A Post from Peabrain

This is my first venture into vegetable gardening, so you can enjoy all our mistakes. My husband and I were inspired by Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot method of vegetable gardening. This was attractive because our soil is poor, and frankly, in the sunny spot we had available, nothing will grow except weeds. However, the original square foot method calls for 6-inch high beds, and we did not think that would be deep enough for Denton because of the extreme summer heat. My husband built two raised 4x8-foot beds. One is two feet deep, and the other is one foot deep. He filled them with Dyno Soil from the City of Denton, and in late March we planted about 20 tomato plants that we grew from seed. I complained that the plants were too close together, would get fungus, would compete for nutrients, etc. etc. But I planted them where he told me to plant them because he hasn’t listened to me in 15 years. The plants sat there inert for several weeks, and we finally decided the soil did not have enough nutrients. We should have had the soil tested (soiltesting.tamu.edu), but being a lazy gardener, it was easier to add fertilizer. I made manure tea from llama manure; a few weeks later I added a commercially-available organic fertilizer made from chicken litter. Our little plants began to grow and bloom.

We went out of town for a few days at the beginning of June, and when we returned, all of these lovely tomatoes were waiting for us. Considering we have salty well water and do not use pesticides, I think they look good, but I will admit they do not taste as good as the tomatoes I remember from my childhood. Memory being as slippery as it is, I’m not certain whether Daddy’s tomatoes really tasted that much better or not. At any rate, I started thinking about what determines the flavor. Being the complete research nerd that I am, I looked it up. This is what I found from Oxford University’s Journal of Experimental Botany: Fresh tomato fruit flavour is the sum of the interaction between sugars, acids, and a set of approximately 30 volatile compounds synthesized from a diverse set of precursors, including amino acids, lipids, and carotenoids. Some of these volatiles impart desirable qualities while others are negatively perceived. Well, I’m certainly glad I looked that up. Lipids? Acids? Should I give them Lipitor or Tums?

Does anyone recognize the lobed tomato at the front? I remember seeing similar ones in France last year. Unfortunately, in transferring seeds to cups, then pots, then outdoors, then indoors and back several times, we did not successfully transfer the seed packets. (Note to self: Next year, mark the pots.) In addition to being lazy, I am also disorganized.