Gardendaze

When I was a kid, summer ended on Labor Day. That was when we packed up the “shore house,” (more or less) and returned to the “regular house” to start school. Of course, just into my teens we moved to the shore, so there was no more of that–we just watched other families do it and give our island paradise back to us.

These days, school doesn’t end until practically July 4th. And kids go back to school before Labor Day–a result of too many “snow” days that sometimes have nothing to do with snow, but with freak tropical storms or other disasters.

My town started school on August 26 and the neighboring town on August 27 this year–it was practically in the 90s! There’s something wrong about that. It was presumably our last “heat wave” of summer, although there will still be warm days.

And then there’s this: un-ripened tomatoes all over the place, a product of too many cool nights in the low 60s and sometimes upper 50s! I know I’m not alone in this; I’ve seen other garden bloggers lamenting the same thing.

While there are plenty of warm days ahead, the sun is at a much lower angle now and the gardens are just not getting the heat and intensity these plants need to ripen. Many of these tomatoes will ripen. And many of them will ripen, all winter long, on platters in my basement. They’ll be delicious–much better than store-bought–and I’ll have homegrown tomatoes up to the holidays probably.

But it’s just not the same as having them in the heat of them summer, fresh from the vine. Luckily I planted some cherry tomatoes too, and they obliged me!