Piedmont Gardener

July 3 Harvest

Happy Independence Day, my fellow citizens of these United States of America! Today in this country where weather permits, picnics, cookouts, and camping trips will abound. Fresh tomatoes from gardens will adorn sandwiches, new potatoes will be the basis of salads, watermelon seed-spitting contests will ensue, all ending in nighttime pyrotechnical displays. Good times and good eating for many!

Yesterday, my tomatoes declared their independence day — independence from their vines, that is — as all seven varieties I’m growing this year produced vine-ripened fruits ready for picking. The beans and squash varieties also added to yesterday’s haul. Here are the numbers:

• 7 Fortex pole beans (they’re just getting started)
• 21 Jade bush beans (also just starting to produce)
• 5 Sweet Treats cherry tomatoes
• 3 Early Goliath tomatoes (these were HUGE!)
• 1 Ferline tomato
• 2 Italian Goliath tomatoes (much more modest in size than their Early Goliath cousins)
• 4 Viva Italia paste tomatoes (the reliable productivity of this type never disappoints)
• 1 Big Beef tomato (not as big as the Early Goliaths)
• 4 Plato zucchinis
• 1 Raven zucchini
• 2 Summer Sunburst patty pan squashes

It’s official: summer produce season is in full swing. From here on out, I’ll be picking ripe fruit at increasing rates — if summer rains appear. If not, the shallow well I use to water the garden will go dry, and the productive summer gardening season will be cut brutally short.

The weather forecasters are offering us a slim 40% chance of scattered thunderstorms every day this week. I’m praying as many juicy clouds as possible park themselves over my yard and deliver inches of rain to my thirsty plants.

In fact, if Mother Nature wishes to rival the man-made fireworks displays scheduled for tonight with her own light show in the form of thunderstorms, I will not complain one bit — as long as the lightning and thunder are accompanied by inches of drenching, quenching rain.

Happy Fourth of July, y’all.