After years of limited success with our tomato garden, this spring my husband devoted himself to the task of raising some really excellent fruit. He read websites and articles, talked to friends and gardeners, gleaning every morsel of useful advice he could find. It wasn’t long before he decided some radical change was needed, including a new location for our raised beds along with chicken wire lining to keep out the gophers. Soon after, he was hauling in fresh dirt by hand and enriching it with odd items like aspirin and eggshells. By mid-May our plants looked glorious, full and lush, covered in delicate yellow flowers and abundant green orbs. We gazed out on the newly fertile earth with pride, in anticipation of the literal fruits of his labors.
One day early in July, out of nowhere, our bubble burst. It began with a few telltale signs – a broken branch, a stem chewed through. We puzzled for a bit, but with chicken wire lined beds we felt confident the culprits couldn’t be gophers. Must be rabbits we surmised. Granted gophers have taken over our yard, more or less, riddling the lawn with dark round holes (treacherous to unsuspecting ankles) and unsightly piles of fresh dirt that we try, with little success, to ignore.
The home of Thomomys bottae, aka Mr. Pocket Gopher
By the next morning it had become painfully obvious – with several plants completely gnawed through – gophers indeed were at work. Turns out, a small gap in the chicken wire lining was allowing entry, with disastrous results.
Our tactic with critters has always been peaceful coexistence. We are a family of mostly vegetarian pacifists. Skillful in catching bugs and spiders, we carefully relocate them from the house. With earnest delight, we watch the myriad creatures in our yard that neighbors avoid, at best, but oftentimes trap, exterminate or even report to 911 (bobcats – but that’s another story). Our daughters – girls who have never so much as intentionally squashed an ant in their lives – can’t even think about harming a living being, no matter how destructive. In theory, I am fully in support. In the cold, harsh reality of vegetable gardening however, there have been moments when I’ve harbored vindictive thoughts – this was one of those occasions.
Once we finished our finger pointing and teeth gnashing, we focused on starting over from scratch. This included carefully moving the two remaining plants and relining the beds – this time using extra staples for good measure. We planted anew complete with aspirin, eggshells and as many positive healing thoughts as we could muster. It’s now past mid September, and we’ve reaffirmed our commitment to non-violence, with no sign of our adversary’s return. Amazingly the plants we managed to salvage were so healthy that they not only survived being transplanted twice, they are also the healthiest tomato plants we have ever raised. Our “mortgage lifter” tomatoes are finally ripening – way behind schedule, but that may not be due as much to gopher trauma as to the cool summer weather this year. The tomatoes we’ve harvested have been sweet, juicy and full of flavor – well worth the wait.
We’ve learned from this experience – that flexibility, persistence and good humor are essential to survive and especially to enjoy backyard farming (I imagine this applies to large scale farming as well). Plus some really good dirt, a couple of aspirin and a few other tricks go a long way toward healthy tomato plants. Of course, we won’t forget to staple the mesh in a few extra places as well.
If you’re interested in backyard farming, check out the following website for some tricks of the trade: Love Apple Farms
And check out the story behind the famous Mortgage Lifter heirloom tomato.
Recipes for the Week:
What’s better, as we hang onto the last threads of summer weather (even if the season is officially over), than the sweet, juicy goodness of a homegrown tomato? They don’t need much more than a drizzle of good olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and fresh pepper. Cooler weather is just around the corner and with it, time to say “goodbye” to tomatoes with actual flavor for another year. So let’s savor this glorious summer fruit while we can.
Here are a few simple ideas:
Wheatberry, Tomato and Fresh Greens Salad
