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I have 2 types of tomatoes started; Cherry Roma, and Aunt Rubys German Green. The German Greens were getting pretty large for the peat pots.
I started saving some 'milk' cartons a while back, and I'm glad I found a use for them! I always plant my tomatoes a few nodes deep, since it was just the first transplant, I only buried the first leaves. The cherry romas will be re-potted in a week or two, depending on growth. These containers should hold up well enough until its planting time!
I was wondering if any of you have seen something like this knot that I found in one of our tomatoes.
Today, my husband and I snipped off the first red tomato I've ever grown to full maturity!
We are going to eat it with our meal tomorrow night!!
Gardening makes me soooooo happy!
Over the last week or so I've spotted something growing in my front garden. I was not sure what it was but it looked like a daffodil - I did think to myself that all my daffodils had been and gone this year but we shall see. I woke this morning to see a daffodil flower.
I have been a busy bee again in the garden. Managed to get my little brother over to help me do some clearning, made a nice space for my tomatoes. They are now living in their new home looking a little worse for ware because my brother put the hose pipe on full pelt! Silly boy :-P
My cucumbers also have their new home as well - Looking forward to see what the next few weeks bring me :-D
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I also have a flower/plant growing in my front garden. It has been there several years (dies right back during the winter) any one know what it is drop me a comment and let me know - Unknown flower
Feel free to have a look at pictures I have put up on this site or on my Flickr
So it's actually kind of sad. . .my first round of hot weather seeds failed (cayenne, sun gold tomatoes, and green zebra tomatoes). IF they came up, I killed them. And what's worse, I did it with the peas and lemon cukes, too. Transplanted those guys and they withered and died. The good news with the peas is that I have them direct sown outside and they are starting to pop up out there so I won't have to worry about it. ;o)
The cukes and tomatoes I tried again (and the cayenne pepper). I've got them sprouting, but I think I killed the tomatoes cuz I transplanted them too early, I think. The Sumter cukes I started this time took off way too fast (faster than I expected), so they HAD to get transplanted. I dusted some RooTone on them and they seem to have suffered no ill effects from the transplant. . .but I did the same thing with the tomatoes and they started drooping instantly. I've got some more, so it's all good. Gardening is just an experiment, right?
The garlic I've transplanted looks good and it looks like the oregano is coming back (I didn't kill it after all!). . .and all the plants I got (lemon balm, thyme, oregano, sweet woodruff, etc) ALL look really good. I'm glad I didn't mess those up. The clippings we got look a little thirsty, and I've been watering them, so we'll see if those take. . .
I transplanted my first round of Cilantro. Thank God for easy to grow plants, or I'd be pretty depressed and surrounded by death right now. . .and I got that transplanted with no problems (so far) and the same thing with the Tokyo Green Onion. Only one of each plant survived, which I thought was a little weird, considering the amount of seeds and space they had to grow. I put the pansies in that container instead, since my mom uses those flowers for food decorating. Now she can just grab them off the sill instead of trekking out to the garden.
Outside, my raspberries are coming along nicely. Lots of new shoots and older canes. Can't wait to harvest those! Raspberries have to be my favorite berry EVER!
My strawberries are doing pretty good, too. They took nicely and I'm pretty confident we'll be able to pick enough of them for at least a really good fruit salad. ;o) Planted some tulips in front of their tire and I threw the lady bug in there for luck. . .
I planted more irises by our tree in the back. . .I forgot to mark them all, so we'll be pleasantly surprised when they flower and I'll just take pics and mark them then.
Picked up MORE seeds. Planning on starting them in trays pretty soon here - today or tomorrow, weather depending. If it's nice, I'm outside.
Have a couple more existing beds to dig up and a few new beds to dig out still. . .my back hurts already!
Sprout Update - 7 February 2011
Round 1: Day 24
Round 2: Day 19
The Green Zebra sprout is doing pretty good. No new sprouts for any of the tomatoes, though. I think I am going to make some foil lined cardboard boxes to keep like 4 of the Jiffy Pots in to help retain some heat and moisture for those and see if that helps. If there's nothing new in the next couple of weeks, I'll scrap those and try again. . .
No new lemon cucumbers, but I have noticed that the one closest to the heat lamp (but second to sprout) grew and opened two true leaves to the first one's one true leaf. The third has seed leaves that look slightly misshapen, so we'll see what happens with that one.
No real change with the broccoli. The second one STILL hasn't popped up above the soil line yet. Kinda weird, I think. But it's the first time growing broccoli so we'll see what happens.
I think I'm slowly weeding out the weaklings in the pea section. So far, three have turned a little brown and started to wither. They didn't grow very fast (as compared to the others), either. So I think I'm okay with it. If the healthy looking ones start to turn, then I'll start to worry.
The mallow is looking a little thirsty, so I think I might have killed them. They get water at least every 4 hours when the lights are on so I'm not sure what the problem is with that. I'll make it a point to soak them a little more than the rest adn see if that helps.
The rosemary is still pretty much the same. No significant change there.
One of the kale bottle is showing some signs of life. I think a seedling is about to pop up. It's in the bottle that is most exposed to the heat light, so that's probably why. . .
And last but not least, the garlic chives are slowly worming their way up. . .much like the Tokyo Green Onions did. . .
Last year I started my Tomatoes early. Personally I felt like it wasn't early enough. I never quite understood exactly how long it took for them to go from seed to seedling to showing true leaves an so forth. I though they were like pea's or cucumber. Not only tomatoes took a while, but i had no idea that some peppers take 21 days to sprout, let alone grow. So I started early this year. I am also very organized. I had a problem with over planting tomatoes. I ended up unfortunately throwing some away, or letting some go because i just didn't have room. So thanks to my nifty photo shop skills I created a crappy version of the lay out of my garden and raised beds. I was able to lay out my spring garden. This time when I plant something like a tomato plant I am not scratching my head saying... hmmm what plant is that?
Anyways, so I planted 22 varities of tomatoes on a flat and put them in my green house. Being in southern california the temperature didn't get toooo low. I had also put in a heater to keep the temps between 50 and 80 degrees in stead of 40 and 80. Everything else had sprouted, my raised greenhosue beds were well germinating, and my flower tray was growing huge. However 14 days later only one tomato had sprouted(my hillbilly tomato). I also had planted just enough tomatoes to fit in the spots to prevent over planting again. 14 Days later I found my self replanting 15 of the varities that had not sprouted that i had not planted. I had planted a tray in late december of a few I had planted in the 22 tomato tray. Today to my shock and disbelief 3 tomatoes had sprouted. A simple cherry tomato, ministar tomato and a beefmaster. It took about 25 days for them to sprout. I hadn't quite given up hope but it was clearly starting. Good Day i guess you can say. I was very happy. If i could have thrown a party I would have lol. i just had found it odd that it took sooo long even with the heat at consistent degrees.
My cauliflower also sprouted today. I have never grown cauliflower, but I assume its no different then broccoli. I do wonder if there is a program out there where you can design your garden and input all you information. Like what i did on photo shop, but made for growers. Something that imputs your growing zone, that gives you tips and advice and helps you get the most out of your space. Also lets say I have a planter box 5 feet long 2 feet wide and I put 5 tomatoes in this box in the center. The program will then proceed to say hey you have room companion plants. This is what you can plant. and it lists (like wikipedia does) the plants compatible and the benefits they offer. Does something out there exist? Or should I create it? Would this be helpfull? Do you think there would be a big enough market out there. Also you can put up your seed stash how many or about how many you have and where you got them from. This way it knows when you start to run out. For anyone familiar with a POS system, it would be like an inventory POS for our seeds. I think it would be a good and helpful idea.
So...You Think You Can Garden...
This past summer my Main Man and I had a pretty good sized garden. Mind you, I had not had even so much as a tomato plant since I was a kid! This year we had 48, yes, not a typo, forty-freakin-eight tomato plants! We tilled on a freakishly warm week in early March. (Mind you I live in NW OH…’nuff said.) I decided we should put some corn in the ground “just to say we did it.” The next day it snowed horizontal. That corn didn’t come up. I planted starts in the house in April. I set them on the patio in mid-May. My puppy ate some the next day. By the end of May I had 12 seedlings left. We went to the greenhouse. We shopped for plants. We came home with a trunkful of plants and grand visions of a beautiful weed-free garden. We re-tilled. We replanted corn. We carefully set out our purchased seedlings. I set out my two inch tall remaining seedlings. We babied the garden along at first. At first. We watered, we weeded, we waited and watched making a stroll to the garden our first priority in the morning. Finally! Corn! And squash blossoms and tomato blossoms! So very many tomato blossoms. The plan was to take produce to our local farmer’s market. That never happened. I got sick. My MM got sick. He injured his back while … let’s just say he injured his back. We started a lovely crop of weeds. They grew fast. Fast as weeds. Tall as weeds can grow. I was ready to give up. Then I thought, hey we have put in too much work to fail at this now! So I spent every available minute for the next two weeks “saving” our babies! I pulled, I dug, I cut, cursed and sweated. MM saw my efforts and rallied. He crawled - yes CRAWLED on his hands and knees through the garden, plucking weeds as he went. He really may have had the right idea - he was up close and personal with those weeds! They weren’t gonna hide from him! Success! We found the plants and they began to florish after being saved from those pesky weeds. I mean REALLY florish! I found 101 ways to eat squash. I found 101 things to do with tomatoes. Alas, it was not enough, I had to find MORE! I canned whole, crushed and crowded tomatoes. I canned juice. I made gallons of Vegetable juice in varying degrees of hottness. I canned gallons of Mom’s homemade tomato soup. I canned pasta sauce, tomato paste and more! MM said ENOUGH! We have enough! There is no more room! But we still had tomatoes. I searched the internet. I made tomato leather, vegetable leather and old fashioned tomato preserves. I know - jam from a tomato - whodathunk? Then “it happened…” (insert scarey sounds of dramatic music) The first frost. Nobody told me it was coming. I would have covered those precious plants up! But there they were…looking quite sad in the early sunlight. Staring at me, accusing me. I should have felt relieved. It was over! The long summer/fall harvest was over! I could put away the caning supplies and reclaim my kitchen! Hurrah at last! We spent the day pulling tomato and pepper plants and hanging them in the barn to finish ripening. We are still having an occasional fresh tomato in mid-November! I just canned some hot pepper jelly last week. Maybe just 45 tomato plants next year. MM wants an acre. We’ll see. Stay posted. This post was moved from myspace.com/ahandful4u
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I was standing out in our backyard, looking into the woods. The sassafras trees' leaves are turning red and look like childrens' mittens waving in the breeze. A few leaves fluttered from oak trees and blew to the ground. I like the changing of the seasons because it gives me a sense of freshness, newness, renewal. I like the autumn because I love the holidays, and autumn gets me thinking about how I'll decorate this year.
The garden is drying back and the zinnias are about spent. I leave the flowers there until I quit getting any new blooms. I can't bear to yank them out when they are still producing flowers, even though the stalks are getting splindly and the leaves are turning brown. The pentas are still going strong and the hummingbirds are still visiting. Last year we saw the last one in early October.
I am not a tomato gardener. In all, we have gotten 21 tomatoes from the two plants and I didn't think they tasted any better than grocery store tomatoes. For all the effort and the cost of the plants, I am not going to put them in again. Not unless someone I personally know gives me some plants that will yield some really flavorful tomatoes.
I am going to Southern Vistas nursery today and get some new flowers for the fall and hope to put them in this weekend.
I got home late from work. Our company has moved to a new office and I am working late every night doing extra tasks associated with the move. Tonight I didn't get home until almost 8:30, but it was still light outside so I went out and sat on the low brick wall and looked out over my garden.
It is looking good. The zinnias are opening at a record pace and they are so lovely. God definitely loves color. He sure makes those zinnias the most lovely shades of orange, pink and yellow. I love to drink in the colors with my eyes. I am happy that this year I put in a wide variety of flowers with the zinnias, impatiens, salvia, forget me nots, flocks and pentas. Everything seems very happy although I am learning to plant some of the low plants out away from the tall ones that shade them. Leftovers from last year are the Mexican heather, the dead nettle and a couple chrysanthemums. Oh and the hot pink geranium I nursed through the winter on the dining room table. The butterfly bush is doing well too.
The tomatoes are okay, although they seem like they should be getting some new fruit. The same 13 tomatoes have been hanging on since mid-July, and no new ones have set on. The fruit that's there looks good, at least to a novice like me. I keep hoping for the gargantuan tomatoes that the plant labels promised... but right now they look like the size of most grocery store varieties. Hopefully they will keep getting bigger. And someday they'll be red and ripe!
This summer everything is taking a long time to get accomplished. After the slugs were killed off, I put two large zinnias in and waited. They both did well, and are continuing to grow and bloom profusely - one pink and the other orange, both with double petals. After no slug damage, the following weekend I put in 3 packs of zinnia seeds, two are the giant cactus variety and one of the doubles. Wow, are these coming up strongly and so many - like over 100 plants are growing in 3 beds. I just hope they have enough sunshine to bloom for a long time into the fall. The house shadows these beds come fall.
The pentas are doing well and the hummingbirds are enjoying them. This year, I have red, lilac and white ones. The birds go for the reds first.
Yesterday I bought 18 red salvia to plant where the pansies pooped out. I am hoping the hummingbirds will enjoy them. Last year I had a salvia in a planter and I remember the birds checking it out. So later today I will get busy planting them.
My husband wanted to see if we could grow some tomatoes so we went and bought two plants back in mid June and put them in. Just this week I saw that 4 little maters are setting on, right now only the size of marbles. But this is exciting for us. We haven't grown any vegetables in more than 25 years. So I hope they do well and that the sunshine will continue on them long enough for them to get big and ripen.
The forget-me-nots didn't bloom this year and now the leaves are fading. I thought that there was something wrong with them, but I got on a gardenguides forum and asked a question and found out that they bloom early in the year. So they will hopefully be full of blooms next Spring.
We had a nice long Spring this year, but now it is a typical South Carolina summer with very high temps.
Greetings, and may you all keep on smiling! I was asked what types of heirloom tomatoes I am growing. Currently I am fathering 8 plants: Gingers Golden Delicious, Green Grapes, Hillbilly, Green Zebra, Cherokee Purple, and Paul Robeson. The other tags the dog ate before I could write them down, BUT they are similar to Cherokee Purple, but Cherry sized. The last one, it's yummy. That's the 8. A smile came to my face when i saw that some of you enjoyed the idea about a pool in the greenhouse, solar powered. Wait until I tell you about the BIG dream. Anyway, the tags came out great, I am seeking construction sites out now. Recycling the old PVC pipe. Harvest is so busy for us all, may your acts be worthy enough to earn the happiness you deserve. Gregory
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so sadly last friday while i was at work and my 13 yr. old niece was babysitting my girls...our dog, molly, got a hold of mumbles and killed him and a hen...i am so heartbroken...mumbles was such a good rooster....luckily we do have a baby rooster and 2 more females....no other rooster is going to be like him...we will miss him terribly...
update on wilbur...we are getting rid of him....he will be going to a nice farm with a lady friend :) where he will be much happier...
here are some pics of my garden...
cherry tomatoes....
veggie garden with green onions, hot peppers, green peppers, tomatoes, asparagus, lemon cucumber, & butternut squash...
strawberry plants...15...and in the pot at the end is clilantro...
close up of one of the strawberries...yum, yum...can't keep the birds from eating them...tried hanging pie tins with no luck...any suggestions...
Now that you've had a peek at Melissa's Secret Garden, I'll have to post photos of Jacquie's. (I have to photograph it first, though.) Hers are very different from mine and Melissa's, but lovely, just the same. My eldest daughter, Dawn, studied landscape design and had beautiful beds when she lived in Ontario. She hasn't adjusted to the growing conditions in Georgia yet, but I'm confident she'll eventually create something terrific down there.
It's raining here today, so I won't be outside, which is probably a good thing because C is preparing to go fishing for pickerel (walleye) with several of his buddies this weekend.
We got all 40 lbs of seed potatoes (Banana Fingers, Yukon Golds, Cal Whites and Chieftains) in the soil, finally. That makes ten 40' rows. I may have bought too many, don't you think? We will share with family and friends, but I think I'll cut back to 30 lbs next year. I'm just not sure which variety to eliminate.
My teenaged tomato plants (21 of 'em - the rest were shared with family and friends) are nestled all snug in their beds surrounded by eggshells and makeshift cloches.
Our onions, peas and beets are up, and I put a row of Swiss chard and one of parsnips in yesterday after I transplanted more volunteer sunflowers and seeded my shade bed with amaranth. I still need to plant three varieties of beans, cucumbers, pumpkins and several different gourds. We sell the gourds at a roadside stand. I found a new variety of gourds yesterday. They resemble apples in shape. Had to buy a packet of seeds to try them out. Tri-coloured pears used to be our best seller, but last year crown of thorns took over. I also purchased a new, expensive hand trowel. It seems to me that I break the cheaper ones on a regular basis. I broke one of mine and bent one of Melissa's during our All Girls' Weekend.
I'm looking forward to having this weekend to myself. No meals to prepare! No interruptions! No working on someone else's agenda! I want to concentrate my efforts on edging up my shade bed and getting the last of the seed into my cutting bed, then weeding and mulching the beds at home. That is, if I survive the preparation for C's fishing weekend. I need to make several dozen of his favourite chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. That's the easy part. C tends to leave a lot of his preparations till the last minute then gets hyper about getting everything packed and ready to go. I'll likely have to help him search for some of his stuff and undoubtedly have to assist with putting new line on his reels, etc. He's just gone to town for some new swivels because he can't find the packet he bought last fall. Ah well, it's a small price to pay for three days of peace and quiet in my flower beds and, hopefully, fresh pickerel for dinner Monday evening.
Another lovely day! I put a spent pot of daffodils I had purchased earlier into my garden and potted up the last of my tomato seedlings - 40 in all of 2 varieties - Golden Goddess and Brandywine. I only want 6 of each, so after I distribute some to my family and friends, I'll donate the remainder to our local Horticultural Society for it's plant sale. I had forgotten what the soil is like here at home - pure clay! Some of it is getting better following heavy applications of sharp sand, but I've got a long way to go. It seems to support growth well, but it's difficult to weed.
The second of my okra plants gave up the ghost, so I'm giving up on okra.
Between Thursday, Friday and today (Saturday), I feel as though I got a good start on the garden. Here's what happened so far.
Hand turned about 2/3 of the garden. Managed to get the radishes, onions, and peas in yesterday. Today I finished planting the lettuces. Here's what I put in today:
• Lettuce Salad Bowl (Lake Valley™ brand) - matures in 50 days
• Mesclun Salad Mix (Burpee® brand) - matures in 48 days
› 15% Black Seeded Simpson
› 15% Red Salad Bowl
› 15% Lollo Rossa
› 15% Royal Oak Leaf
› 20% Arugula Rocket
› 20% Radicchio Verona
• Tom Thumb Letuce Butterhead (Burpee® brand) - matures in 65 days
• Mesclun Zesty Salad Mixture (Lake Valley™ brand) - matures in 45 days
› 25% Tango
› 15% Lola Rossa
› 15% Black Seeded Simpson
› 15% Deer Tongue Red
› 15% Royal Oak Leaf
› 5% Arugula
› 5% Frisee
› 5% Mizuna
• Lettuce Simpson Black Seeded (Lake Valley™ brand) - matures in 45 days
Later I was able to put out seed for Violas and transplant some of my seedlings. Here are some pictures:
Yellow Pear Tomatoes, Garlic Chives
Garlic Chives and Sweet Marjoram
Dill, Patio Tomatoes, and one Celebrity Tomato
Also cut some of the Forsythia to bring inside for some color. They should start to bloom in the next 5-6 days. I am so excited about Spring 2009!
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