On rain and tomatoes

It's been raining for two days but this morning it suddenly stopped and the sun came out.  It has been a very dry summer and the plants are thankful for the rain.  No amount of chlorinated city water can take the place of mother nature.  The sun beckoned me away from my desk to check out the garden.  I found some snap peas happily climbing on the fava beans near the hazelbert.  For some reason the soil is richer around that tree and the guild is all working together as it should be.  If I could replicate that to the other trees, I would be pretty happy.  The pumpkin vines are out of control and I should have a bumper crop if the start making pumpkins soon!  The other squash in the hugelkultur bed are faring not so well... they seem to be a bit nitrogen-starved because their leaves are pale and yellowish.  I will try using fish fertilizer to give them a boost, although I fear it may be too late.  

I am doing an experiment to find a way to grow tomatoes outside.  I made two cylinders out of chicken wire and planted tomato plants around them.  I filled one with unfinished compost and left the other one empty, but draped row cover over it to provide more heat.  The one with the compost is doing way better, even though the compost registers only 80 degrees.  I think where it really helps is retaining heat through the night.  We only have 6 weeks left of summer, so we will see how many tomatoes we get.  I also planted tomato plants through special black plastic which lets air and water in but does not let weeds grow.  I then stuck huge jugs filled with water between the plants.  It worked like a charm and we are already getting red tomatoes off of those plants.  

I wander over to the strawberries and marvel at how there can already be huge red ones when I just picked yesterday.  They are so sweet and juicy.  I can't believe that everyone doesn't have giant strawberry patches in their yard.  How simple and rewarding they are!  A few red raspberries call me over to eat them.  Heavenly!  And here are some snow peas that I forgot I planted in among them, going gangbusters!  What a sweet surprise!  Just another amazing day in the garden!