First of all, I want to mention (because I keep forgetting!) that I haven’t seen the groundhog since about the weekend of June 18! Maybe Mr. Groundhog got discouraged because I brought the herbs inside (I still haven’t found a good way to have my pots inside. I was hoping to find an inexpensive baker’s/plant rack to elevate them out of the groundhog’s reach and put them back on the porch, but no luck finding one so far. Anyone have suggestions?).
Yesterday I went out and did a bit of garden maintenance. Like I said in a previous post, the mulch has done wonders for suppressing weeds. I have no idea how I could have thought to manage without it! Maybe you can tell from the top picture how crazy and jungle-like the garden was getting…{click any of the photos in this post to see them larger}
The bottom photo shows the “after” look. Maybe it’s not so obvious from the photos, but there was a lot to be done to the tomato plants themselves. I trimmed a ton of suckers** off of them and actually just pruned some of the large, sprawling branches. I also threaded escapee branches back into the tomato cages. Note to self: stay on top of trimming those suckers!
Here are some photos showing the progress of the zucchini, cucumber, pepper, and tomato plants!
**P.S. When I say suckers, I am not using it in the slangy sense (although it’s kind of funny when you read it that way!). I’m talking about the extra branches that grow out of the crooks of my indeterminate tomato vines. According to McGee and Stuckey (see full book info in my Garden tab), you pinch off suckers to prevent bushy foliage and few fruits.
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