All in!

This is the "before" picture of our big, open-ended hoophouse. As one can see, I neglected to clean up the ground cloth and soaker hose from last year, yet at least I didn't have to go hunting for it. Works for me.

There is something about freshly and finely tilled soil that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I can't explain it any more than some aspect of this farm thing is in my genes, perhaps from when we upright hominids decided to do a little less hunting and gathering and a bit more cultivating. Or, it could be just a tractor thing. My 17 horsepower John Deere lawn tractor has no trouble with tall grass as long as I go slow. A couple passes over the patch of ground, and the area is ready to be tilled. I initially was going to use my hand tiller, yet thought better of it. I pulled up the t-posts and used the 55-in. tiller on the back of the Kubota. Work smarter, not hearter, right?

In this picture (row by row and left to right): Kamo Eggplant; Cherokee Purple tomatoes; Pineapple and Roma tomatoes; Dagma's Perfection and Grandma Mary's tomatoes; and, Rosa Bianca eggplant. The Dagma's Perfection are very similar to Pineapples, and the Grandma Mary's tomatoes are a Roma type. I'm testing for size, flavor and, perhaps most importantly, time until harvest. Pineapple and Roma tomatoes typically are the last to ripen and we loose a lot of produce because of that.

While we have a mild climate that translates into a longer growing season for some plants, in the case of large tomatoes and eggplant, we just don't get the heat required for them to grow well. The daytime can be warm enough, but at night the temperature rarely stays above 60°F, and the plants in question cease to grow and ripen fruit. The hoophouse and ground cloth help a bit and we actually manage a decent crop in a small area.

So, yes, the garden is pretty much all in. Now the weeding begins.