unfortunately the Pajaro Valley was back to its normal foggy summer that allows lettuce and strawberries to produce all summer. One farmer showed me a shoebox full of string beans, his production from 20 acres. When people assure me they know what the weather will bring next year, I just shake my head, and am glad I am not the farmer my father was, and am amazed we survived the 1930s. Al