Do Plants Wear Panty Hose ?

This morning as I was cleaning out my purse I found a panty hose sock provided by the store where I had been trying on sandels. Stupid little thing. As I was about to pitch it I said wait just a minute panty hose-panty hose.! Now gardeners know how great panty hose are for tieing up plants and my tomatos are screaming for some help. Lots and lots of vine. Yes, I know from the gal famous for her sucker pinching skills. Well, I kind of forgot to tell you there was a pretty good time laspe where I didn't get to the tomato patch to sucker. My supply of old ratty panty hose is long gone. Wearing panty hose is just not part of my lifestyle now. Besides now it is fashionable to go with out panty hose. You just spray tan and go, even in the winter. Oh my gosh proper ladies would never hear of such a thing. So I am excited to go to the tomato patch and say look what I have a dangle the precious pany hose sock before them. Alas it is only one. Hmmmm maybe I should go shoe shopping again. Very very tempting. Now fancy farmerete don't even think such thoughts. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?

Ah a sweet garden scent

I really hate deadheading flowers, but there is one garden task I love to do, what I call "suckering" the tomato plants. It's where you pinch off the newly forming vine in between 2 already formed vines in that perfect little "v". I know there is better terminology for this but it is far too late for me to say it any better. Frankly, I think it is an art and I can do it perfectly having a keen eye for those little suckers. It's kind of like diagraming sentences in English class. I was always very good at that, but never really knew how it helped in learning the parts of sentences. Many of my classmates really struggled with this task. So suckering tomato plants is kind of like that, I know it cuts down on the vine so more energy will go into producing bigger tomatos, but if you miss a few it is not the end of the gardening kingdom. I just like to do this. When I come in from the tomato patch, my daughter will say" You have been in the tomato patch again I can smell them on you. Ah, the sweet smell of fresh, green tomato leaf essense. A fragrance company called Demeter has all kinds of interesting scents and by golly they have one called"Tomato". Tomato. Tamata, maters hmmmmmmmmmmm. slurp. Love tomatoes? check out this blog by a 95 year old from Knoxville Tennessee. tomatogardeningwithhdad.blogspot.com

Sex in the Garden

Finally the foliage has sprung forth in my garden. The green peppers are tall and will probably fall over from top heaviness. The squash is looking great but alas it bears no fruit. At first I thought it had a fungus, but the foliage was growing lush and beautiful. Then peeking underneath I saw a bee, a beautiful buzzing bee and I realized that was maybe the first bee that had touched the tender flowers. Oh sweet tenderness. Later that evening flipping through a magazine there in front of me was the tentilating secret, " How to polinate your non-fruit bearing squash." Because of the bee shortage ( I knew that) your plants may not be receiving the polination that the bees provide by skipping from the male to the female flower. To determine the male flower look for a long slender stem and then find the female flower which will have a slight bulb at the base. Take a small paint brush or q-tip and transfer the yellow powder like pollen from the male flower to the female flower."Yikes right there in black and white, sex in the garden" Oh my. The next morning I rather sheepishly picked up some q-tips and headed to the garden. This is so embarrasing I thought. I looked under the leaves and to my great relief I saw fruit! I dropped the q-tips and ran to the house.