Tomaters!

[errantember]

So I've had this tomato and pepper garden up front for this season. I planted my out-of-control seedlings just in time for the temperature both day and night to stay above the ones necessary for fruit set. As a result, I've had an entire summer of healthy blooming with virtually no tomatoes. My Sweet 100s have produced two or three tiny, .05 oz cherry tomatoes now and then, but every other variety I've had in the garden has been virtually 100% tomato-free. However, in what I'm hoping is a wild change in trends, I saw my very first fall-season non-cherry tomato set today! I'm very excited. It was on my Better Boy tomato plant, and it's already about the size of the tiny cherries I've been ironically logging weight on all summer.

I'm also having somewhat of a crisis in choosing food-growth methods for the future coop. The entire point of a permaculture coop is to show people how to live with as little impact on the land as possible, preferably being a positive force for soil and habitat restoration. In pursuit of that, I've been researching different food-growing methodologies. In addition to a long-term permaculture plan including fruit trees and perennials, I had decided to do Biointensive gardening. It's main advertised feature is high-density food production in a way that actually restores soil and doesn't require very much outside input (except labor) once it's established. It was specifically designed to help people grow foods and restore soil in hostile environments. It's a complete gardening system that tells you how to do just about everything. However, it has it's detractors and critics, among them a local permaculturalist for whom I have a great deal of respect. Any kind of gardening methodology requires a great deal of commitment, so I'm kind of hemming and hawing, my natural state of Action-Taking.

Comments

[goudananda.livejournal.com]

I notice a tendency within the permaculture community that I notice within other communities who adopt a certain ideology. They get stuck. People seem to fixate on one particular idea, concept or something they see as immutable and at times can't see the forrest for the trees. In the end I think it's most important to try things and see what works for you. I think doing biointensive beds to grow annuals then working on perennials, shrubs and fruit trees is all good. For me it's more about what works, every situation isn't the same and with either I think you're adding to the soil, growing things and moving towards a good goal. The advantage is that you're actually doing it, observing as you go, tweaking and letting nature teach you as you work. No book can do that.

It's almost in a sense doing stuff so you can fail. Once it doesn't work you go, um...I think I'll try something else. Good luck with everything and let me know if you need any input of ideas or labor.

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

I myeself, (who hasn't started yet, just ahem, plot-ing right now), am planning to use a combination of different systems: organic, intensive, raised beds, companion planting, gardening by the moon, etc. I think it is probably important to use whatever bits of different methods work best for you area of the country, your individual yard and needs, and your own abilities. Course I do that with my religion too, so that may just be me. :)

[gailmom.livejournal.com]

oh, but glad to hear your fall tomatoes are looking more promising!

[errantember.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Biointensive integrates organic, intensive, raised beds, companion planted, and gardening by the moon, among other things.
Egg Shen had a similar observation about the Chinese picking the parts of various religions they liked and trashing the rest.
See you soon!