the little garden that could

Last summer I bought a few tomato plants, but then a fungus got them (the same fungus that caused the potatoes to rot in the fields of Ireland in the 1800's) and I didn't get more than a few mouthfuls of produce. So perhaps I bit off a little more than I could chew when I bought 12 tomato seedlings and 6 crookneck squash seedlings at the garden shop last month. I didn't really think about what would happen if they actually grew and produced.



We had a bit of a glitch when the baby squash started turning brown, but a quick Google search told me that it was blossom end rot, caused by a lack of calcium in the soil. Maine's very acid soils are great for blueberries, but not so great for veggies. I tossed a couple of handfuls of lime, which supplies calcium and raises the pH, around each plant while Charlie raked it in and Maggie watered. (Note the clover which I interplanted as a cover crop. They are NOT weeds, Charlie is a great weeder.) Two weeks later we are overwhelmed with 4-5" squash, more than I can saute with onion, even if I ate it every night for supper.



This afternoon I'm going to offer some to the drywall guys and hope that they take some home as well as investigate the possibility of giving some to the local food bank. I better hurry 'cause the tomatoes seem to all be poised to ripen next week and while I am salivating at the thought of a ripe tomato sandwich, a girl can only eat so many BLTs.