August 8, Tuesday

As I had suspected, chicken wire secure enough to exclude rodents tended to exclude me too. I pulled part of it down a couple times to tie up the tomatoes, but other than that and some watering, I pretty much let it be.

Sunday was fairly pleasant so I decided to dive in. Removed all the chicken wire. Found the tomatoes in a tangled mass, with some in the dirt and some ready for picking. After much pruning and tying up, we had this orderly scape, along with a small tomato harvest:

Gave two tomatoes to the neighbor who's been mowing my lawn while I let my broken toe mend. Ate one in a Greek(ish) salad. Baked a green one I found on a broken branch. Deeelish!

All season I've noticed that my eggplants and peppers appeared to be alive, but not growing. Finally got my test kit in the mail. Results, as best I can tell:

pH neutral (6.5-7.0)
Nitrogen depleted (none, nada, zip)
Phosphorus adequate
Potassium depleted

Thus inspired, I went to Lowe's yesterday and picked up some:

• Garden Club Select Organic Premium Plant Food (high in N and K)
• Miracle Grow Organic Choice Plant Food Concentrate (all N).

Gave the eggplants and peppers a dose of the Miracle Grow and spread all (1.25 lbs) of the Garden Club slow-release pellets around the base of the eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes. Last night's thunderstorms watered it all in. Today we have this:

If I thought it possible I'd say the eggplants (back row) doubled in size overnight. In any case, I'm hopeful and will give them as much of the Miracle Grow (made from fermented sugar beet molasses) as I think they can handle. Meanwhile all my carrots (tops eaten by vermin in June) are gone.