Gardening has Been a Challenge

Exciting news for all you gardening freaks: looks like I may succeed in growing a few edible tomatoes this season.

As you may recall, I planted a whole bunch of tomatoes in the wrong season last year, and tomato yellow leaf curl virus and various blights wiped them out. I planted new seedlings in the fall, and out of the twenty or so I planted, I have two producing plants, one that could conceivably produce, and one that is alive but not looking anxious to bear. Sad as that is, it beats previous efforts.

I have a Cherokee chocolate tomato that is nearly the size of a tennis ball, plus a Kentucky beefsteak which is rapidly catching up. One of my other plants grew a hideously deformed tomato, but it still has blossoms, so something good might happen. The Cherokee chocolate and the Kentucky beefsteak appear to have tiny tomatoes forming, so with any luck, I'll get a few more fruit before June comes and kills everything.

Another nice development: my Trinidad scorpion peppers look good, as do my "habanero gold" peppers. I use quotation marks because I'm pretty sure "habanero gold" is a BS name the local yuppie produce market made up. I grew these from seeds obtained at said market. The fruit from which the seeds were taken were gorgeous and delicious. They get about three inches long, and they're very, very sweet. They start out bright yellow and then turn red. Best habaneros I've ever seen.

I still have a lot of my old pepper plants, although I killed some because I didn't like them. My PC-1 peppers were flavorless, so they got the ax. My tepins died from overwatering. I killed a boring plant that produced boring red habaneros, and I also destroyed a prig ki nu I didn't need. I have a huge one in the yard, and it appears to be invulnerable to bugs and disease, so I don't need another one in a pot, taking up my time.

I decided to reduce inventory because it was a pain taking care of a whole bunch of different peppers that didn't contribute much to my cooking palette. I plan further reductions. I have very nice orange Scotch bonnets I grew from grocery-pepper seed, and there is nothing wrong with them, but the habanero golds have a similar flavor, and they're bigger and better. I should probably get rid of my Fataliis or white habaneros, since they taste pretty similar. And I guess I'll eventually kill my Caribbean red habanero.

I also have ornamental Thai peppers I bought by accident. They're just stupid.

I didn't succeed in getting Super datils to sprout. Maybe I'll try again.

My giant basil tree up and died on me. I thought it was immortal. Very sad. I have some basil seed. I may toss it out there and see what happens. I have oregano, sage, and thyme growing in the box I originally built for tomatoes. Basil would be the perfect addition. The herbs seem to do very well. Bugs just don't get anywhere with them.

I managed to obtain a few messes of shucky beans before the rust got my vines. But I'm not sure they're edible. I think some of them mildewed a little while they were drying. I guess I should cook them up and find out. I made shucky beans from a bag of green beans I bought at the store, and they look awful good. I kind of wonder if beans are worth growing.

It turns out potatoes grow here. That's a surprise. I guess it shouldn't be, since they come from South America. It might actually be worthwhile to plant a hill or two. I can't believe what potatoes cost. The other day I paid 89 cents a pound. I can buy gorgeous cuts of pork for that kind of money. Insane.

I guess if I want tomatoes after these plants croak, I'll have to get some kind of heat-resistant hybrids. They'll probably suck. I guess the question is, will they be better than the ones at the store? If so, maybe it's time to bite the bullet and go hybrid. They'll still be vulnerable to tomato yellow leaf curl virus, though.

I used to think Miami was a good place to grow stuff, but now I think it may be too hot and humid and bug-infested. Maybe it's easier a hundred miles north. Too far south for frost, but too far north for a true jungle climate. And coincidentally, that's the latitude where I'd like to live in a few years. Also coincidentally, my great aunt Gladys up in Frostproof wants me and my father to visit in a week or so. That will be nice. It may be hard to make me go home.

I'm still a crappy gardener, but the results are too good for me to quit. A lot of things in life are that way.