Rainy day in the bamboo forest

Now that we are in the throes of summer, we will take all the rain we can get. And lately, we have gotten quite a bit of rain! This morning was drizzly and cool, and pretty darn muddy - so after a bit of weeding and harvesting, we headed to the bamboo forest in the Japanese garden at Morven. For those lucky enough to visit the Japanese garden, you're in for a treat. It was built around 1994 by John Kluge, with the help of Japanese architect, Mr. Wantanabe - and was designed to completely shelter visitors from the outside world.  Some of the unique features include a Japanese Tea House (made of Japanese cedar which was harvested and cut in Japan and shipped to Morven), 3 waterfalls which flow into a shallow pond, a small island made of rocks which resemble a turtle (to represent "long life"), winding paths that put you into a meditative state, and of course - the bamboo forest!

This morning Rowan, Judith and I set out to the forest with our special Japanese saws in hand and cut down 6 HUGE bamboo stalks, trimmed off the branches, and cut them down in 6 foot pieces - which will soon be the last of our tomato stakes.

Speaking of staking - after a bit of experimenting and suggestions from local farmers, we have decided to stake most of our tomatoes using the "Florida Weave" method, in which put in our bamboo stakes every two plants and then string twine between the posts so that the plants are “sandwiched” between the twine. See the diagram below for an example of how it works!