i found growing veggies both easier and harder than i had thought it would be.
i had imagined myself effortlessly presiding over a patch of vegetables of findhorn-esque proportions. after all—i’m a sensitive and earthy person, sort of.
at least, i like picnics, and those are outdoors, right? gardening was going to be a breeze.
and in some sense it was. working in the dirt and sun (and even rain) was deeply theraputic and enjoyable, and my peas, aside from being ridiculously cute, flourished to the hight of ten feet. the beans did well, too, as did the lettuce and chard.
all of my squashy type things got some sort of wilt, though (watermelons, cukes, the works), and all - i mean all- of my root vegetables were riddled with little worm holes and inedible.
so sad.
the tomatoes were 50/50. the smaller ones did well, but the beefsteaks didn’t set until very late, despite all of our sun, and the few that ripened before the frost were mealy.
one thing i discovered is that there is a big difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes in terms of pruning. several of my indeterminate ones got out of hand before i realized this and cut them back.
so, for you novice tomato growers: determinate plants need only to have their “suckers” pinched (the little branches that grow in the “crotch” between a branch and the stem). this is because they have a genetically preset number of branches, flowers and even leaves. indeterminate ones, by contrast, will grow and spread until something stops them—like your scissors. or winter. one plant can cover 5 ft square! if left unpruned, the tomatoes will be smaller and poorer, so prune them ruthlessly!
