The Garden is Finished

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When I left off last time I was transitioning from Tribute to Tye Dye with Hopi Dye Sunflowers to some yet unknown patch in my garden. Ah, what a sweet and philosophical post that was. Living in the moment seemed to be the happy go lucky way forward.

There have been many moments since. Most of them wet with rain. Others filled with coughing from a really bad cold. Somewhere in between my birthday, which I usually spend in the garden. Well this year that was not the case, it was a washout here. I did however, write the draft of this post, so I was working the virtual soil.

Stuff happens, it's unavoidable. When you look at your life and what you do as a story, you come to realize the magic is messy and uncontrollable at at times. It still adds to the narrative. Take for example all the rain we've had around here. While it's decimated my plans to get the plants in the ground, as well as two pepper plants, it showed me that I had a slight problem with my plot. 

This double plot has a rather large low spot that the rain settled. I was able to fix it by filling it in with some other dirt.  I'm glad I didn't plant anything there. I've been working my way around it for no reason really. A potential safety hazard, my food dropped about a foot, which the rain help to expose. Not every plot twist will reap the magic that the Mark Twain tomatoes did, but that does not make any less important. 

And now back to the fun part of this story, the patches. The transition never happened. The Hopi Dye Sunflowers were going to transition to a patch that I call Tennessee. Tennessee has a rich tradition in heirloom gardening, specifically tomatoes like Cherokee Purples, Aunt Ruby's German Green, and Lilian's Yellow, to name a few. I have Cherokee Purples and Cherokee Chocolates. It seemed perfect. The seeds from the Hopi Dye are used for dyeing, and they are named after one Native America nation would transition to another patch that featured Cherokee Purples, which are named after another Native American nation. The sunflowers would unite the two, except for the fact that my Family Garden Quilt was in the way. Smack dab in the middle of the two patches. So much for that. 

So now each patch will stand on its own, united by the fence that surrounds the plot, and the inclusion in this story. Tennessee has made a big splash into my life this year. It all started innocently enough, a gift of a package of Middle Tennessee Low Acid tomato seeds would arrive from tomatofest.com with my order. Who knew it was foreshadowing?

An intriguing tomato, a low acid red, I was grateful for the generosity and the tomato blessings from Gary Isben and Dagma Lacey. After all Tennessee is where I acquired the Mark Twains, and and an Israeli tomato plant which is a Greene County, Tennesse heirloom. It was great to acknowledge this content with a patch of plants.

The next patch over is what I like to consider a patch of history. I have a Painted Serpent Cucumber, which has been gracing gardens since the 1400's, Grandfather Ashlocks which is named after a descendant of a soldier who fought in the Revolutionary war, Red Figs, which has been around since the early 1800s, Watermelon Pink Beefsteaks, which have been around for ovwer 100 years, and Goose Creek, which are red tomatoes that a slave brought seeds with them from their home land, passed those seeds down through generations of her family. 

There's my Family Garden Quilt, and finally Gallimaufry, which could turn out to be the most intriguing of them all. It's here that I have the mystery seeds planted. These seeds came to me through a friend, from a friend of hers, an elderly Italian gentleman whose family plants these seeds in Sicily. George, the seed source, called them Bell tomatoes. The instructions that I got was to plant the paper towel. The seeds were dried on a paper towel. I did plant the paper towel, and these plants took off like rockets. I believe they are plum type. The plants have the look of plums and name Bell, can be used to describe a variety of plum tomato. As the plants grow, and more distinctive characteristics appear, I will know for sure. There are the Cour Di Bue tomatoes, an Italian oxheart, and and a couple Hinkelhatz hot pepper plants. They are one of the oldest Pennsylvania Dutch heirlooms. 

Also, me being me, and that's human, I forgot to record what some seeds were when I started them. Last year I got the Pineapples and Aunt Ruby's German Green mixed up. I was waiting for the Aunt Rubys to turn yellow. The first few just got rotten. As the Pineapples started to turn yellow I realized my mistake. I think the tomatoes I didn't record are Cherokee Purples, but I won't know until the fruits ripen. A little fun and mystery goes a long way.

And that's the garden. I love that I was able to create these patches using the heirloom qualities and the stories that my plants possess.