That's it. I only see him tend the garden again in august when he has a dozen tomatoes from about 10 plants.
His garden always succumbs to blight. And he just lets it wallow away, every year.
Now, this was the first year he has not grown any squash or cucumber. They always have powdery mildew by july.

I noticed, this is the first year I have not had any powdery mildew in my garden. Hummm, I wonder why.
Last year, my garden tomatoes were blighted bad starting around august.
His plants are showing signs of blight now. But he won't do anything to correct it.

The house is only 100yds or so away.
I've been spraying this year, but I assume its going to be hard for me to beat the fungal issues if this guy doesn't clean up his act.

on top of that, my next store neighbor decided to throw out a hay bale garden this year. which has just started to grow. Neither of them have ever asked me for any advice. so my feeling is, they just don't care. they're happy getting anything out of garden let alone 500lbs of veggies. which was my goal this year.
Before we moved in 5 years ago, he never had a garden. Only after I put mine in, did he do the same.

Talking to the one neighbor down the street is out of the question. he's the type that shoots you a look of death every time you drive by. Never waves, etc.

bummmer!

I try not to get upset about my neighbors gardening practices. I have offered advice on the subject of tomatoes for a few years. Does some good, but not a whole lot.

On the subject of wilts/blights, I cannot convince any of my four or so tomato-growing neighbors to prune away with the enthusiausm that I do. This year I found one gent watering the the tops of the tomato plants as well as the roots.

Each year it is the same, most people plant tomatoes:
1) too close together
2) water too frequently (and probably not deep enough)
3) plant all the toms the same day (I space mine over 2-3 weeks)
4) don't take enough step to deter squirrels, deer, etc,
5) plant all the same kind instead of mixing it up (I plant at least five types -- some cherry, some big, some heirloom, some hybrid)
6) don't keep the blights trimmed off

I give away most of my cherry tomatoes. One thing you have to stress to folks -- DON'T put these tomatoes in the refrig, it kills half or more of the taste. They get used to the nice look and no taste of grocery toms, and don't realize this.

You can't change another person's mind. You can only change the way you react to their mindset.

Dave

The proverb itself predates Frost :)

Oh well, will just have to keep spraying away. I must admit, the garden looks the best it has in 5 years.

I like to plant my 15 or 20 tomato plants on more than one day or week. I feel there are several benefits to this.

First, since most of my toms are grown from seed, they are not ready to transplant at the same time.

Second, if I plant 15 or 20 plants in one day, I won't have any extra energy to stake or protect them from deer. Deer are becoming a big problem in my suburban area. The last two years were very dry, and the deer seemed to develop a taste for tomato plants, even if other crops are available this year.

Third, a bad windstorm or rainstorm may be less destructive if they have been planted over a period of several weeks. Or maybe they won't all be in the ground when it hits!. I have a half dozen five gallon buckets with holes drilled in them to cover a limited number of small plants.

Fourth, if a nasty heat spells hits early and stunts blossoms, hopefully all the plants won't be at the same stage of development.

Three pulled their plants up. The other three have plants that looked burned up. Mine are the only plants that look healthy. Mostly due to early and rigorous trimming of early blight leaves and branches.

This is zone 6. I get cherry tomatoes thru October and maybe into the first part of November each year. I just cannot convince my neighbors that a bit of early pruning produces rewards later in the year.

Steve

But the raccoons are much more of a problem. An adult lives in the neighbors yard -- forty feet from my nearest tomato plant. Several folks say the mom had a litter of six earlier in the year. I have not had a large tomato in the last two plus months. Even the green biggies seem to disappear. The raccoon moved in last year as soon as the groundhog left. There is a secure nest under the exterior wooden steps.

The dog does what he can, but he is not outside most of the day. I kept him out one night and he go into a fight with some animal at 1:30am. I wish one of the rental places offered a pellet gun with a infrared scope.

Without the cherry tom plants, this would be an awful year. One plant provides 2/3 of my fruit, other other seven plants only 1/3.

It is weird how little time folks spend on their tomatoes late in the season. Makes no sense. If anything, backyard tomato growers should be spending MORE time trying to coax extra out of their plants. After all, the stores and markets are not offering any tomatoes that taste good later in the season.

So it makes sense to grow at least some cherry toms, and to water them faithfully, at a minimum.