The tomatoes started off looking vibrate and healthy, and I even managed to get a few handfuls of tomatoes off the vines before the late blight that ravaged tomato plants across the country hit. In my years of gardening, that blight was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. One day the tomatoes are growing green and vigorous, with plenty of riping fruit, 3 days later the vines are crisp and dead and the fruit that looked so beautiful is rotting.
The herbs...basil, lemon balm, mint, rosemary, and tarragon all did well, and so did the zucchini plant.
Even though I did not get much of harvest, planting this little garden late in the season was well worth it, just to prepare the soil for planting this fall. We don't have dirt here, we have sand. Pure, unadulterated sand. Very easy to till, and soft and light for roots to develop in, but with very few nutrients for the plants. To prepare the soil for the tomatoes, I dug half bushel size holes in the lawn and filled them with compost (I transported my compost pile from my old home to here--and endured a lot of teasing from my husband because of it...how many people make moving the compost pile the top priority when moving?). Then I put down a inch thick layer of goat manure that was conveniently covering the floor of the little animal barn on our new property, then covered that with an inch of straw mulch to kill the grass between the tomatoes and to keep the weeds down.
Today I ripped out the dead plants and tilled up the soil to plant next year's garlic. The goat manure and straw had composted nicely and made a nice rich soil for the garlic. Next year this little plot will be the kitchen herb/cut flower garden. It is very conveniently located right outside my kitchen door.
And this will be the main garden next year:
(I love my little farm tractor!)
