Tying Up Tomatoes and Harvest – August 1 & 2, 2026 @goldenoakfarm

Big rose still in bloom

On Saturday I was up late and spent the morning paying bills/budget and then started mowing around 12:30PM. The grass was lush from all the rain, but not as bad as the last mowing. It took 3½ hours to do the yard and barn area.

My son’s friend took me to the co-op after so I could get meals for the next 2 nights as I was wiped out. As usual when I am too tired, I couldn’t get to sleep until around 10PM.

On Sunday I was still in bed when my #2 intern arrived at 6:40AM. I got up and she went out and started tying up the tomatoes. I eventually went out to see how she was doing. She did need a bit more guidance but after that she did fine.

I made the mistake of pulling weeds in the Small garden and soon was tying up peppers until I had to stop. The mowing in the heat and humidity on Saturday had taken its toll.

Tom had arrived just after 9AM and we did a walk around. Things are definitely doing much better this year with the Pinion spraying. I made notes and walked around to get photos for a garden update. When I was heading inside I realized I’d forgotten to harvest the squashes and cukes.

So I headed over to do that and found a giant summer squash, even though I’d just harvested them all on Friday. I got about 8 summer squash and 2 zucchinis. Then I went to harvest the cukes and found they had finally gotten started.

My #2 intern got all the tomatoes cleaned up and tied up and she headed out. Tom spent 3 hours doing the foliar spraying.

I’d asked him earlier if he had a working chainsaw as neither of the ones here worked. The little catalpa had grown out onto the Tonka garage roof and I was afraid it would damage it.

Tom had a polesaw and he managed to cut the branch back with that. He put all the branches down over the bank.

I wasn’t any help as I was trying to conserve my energy to go to the concert in the afternoon and not fall asleep during it.

The program was changed some as Ken Forfia had decided to play a Hayden sonata instead of the Appassionata.

I was very tired when I got home and made some supper and watched videos until bedtime at 8PM. It was to rain all night and all day tomorrow, with thunderstorms, so I closed the house up and unplugged important things.

On Monday my general helper will be out from Boston but had plans with family. I plan to get caught up on posts and finally finish the bills/budget. I also have laundry to do and the kitchen to clean up. That ought to keep me busy on the rainy day.