It is caprese time in my little orto! Thank goodness. I am of the belief that the one thing everyone who gardens should have in their summer garden is tomatoes. Nothing tastes as good as a tomato warm from the sun. I enjoy all the fruit and vegetables I am able to harvest from my small garden but tomatoes are the thing I relish the most. And they have become one of the hardest things for me to manage. Years ago I had an abundance of tomatoes...my garden was apparently teeming with tomatoes. That must have been the beginning of the dark times. Hidden in that long ago post I mentioned that I was wondering about the possibility of root knot nematodes. A possibility that was confirmed soon thereafter. Since then I have solarized the garden one year, cover-cropped with French marigolds one year, planted all susceptible plants in containers, and, for the last 2 years, planted susceptible plants in spots that were dug out to 2x2 foot holes and filled with planting mix. There are also some peppers and tomatoes in containers. All of these attempts helped but I have not come close to the harvests of the past.
This year I realized something. I don't need to have my garden teem with tomatoes. I just need enough for caprese a few times a week and maybe a few slices for sandwiches.
Which makes it all the more maddening to find tomatoes with bites out of them. It appears that some critter has decided it likes garden ripe tomatoes too. The choices are squirrels, birds, possums, and the disgusting roof rats that like to run on the power lines at dusk. This fix is a little easier. I have begun picking tomatoes that are just short of being what I consider ripe and it appears the critter(s) were planning to wait too because this has mostly worked. I still find some totally green Juliettes lying about half eaten but it has been almost a week without a red tomato being eaten. As gardeners know it is always something. And so, as long as I have enough tomatoes, I will consider it a good summer harvest.
