I’m feeling yucky, and I am so tired. Thus the extended silence this weekend. Mostly, I have been sleeping and knitting and reading. Real exciting stuff!

I did get up off my butt today though and go out to the garden. Lettuce season is over, and the Black Seeded Simpson had to go. It totally sucked to pull it all up and toss it on the compost pile, but it was starting to bolt (go to seed) and the flavor was awful. They were also crowding out the carrots and scallions. I left three of them to go to seed for planting again this fall. I’m never happy about having to pull up plants for any reason –even a good one– but I’m sure the scallions and carrots are thrilled to have the extra space. Not sure what I am going to plant there next. Maybe more carrots and radishes.

There are loads of tomatoes on all the plants except the Roma, Pineapple, and Brandywine. The Roma’s grow slowly, so they’ll come alone when they are ready. They look good, though small, and one of them is getting some flowers on it, so all I can do is wait for them to kick into gear. The Pineapple is from seed I saved from a farmers market tomato, and I have no idea how it’s going to end up doing. They are growing even more slowly than the Roma plants. I hope they eventually produce a few tomatoes, but if not, I just won’t plant them again. Brandywine’s are, from what I hear, picky plants, and they may not be very happy. I have two of them. One is tiny and puny. The other hit a growth spurt last week –finally tall enough I had to cut the gap in the support for it to grow through– and it’s getting some flowers on it. That one will probably end up doing OK, but the tiny one may get pulled out. No time to waste on 4″ tall tomato plants this late in the game.

I see why people like hybrid tomatoes. The two small hybrid plants I bought are now quite large and have bunches of green tomatoes on them. I have little doubt they will be the big producers this summer, and I am also certain the tomatoes will be tasty. I think next summer I will plan on having a few hybrids, even though I am opposed to the idea of plants that don’t produce viable seed or breed true. All the same, I will be happily eating a home-grown tomato in a couple of weeks, which makes me happy. Until I find (or breed) an open-pollinating tomato that produces quickly, easily, and early, I guess there will be at least one or two hybrids in my garden. Not the end of the world.

The only other big gardening news today is about the squash. It’s been blooming like crazy the last couple of days, and more and more blooms appear every time I look at them! I have also seen bees doing their bee work and pollinating my squash. Yippee! So far there are already a couple of early squash set on, so very soon, we will be eating some squash too. Can’t wait!

Oh … my bean and fennel seeds arrive yesterday! Good thing too. In the next few days, I’ll be picking the beans, and most of the plants will be coming out, having spent themselves and grown as many beans as they could. I’m really pleased with the level of bean production, but I needed to have planted more beans to have any to freeze. Next year, since I have to rotate crops anyway, I think I’ll plant the current tomato bed with nothing but beans and some herbs. That would give me three or four times more beans for each planting, and I’m pretty sure that would mean getting to eat green beans during the winter out of the freezer.

I also learned something about fennel. Apparently, nothing likes to grow near it other than more fennel, and it cross pollinates with carrots to ruin both crops. Great, I decided to plant something that is picky. Ugh. I have until July to decide where to put the fennel, and at the moment, I am looking at the front flower bed. If it inhibits the weeds and grasses there, it would be a good thing, and since fennel needs a fairly poor soil, well the front flower bed has really crappy soil. Of course, that means I need to finish clearing out the front flower bed by July. I am so not looking forward to that. Maybe I can get Lin to help.

I’m feeling the need to not be sitting in this uncomfortable chair. It’s time to move back to the couch and knit some more while watching Lin playing Grand Theft Auto. I better feel better and more energetic tomorrow, because it’s time to make one of those huge grocery shopping trips. We are out of everything! I’d meant to go this morning, but I just couldn’t get myself moving at all. Therefore, Lin went and got donuts for brunch, and tonight we’ll be having some kind of fast food. Not that I mind the fast food at all. I feel entirely too crappy to do any serious cooking^†. Ripping out the lettuce used up just about the very last drop of my energy. In fact, I think instead of doing any more knitting, I will take a nap. Yes, a nap before dinner sounds wonderful. :yawn:

1. † No, it’s not the flu. I feel crappy because I am a middle-aged woman going through “the change” … which is synonymous with “feeling crappy” ALL the time (or at least it feels like all the time). I’d almost rather it was the flu, because at least that’s over in a few weeks and not a few years! [↩]