The First Big Tomato
July 14 - July 20, 2025
Weekly journal of a Midwest gardener…
Monday, July 14, 2025
I have proven that even on the busiest days, you can find a few minutes to go out to the garden for a look-see, a pick-a-few, plus a pull-a-bit. Today, I had a quick look-see around the garden, I picked a few cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, and I pulled a bit of weeds. If you do the same, do be careful, as one weed leads to another, and you are at risk of getting all dirty and sweaty!
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
What in the world! I sure have some nerve letting all those weeds grow another day. But I was busy in the morning, and then in the afternoon, we had a pop-up thunderstorm that left 0.20 inches of rain in the rain gauge. And ever since I retired, I usually don’t garden in the evenings, so if I miss the morning window of opportunity… maybe I should be a bit more flexible about when I work in the garden?1
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
First, I planned to only harvest a few vegetables early before cleaning up, eating breakfast, and running errands. Then I decided to also quickly plant out some hollyhock seedlings. But weeds were in the way. So I pulled them out, planted the seedlings, and then just kept going with the weeding until I had finished weeding the entire flower border around the Vegetable Garden Cathedral.2 Ta Da!
Thursday, July 17, 2025
I spent a little time in the morning doing what I call a quiet little clean-up. I cut back the suckers coming up around the base of my crabapple tree (which were interfering with the little garden fairy area) and pulled some other weeds in the area. I also watered all the houseplants and tidied them up a bit. When I threw the bag of weeds and trimmings into the trash bin at the curb, I discovered someone had thrown their trash bag in my bin on top of the one tiny bag I had put in there.3
Friday, July 18, 2025
I took one look at the weather forecast and decided that in spite of a busy day outside of the garden, I would squeeze in mowing the lawn, which I did late in the afternoon. Turning that front lawn into an organic oasis is proving to be a bit of a challenge, but I remain convinced (delusional?) that over time, a lovely ecosystem of grasses with pockets of clover, dandelions, plantain, violets, etc. will result in a mostly lush green look, as long as I keep it properly mowed and trimmed, and feed it occasionally with a bit of organic fertilizer.4
Saturday, July 19, 2025
Yet another day with a brief thunderstorm in the late afternoon.5 But it didn’t disrupt my gardening time, which was over by then, because I went out early again. I picked a lot of peppers, a few green beans, a handful of cherry tomatoes, and one medium-sized tomato. I also fertilized everything growing in a container and cut back some of the petunias that were looking a little scruffy.6
Sunday, July 20, 2025
“Showers in the vicinity” was the forecast, and the first raindrops arrived around 11 am. I managed to run out and pick a few cherry tomatoes from the garden, enough for several days of salads. I also edited the weekly podcast and managed not to fall back into some of the rabbit holes we discussed when we recorded it on Friday.7 All in all, it was a good day for reading, following bread crumbs, and falling into new rabbit holes. The garden will be there tomorrow.
That’s a Week!
I did indeed pick the first big tomato this week, on Wednesday. The variety was ‘German Johnson.’ Whenever I grow that particular variety, it is generally the first big tomato of the season. Later on Wednesday, I bought some fancy bacon, then made a BLT to enjoy on Thursday, recalling a long-ago episode of one of the many Martha Stewart programs where she made a BLT… tomato from her garden, bacon from some fancy place in Vermont, sourdough bread from San Francisco, and homemade mayo. I assume she also grew the lettuce. In my case, everything but the tomato came from a local grocery store: sourdough bread and lettuce from Aldi, bacon and avocado oil mayo from Fresh Thyme. Delicious!
What Else Did I Show Up This Week?
I wrote a blog post on the 15th about what’s blooming in my garden. There was also a new podcast episode of The Gardenangelists after a break for the Fourth of July weekend.
Quotable
“He thought over the things that had passed since the morning, and marvelled how so much could happen in the span of a day.” ~ R.C. Sherriff, The Fortnight in September: A Novel (1931)
Have a great gardening week!
I finished reading The Fortnight in September by R. C. Sheriff, first published in 1931. It’s one of those quiet books where we follow a family as they travel to the seaside for their annual two-week holiday.
I can report that, based on my observation while weeding, purslane does grow as if the devil were in it. I’m growing some of the biggest, healthiest purslane I’ve ever grown, and pulled, and no, I am not going to eat it. “Grows as is if the devil is in it” (or something close to that) was written by Charles Dudley Warner in his 1899 book, My Summer in a Garden, to describe “pusley” as he called purslane.
An unexpected extra bag in your trash bin would make a good beginning for a book. Innocent gardener tosses a bag of trash in her bin, which is waiting at the curb to be picked up and dumped, only to discover another bag in the bin that wasn’t hers. What was in it? Who put it there? Were they trying to distance themselves from that bag? Did it contain evidence of a ghastly crime? Would they have chosen another bin if hers had been full? Or did they choose her bin specifically? Why is the trashcan so late in coming today?
My neighbor was out spot-treating some weeds in his lawn, using one of those gallon containers with an attached sprayer. It has the same name as it has had for years (starts with R, ends with P), but does not contain the same herbicide of years past. It has something worse in it, in my humble opinion. He wasn’t wearing gloves or protecting his face. Ugh. Not safe. At all.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a weather pattern that delivers a brief thunderstorm sometime late in the day, but we had several brief showers like that this past week. I kind of like them.
On Saturday, I started listening to Mrs. Porter Calling, by AJ Pearce. It’s the third in a series. I read the first in the series, Dear Mrs. Bird, back in June, and would have started listening to the second in the series, Yours Cheerfully, but my library didn’t have the audiobook available. I checked out the eBook version and plan to go back and read it after I finish listening to Mrs. Porter Calling. The fourth book in the series, Dear Miss Lake, comes out on August 5th. I’ve requested the audiobook and the ebook for it from my library. They estimate it will take approximately 11 weeks until either one is available.
I also finished reading North Woods by Daniel Mason, a most unusual story in which the main character is a house and the woods surrounding it in western Massachusetts. It won numerous awards and was on several “best of” lists the year it was published.