It’s been a long time….

So it’s time for an update!

My husband and I were in Corsica for two weeks, which is part of the reason there have been no updates on this blog for a good long while. The other part of the reason is that I have been very busy with research (partly due to the fact that I took a 2-week vacation!) But we’re back, and I’m still getting back into the swing of things… even though we’ve been back for a bit already.

While I was gone, my best friend took care of the garden. And boy, did she do a fantastic job! She not only watered it and made sure everything was okay each time she came, she also did some hand-pollinating of cucumbers, kept track of the produce from the garden (25 tomatoes, and 4 cucumbers while we were gone!!), and even kept a fantastic journal of how the plants were doing each day and how the weather was acting. She even sent me pictures partway through our trip! And on top of all that, she and her husband made fantastic tomato sauce from tomatoes from our gardens (theirs is in-ground) and left us a good portion of it in our freezer to enjoy when we got home! Totally above the call of duty! I am so grateful, I can hardly express it. Thank you, J!!!!!!

So of course, the garden is in fantastic shape (it always thrives under J’s care!) and the next wave of tomatoes is about to hit. We also have some cucumbers about ready to be picked (thanks to the hand-pollination done while we were gone) and the pepper plants are bending over from the weight of the peppers that are growing on them.

Do pepper plants need support, just like tomatoes? I’ve never heard of that before (not that I’ve done so much research into it)… but my plants are extra-bendy, it seems. Plus, the stems are pretty fragile. On a day closer to when we arrived home, I was out on the balcony gloating over my plants ( ) and I brushed past a pepper plant (hardly touching it) and the whole stem snapped off (two small peppers, included). So I’m wondering if there’s something wrong that is making the plants so weak. They are very tall (what’s the typical height?) — perhaps too much nitrogen is making them extra leafy.

I fertilized the garden last Sunday– my plan is to fertilize about once per month (this will be the second time) unless the plants look like they need more.

Now that I’m back, hopefully I’ll be posting more frequently (and of course, with pictures).