What’s in the ground:

As the summer season kicks in, I find that the biggest question I’m being asked by first time gardeners is, “What do I do with my tomatoes?” This question is usually asked with a good mix of excitement, pride, and sheer fear. Although the heavy rains of spring and hot temperatures of early summer have wreaked havoc on other plants, the summer is shaping up to be a great tomato season. And for most of these novice gardeners, they are shocked that they were able to grow such lush and thriving plants on their first try, but are a bit overwhelmed by all the growth. So here’s my advice, prune. The few times I’ve given this advice to gardeners this season, they look at me, then the plant, and then back to me with an expression that seems to say, “But they’re so big.” This may be so, but you must put pride aside. If  not maintained, even the lushest plant won’t be worth the gardener’s time. Too much low lying fruit adds unneeded stress to the plants weaker limbs, too much sporadic plant growth drains energy that can go towards producing fewer quality tomatoes rather than a huge quantity of mediocre tomatoes, and one of the hardest places to harvest is in a jungle of leaves.

So pruning is necessary to give good shape to the plant and improve growth, and it’s not that hard. First, obviously start off by clipping all dried out leaves. Sometimes, these yellow leaves could be signals of fungal disease, other times they are just thirsty. Either way you want them off the plant. Next, move up the plant, searching for places to thin. If a branch has a lot of yellow flowers or tomatoes, obviously you want to leave them. So go for branches that are cluttering the plant, or getting tangled with other plants. And don’t be afraid of cutting the wrong branch. If two branches are side by side and both have leaves, either one is going to produce, so it’s basically arbitrary. Just make sure you are keeping the plant even, with a good amount of branches up and down the plant, starting from about a foot off the ground. When you clip a branch, make sure to use good, clean garden shears, and cut as close to the stem as possible to save energy. Also, never prune before or after a rain or watering. Doing so invites disease. But not pruning at all will only get you a mess of a plant and hard to reach fruit. So take care of those tomato plants and they’ll take care of you.

What’s going on at the homestead:

It’s good that I took up so much space with my garden tip because there’s not too much to report on the homestead. We did find out one of our chickens is a rooster. I can actually hear him crowing in the yard as I write this entry. It may seem cool, but he’s actually getting a little annoying as he’s chasing the hens around the coop, trying to mount them. He will actually be the subject of the next installment.

But for now, all I can say is that life is really pleasant around here. It’s the first summer that I’m not working for a major organization, which is giving me time to wake up every morning, let the chickens out to run the yard while I refill there water, check on the bees to watch them make their comb, and do little projects around the house. I actually just chopped down some bamboo at a neighbors house, bound three large pieces together to make a stud, of which I made three, put them into the ground, and then bound other pieces of bamboo together to make an arbor where I’ll have my grapes grow up. I’m putting up a clothes line today, and tending to my berry bushes each evening.

These experiences have become so routine, that insight rarely strikes me, yet every now and then, it does. This usually comes when I stop and think, “I have a book out that needs to be marketed, I have no steady income, should I really be out here chasing chickens and watching bees?” Well, when I get to thinking like that, I take another look around at the world Elissa and I created for ourselves and the creatures around us. Sure, I need money and I want to be successful, but there’s just something about this pace of life that I wouldn’t give up for anything. And as I create my success, and as I start to think of ways to make money, I’m glad I’m doing these things around a homestead lifestyle, rather than trying to fit the homestead lifestyle into a busy professional schedule.

I can’t say for sure where all of these things will lead, and I can’t say if everything I plant in the ground, both figuratively and literally, will bear fruit, but I can say that life is really good this season, and I’ll figure those other things out in the next one. So until then, keep those tomatoes pruned and stop every now and then to take a look around at your possible homestead. And stay tuned next time as I take urban homesteading to a whole new level.

Until then, this is the note from the urban homestead.

-Nic