A mediocre garden year with a bonus

It was a mediocre garden year in Niagara Falls but the best we’ve had since moving here.

The good news: I am still getting tomatoes and soil is close to what I like, rich, well-developed. To have four Roma plants still producing this late is victory, in spite of Canada thistle, which is nasty.

The reason for the tomatoes is they are on the north side of the garden, adjacent to, but not under the awning for our back deck. I think frost drifts in from north to south and the awning, and the thistle and fennel that took over, are guarding the Romas. I remember years ago reading an article about Amish people letting weeds go in their tomato patch for just such an advantage. It has frosted here at least 4 times but not on our tomatoes. I wish I'd paid attention sooner.

Special credit goes to Barbie Ventry, the best dogsitted ever. She watered our garden in early June while we were visiting the Canadian Maritimes.

Then there is the matter of compost/soil. The space where I have been building our soil, once had a swimming pool on a bed of sand. Getting the soil right has taken a few years and a lot of homemade compost.

I don’t put leaves, branches or kitchen waste in the Casella bins. Instead, we have a big pile out back. It is crude, rustic and way less sophisticated than what we used to have in Clarence, where we had a 20-by-20 vegetable garden.

We lived in our last home for 19 years. It took me about 10 to figure out the best place for a garden was near the house and to get the soil right. 5 years is an improvement.

I used to have a very functional composting system with a big pile for leaves and kitchen waste and a secondary system for intermediate to finished product. I would renovate once a year.

I would pull the top off the secondary bin, emptying the bottom into the garden. Then I would pull the top off the primary pile and refill the secondary half way, topping it with the old bottom from the primary.

Finally, I would fill with leaves and fall waste and put the old middle part of the primary on top. I do something similar now but all in one pile. It takes about two years but once established, it saves on expensive things lime peat and manure.