Stiches, and little bits.

Right now everything is in little bits.

Like this:

 

Little bits of handfuls. Little handfuls of grapes. YUMMM

Little handfuls of Everglades tomatoes...Usually in my little bits hands. The girls eat these like candy. They are technically a wild tomato possibly more closely related to a currant. And, I like them so much better than most other cherry tomatoes. Those and Grannies Sungolds - the rest of the cherries will be pulled from the garden this week I just don't like the others flavors.

Little handfuls of parsley, basil for daily doses of cooking, dill, and green onions, and mulberries, too.

But what is coming in by the bushel? Rosemary! I wish I'd have taken a picture. AFTER taking off the wood I harvested 9 OUNCES of the stuff. Some people at work asked for some and I really wanted to get some back in my cupboard as well. This is one thing that grows with a vengeance in my garden and NO BUGS care to even look twice at it. I should have planted it at the end of the row rather than the middle - but that being the worst of my sins it could be moved if I really wanted to.

I haven't abandoned my blog, nor my garden. I've just been busy. Hubby went to the Spinal Institute of Florida this week and Thank GOD - no surgery. At least not yet. There are other options to explore first and so far he seems to be recuperating fairly well. THat is to say beyond the emotional scars that competitive tennis may not be in his future quite the way it has been in the past, and he may have to come up with a new hobby, sport and stress reliever. Tennis will have to be only for fun now. Poor guy. It's like taking oxygen out of the air for him. But, in time he'll adjust I'm sure.

The other thing I'm experiencing a little bit of is whiskers. It seems my son has grown some -

3 stitches. *sigh* When it rains it pours. And speaking of pouring - we've gotten over 6 inches of rain the last weak. It was great for some things in the garden, and not so great for others. It did finish wiping out what was week - and strengthened the things that needed that so all in all it was a good thing. I just don't have the heart to rip out some of my favorite things when there is a chance they could turn the corner and come back. This helped make my decisions easier. And with that another 30 gallon trash bag full of the suffering plants from 'the incident' have gone out of the garden. The turn around is nearly complete now and hopefully by the weekend the garden will be completely back to planted again.

Meanwhile I have no cucumbers producing which is a major shock to my system. It's very odd for us not to have some cukes in the garden at any given time that there hasn't been a frost. I'm trying to console myself with barely dilled pickles, but it's not working well. I may have to resort to the box store just for faster turn around. The rain dampened off all my seedlings I had started a couple weeks ago.

And, it's time for starting my fall tomatoes! My list for this seasons plants are (3 each):

 Stupice, Mountain Magic, Black, Matina, Tomande, and Chocolate cherry to trial

and my stand bys:  Roma, Cherokee Purple 

I'm running into problems with my HOA so I'm trialing the semi-determinate and determinates (and the cherry) to see if I can deal with the flavor/texture/maturation rates and sizes this fall. In the spring if all goes well I'll have a few of these determinates as well as some of my favorites again. So this weekend I will be planting up my first set of tomatoes for fall. I'm starting to worry about space for all of them, but I'm sure that my schedule will hold and they will go in the ground just like planned. Some day the second part of the garden will get done. At least part of it anyway.

'Till next time!

Barbie~