After one of the most amazing garden years ever, last weekend’s hard frost and those earlier this week, had many local gardeners, me included, spending a lot of time covering and uncovering the garden in hopes of reaping a few more tomatoes, some peppers and the last of the basil.
On Sunday, to minimize how many of the tomato plants that needed to be covered, I took some time to take out the plants with few or no ripening tomatoes. I found myself spending quite a bit of time with each plant as all of them had outgrown their tomato cages with large branches so heavily laden with fruit that they had to be wired up the cages which had to be staked into the ground with ever more stakes from Kenyon’s to keep them from tipping over.
The amount of time I spent deconstructing the plants made me realize how much time I’d spent propping them up along with their fruit. Untwisting each wire that had held up a branch heavy with tomatoes became a reflection on this summer’s garden and how much I was looking forward to it this spring when it was rototilled during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
I was looking forward to and hoping that the garden would be a welcome distraction from what feels like an endless pandemic. I was likely hoping it would be winding down by the time the first hard frost came.
It really hasn’t and we’re heading into fall and winter with this unwelcome interloper with us. Despite that, the garden did not disappoint. It provided hours of free exercise, hours of free access to sunshine and fresh air, way too many tomatoes and carrots and beans and squash.
Untwisting the ties that held up the branches, pulling out the stakes that held up the cages, stacking the cages, stacking the stakes, pulling the plants out of the soil and shaking the dirt off, I found myself so grateful for those plants and the distraction they provided and so grateful for space to garden and ultimately so present in that exact moment.
It’s hard to really ever forget about COVID -- except for last Sunday, anticipating the next hard frost and deconstructing the tomatoes.
