2026 CW22 - Disaster, Destruction, and Doom!
This week the garden has been fraught with one disaster after another, leaving a trial of destruction and an outlook of impending doom! Join me as I document the series of unfortunate events, while also looking to the bright side of what is still a very healthy and productive garden.
Disaster! - If a tree falls, and I’m there to hear it, it makes a VERY loud noise…
I had just completed some work in the garden, Yoda and Scout had just returned inside for the evening, and I was in the middle of preparing some fried green tomatoes as an appetizer for dinner Tuesday night. Out of nowhere, a series of crackles followed by a tremendous crash interrupted the evening, shook the entire house, and put the hair on the cats’ backs on edge! The sound was unmistakable, and I was certain I knew what had just transpired in our backyard. (Turn the sound on for the above video for an idea of the experience shared by the cast and I).
As I suspected, the nearest Water Oak to our house had split and fallen, striking the roofs of both carports attached to the garage and desecrating the fence. Fortunately, my recently restored truck was spared, despite being parked under the carport in direct line of fire of the assault from above! As I write this, a week later, the majority of the weight remains on the garage roof as we navigate the complex and unhurried world of home insurance claims.
The truck may have been spared, but it was now pinned under the carport and in the backyard, with no route to escape. Unfortunately, we had to clear a path through the garden wide enough to drive out of the gate on the other side of the house. Doing so required moving several heavy planters from a pathway, removing a few Tomato plants (not the only reason for this, as you’ll see later), and flattening of a small amount of our Corn.
Destruction! - Neither Snow, nor Rain…okay maybe not Rain
The United States Postal Service paid us a visit this week! In the midst of a weeks long deluge of rain, a new driver decide that our front ditch was the perfect place for a U-turn. Fortunately (but unbeknown to him) he had chosen the yard of a forgiving and resourceful homeowners who gladly helped pull his Grumman LLV from its sticky resting spot.
Unsurprisingly, my work was far from over once we had the vehicle removed from the ditch. In its wake, the Grumman had left two deep ruts in what was now a soupy mess of soil and grass. Upon further inspection, I noticed the passenger (driver? since this is RH drive?) tire had driven directly over a sprinkler line. After a few days had passed, and the ground had dried a bit, I dug out along the sprinkler line, wiped it down, and pressurized the system to check for leaks. With no leaks noted, I deposited the excavated dirt back into the rut. Unfortunately, it is still too wet to repair and relevel this part of the yard. That will have to wait for next week!
DOOM! - Banishing Tomatoes from the Garden for YEARS
The day I have dread is finally here! I walked out to the garden to see a sad, limp Tomato plant despite the immense amount of recent rain and the healthy appearance of its nearby neighbors. This leaves very few suspects. After ruling out damage to the main stem, checking the plant thoroughly for pests, and digging around the roots to evaluate root health, I knew that there could only be one thing left; Bacterial Wilt.
I tend to liken Bacterial Wilt in Tomatoes to Rabies in animals. The only way to definitively test for it is through death and decapitation.
The ultimate test for this horrific disease is quite easy, but quite destructive. You must remove the [preferably] lower portion of the main stem and suspend it in warm water with the stem just below the water line. Here you can see I’ve done this by filling a glass with warm water and suspending the stem of the Tomato bush using toothpicks.
The expected results, assuming the plant is in fact infected by the Bacterial Wilt, is a slow excretion of a milky film from the main stem. As you can see in the video above, this Tomato plant is almost certainly infected with the suspected bacteria.
One Tomato plant is infected with Bacterial Wilt, so what? Well, unfortunately this diagnosis essentially renders my in-ground vegetable garden useless for Tomatoes for 3-5 years. Bacterial Wilt is caused by the bacterium Ralstonia Solanacearum which thrives in high temperature high humidity environments like the gulf coast. In fact, this very bacterium is a major factor as to why you do not see many large-scale Tomato farms in the South. This is a soil born disease which has no known treatment or cure, is spread especially fast during periods of intense rainfall, and can live in the soil for years even without Tomatoes being planted.
Irradiation requires practicing abstinence from in-ground Tomato crops for at least 3 years. For that reason, we will be relegating the Tomatoes to grow bags, and possibly the front yard for the foreseeable future. This is a devasting outcome, and I will miss these Tomato plants I have raised from seed, but at least we were able to have some level of harvest (you’ll see later in this post) and I was able to capture these mesmerizing images and video of the tests.
Harvests, Preservation, and a Few Good Meals!
Despite all of the doom and gloom (and disaster and destruction), there is still a lot of life in the garden! We spent the week harvesting some beautiful Burmese Sour Tomatoes, enough Megatron Jalepenos to fill a few bags for friends, an assortment of Bush Beans, and endless bouquets of assorted Zinnias.
Harvesting produce is only half the battle! After that you can either use it, gift it away, or preserve it! For our overwhelming abundance of Green Bell Peppers, I chose to do some preservation this week. After collecting and cleaning the peppers, I remove the cores, clean out the seeds, and slice the peppers into thin slivers. Once the peppers are prepared, they are arranged on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and flash freezed. Once the slices are frozen solid, they are bagged, sealed, labelled, and placed into the freezer for use any time the rest of the year!
My favorite option, using the produce, was also put into practice this week! We indulged in several delectable meals from the garden. Above you can see some assorted Fingerling Potatoes roasted on a sheet pan, a mixture of Zucchini and Summer Squash sautéed in a wok, a dozen (or 11?) Tomatoes roasted in a Dutch Oven, and an assortment of Bush Beans prepared in a cast iron pan.
More Food on the Way!
Believe it or not, despite all of the doom and harvesting going on, there is still a host of edible products lined up to come from the garden this summer! The star of the show right now is the Zucchini Squash from our half dozen or so plants. These plants have it all: incredible erect stalks of supersized leaves, eye-catching yellow blooms, and waxy delectable fruits!
Around the rest of the garden, we still have a singular Tomato plant that is holding on and not showing signs of the dreaded Bacterial Wilt. This plant is pumping out beautiful red ripe Tomatoes and hopefully can continue to do so for a while! Also, the Lime tree has put on a dense sheet of citrus blooms (the most magnificent smell in the garden by far!).
Bloom, Bloom, Bloom Away Baby! (Before I put my spell on you)
The flowers around the property seem to be blissfully unaware of the chaos around them! The Orchid Plant is putting on more and more blooms and the Kalanchoe has almost completely presented its second round of flowers for the year.
The Hydrangea along the garage have really pulled out all the stops this year! This violet bloom was so impressively voluminous that Sara insisted it would not be done justice unless a sense of scale was provided. Here, you can see Sara’s hand covering this magnificent dense collection of flowers.
We have new entrant to the flower realm of the garden! This beautiful premature Echinacea bloom will soon be stunning! Alongside the newcomer, the Gladiolus may be beyond their peak season, but they continue to provide six foot tall towering stalks of blooms along the front of the house.
Four Legged (And six!) Friends
It would not be a weekly garden blog without a six-legged friend feature! This week, I was able to capture a Dragon Fly on the edge of a Mammoth Elephant Ear leaf. These little (but actually quite big!) guys are a welcome sight in the garden as they are well known for cutting down on Mosquito and Fly populations.
Our four-legged fury friend of the week is Scout! She can be seen here, resting amongst the [incredibly toxic] lilies. Scouts love of dangerous things which can hurt or even kill her has earned the unofficial nickname of Wednesday Bosarge (an ohmage to Wednesday Adams).
