Sad Tomato News

So... many of my tomatoes contracted a virus. I am trying to save the rest by destroying the diseased ones. This is not verticillium wilt. I controlled that with a spray of half milk and half water. They were cured from that disease.

I tried the milk on this, but to no avail. This disease, as far as I can tell from photos and information on the web is Tomato Leaf Wilt Virus. The leaves all just curled down in a circle and developed black spots. This terrible problem traveled up the plant from the lowest leaves. It is caused by whiteflies. I haven't seen any whiteflies in the garden, and I am out there twice a day, but that's what it is. I have never seen the disease before, and don't know anyone who has. But several people around here told me that they lost all their tomato plants. Maybe this disease did their plants in, too.

I pulled 4 tomato plants the other day, and planted zinnias, and green bean seeds. Those are already coming up, thanks to a nice heavy shower last night.

Today I pulled 4 more. I planted more green beans, and 1 spaghetti squash. Maybe they'll have time to mature. 

There are at least 5 more tomato plants I will probably have to pull. 2 of them are just outside the current reach of the watermelon plant. So I guess I'll wait for the watermelon to get closer and let it have the spots.

That would leave me 7 tomato plants--3 Cherokee Purples, 2 Celebrities, 1 Napa Grape, and 1 Supersweet 100's. It makes me so sad. :( I was really looking forward to fresh tomatoes from our garden. I should get some for eating from the ones we have left, but no canning for me this year.  How sad. I think the real reason I haven't pulled all the diseased plants is that I can hardly bear to lose all those tomatoes.

Well, maybe I will get enough green beans from the garden to make up for it. Our family eats lots of green beans, too.

Garden Update

OK. It's hot. It is not supposed to be this hot until August. But it is. And I have some plants that I have been watching for weeks to see if they would do anything. They haven't. Finally yesterday I decided it was time to yank them out.

I didn't get around to it until this morning.

I yanked 2 tomato plants and a yellow pepper plant. I am watching 2 more tomato plants. I may yank them too.

I planted zinnias in most of the spots left open. Then I planted green beans in the last spot. This is square foot gardening you remember, so I want to put something in for everything I take out. I think the zinnias will be pretty, even if they aren't edible. I don't care right now. I just want something to grow. Pretty will be enough for me at this point.

I did plant 8 green beans, though. I think they will produce no matter how hot it is. At least that is what I am hoping.

Stay tuned. We will  see. Right now things aren't going exactly as I planned.

Review of A Well Planned Day Planner

I LOVE my copy of The Well Planned Day Planner. You have a choice of either a pdf file or a beautifully spiral bound notebook. I chose the pdf file, so that I can print only the pages I need.

The colors are beautifully calming. If your homeschool is anything like mine, anything that would add an element of calm is welcome. Upon browsing the planner, several wonderful things showed up. First, there are quotes by some "Old Dead Guys" I love: Spurgeon and Billy Sunday, among others. Second, there is a weekly catechism. This looks like a nice addition to our Bible time. Additionally, up to four children can be planned on a single page.

There is a "Monthly List of Books to Enjoy," which I plan to use in the past tense--for books that have been read by my children or to my children. There is also a wonderful monthly field trip list page. The monthly bills and expenses can be posted right there with the other information to keep me on track. There is even a weekly menu planner, along with a weekly priorities list and a weekly school chart. And at the front of the planner, there is a Keepsake Page. It allows you to jot the ages of each child this school year, attach a photo and answer some questions about things that were family favorites this year (favorite read aloud book, favorite game to play, favorite movie watched.) Wonderful!  All of this is personalizable for my tastes.

In addition to all of this, there are short articles scattered throughout. Each is like a magazine article to encourage moms in their homeschooling adventure.

I am thrilled with my copy of The Well Planned Day Planner.

FTC disclaimer: I received a copy of The Well Planned Day in exchange for an honest review. I received no other compensation for this review.

Tip for Tomato Wilt

I am very into my garden this year. I have read about 20 books from the library about gardening, and I have 4 more I have checked out. I haven't had time to finish those yet.

While I was reading Slug Bread and Beheaded Thistles, I came across a tip. It said that vermicular wilt and other viruses on tomato plants can be cured, yes cured, with watered down skim milk sprayed directly onto the leaves.

Of my 24 tomato plants, 21 of them looked pretty bad. I wasn't sure what was wrong with them, they just seemed sort of yellowy and sickly. I thought, "This is certainly worth a try."

I didn't have skim milk, so I just used 2%, watered down and poured into a sprayer. I doused those tomatoes on the top and bottom of their leaves. You would not believe it! They all perked up. The leaves turned back to green by the next day. (Except for 2, those probably need another dose of milk.) All of my plants look decidedly better, even healthy.

I am going to have to remember this tip, because every other source had said there was nothing that could be done--the plants should be pulled up.

So, if you have any tomato plants that are yellowing, or developing black spots on them, give watered down milk a try. Spray it liberally on the plants. It sure helped mine.

Review of We Shall See God by Randy Alcorn

When I first heard about We Shall See God by Randy Alcorn I was very excited. I have treasured the things that the Lord has taught me through Spurgeon and this book was written by Mr. Alcorn using sermons by Spurgeon.

Well, the book is simply fantastic! I loved it. It is set up like a devotional with 50 days of devotional thoughts on heaven. First, Mr. Alcorn quotes a passage from one of Spurgeon's sermons, including the scripture and then Mr. Alcorn himself comments on the quote.

The Spurgeon quotes were not stilted as they sometimes are and Mr. Alcorn's thoughts flowed very well with what Spurgeon had said. I have read many devotional books. Always in the past I would read them quickly from start to finish in order more like one would read a regular book. With this book, I read it as a devotional. I would read one or two of the devotional days (not necessarily in order, but according to which title sounded interesting) then I would ponder those thoughts all day long.

Anything by Spurgeon has always been fodder for deep pondering for me and fodder for moving further in my Christian life. And this book is no different. The only difference (if it can be counted as one) is that this time I have also got the words of Mr. Alcorn to ponder.

I have never read any other books by Mr. Alcorn, but this book is enough to interest me in some of his other works. I would be interested in reading Heaven by Randy Alcorn now that I have read this book.

Tyndale Publishing sent this book to me in exchange for an honest review. I am so grateful. I have enjoyed every moment with this book. Thank you, Tyndale Publishing.

A Visit to My Favorite Place on Earth

I have traveled to England, to Greece, to Wales, to Italy, and to Spain. I thoroughly enjoyed each of my travels. But when people suggest that I go to "my happy place," I think of The Environmental Studies Center. I go there with my kids as often as we can get away from our other responsibilities.

Yesterday my daughters and I went there while my son was at Boy Scout Day Camp. We had the privilege of walking in the woods up to the Pitcher Plant Bog. Something about hiking through the woods to that bog clearing just settles my mind and brings peace. I can breathe deeper and my mind rests there.

A close up of Bee Balm in the Butterfly Garden. It was humming with busy bees.

Bee Balm in the Butterfly Garden.

Pitcher Plants. They are starting to die off and a different color one will be 

growing there the next time we go. They eat bugs. I think that is so cool.

An overview of the bog from the observation deck. 

I don't know what kind of flowers these are, but they were prolific.

It's the first time I have seen these there. 

Even the pictures make me want to take a deep breath and feel the calming influence of the bog. I am thankful that my favorite place on earth is also one to which I can go on a regular basis. It would make it harder if I longed for Greece every time I needed to breathe deeply and feel peace. 

The Easiest Harvest of All

Well, it's the easiest harvest of all if you don't count all the trees that my husband and I cut down last year or the huge amount of energy he expended to pull those 30 mimosa roots from the backyard after cutting down the trees and chopping them up.

But if you don't count any of that, and oh, if you don't count the hard sell I had to do to get my husband to give the pear tree a chance.... don't count any of that and it's the easiest harvest of all.

You see, last year when we moved in there was a large mature pear tree in the back yard. It looked like it was on its last legs. It had a large dead limb. My husband desperately wanted to chop it down. It just broke my heart because I love pears, and I really liked this old pear tree. So I prayed. I prayed over the tree telling it to live and not die (speak life and not death; the power of life and death is in the tongue, etc.). I prayed that my husband would not cut it down. I prayed that it would produce fruit. I made the children pray about the tree.

It produced 3 pears last year. 3 little pears. I was so encouraged. I thought that meant that the Lord planned to save the tree. After cutting down all the mimosas that were stealing the nourishment from the pear tree, and causing all the pollinating critters to choose the mimosa blossoms over the pear blossoms, this year there are pears EVERYWHERE. 

The kids climbed the jungle gym and pulled down 20 they could reach. They weren't ripe, but they had so much fun (and there are so many more) that I didn't have the heart to stop them. I have them on the counter. Maybe they will ripen.