A Moment in M.O.M.’s Garden- Tomato Blight

I’ve received a handful of emails about gardening. How exciting to see others start this adventure of growing wholesome foods for your family! I pray that the Lord blesses each of you for your efforts to provide healthy food for your family. Nothing tastes as good as homegrown food. There are so many lessons from the garden to learn as we work the ground and be a part of what God is growing!

Saturday, the four youngest children and I took a joyous walk through the garden.  Each child squealed with excitement, calling me to take a look at the next veggie growing. At each peak under & around plants Sammy would clap & exclaim, "Ohhhh! Yay! Thank you God, thank you!" Seeing their hearts filled with thanksgiving for all that God had given us made my heart rejoice! What a precious walk in the garden it was.

Today, I took another walk through the garden. It is good to be in the garden often even if it is just for observation. You will notice the small weeds sprouting up and can pull them quickly. They always remind me of a comment my mother made saying, “Keep small accounts with God. Don’t let things go too long.” It’s the same way with gardening or farm life in general, if you take care of the small things you don’t have too many big things that can overwhelm you or even destroy your efforts. At any rate, today’s walk in the garden proved helpful indeed. The tomato plants that all looked strong and healthy on Saturday are showing the first signs of Tomato blight. Actually it’s just one plant, that’s good news for me. Good news because I can act quickly and fix the problem!

If you’re not familiar with Tomato blight I have included a photo for your reference. Make sure you take notice of your tomato plants; when you start having hot temperatures this fungus can present a problem. Make sure you trim back the leaves at the bottom of the plant so they are not touching the ground. Also, make sure the plants have plenty of circulation (this is probably the cause of my problem as my plants in this specific area are two times larger than any others and invading the space) circulation for your plants is critical and trimming can help. Just make sure you don’t trim to much or they can actually get a sun burn. Heavy watering is also a problem. With all the rain we have had in KS this year I really don’t have control over the “over irrigation” so I have to move onto what I do have control over! I will be treating my soil with some kelp to see if there is any improvement. I find that healthy soil means healthy plants so any issue with my plants can typically be improved if I improve my soil. If you have an terrible problem with Tomato blight make sure you rotate your crops next year and plant something else in this spot. Not just any plant though… I wouldn’t plant anything that was in the same family as tomatoes to ensure health to the area.

Keep your plants healthy by frequent walks through the garden and while you’re at it, keep your spiritual life healthy too by frequent talks with God!

With much love,

Mrs. Joseph Wood