The Ties That Bind

Our Costata Romanesco is celebrating this week's heat wave by crossing a brick pathway that divides the two raised beds and climbing, tendril by tendril, up one of the tomato cages. Its mammoth leaves provide welcome shade for the tender, new foliar growth of our cool-season tomato plant, but in a few more days, the less-established tomato will be smothered by its aggressive neighbor. Fortunately, the dangling squash are almost ready to be plucked at which time I will prune the out-of-bound vines and tendrils back to the confines of its own bed.