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The tomato saga continues. The first few tomatoes were small but good tasting. The latest ones look to be bigger than the first few and I should have a double handfull go ripe at the same time. I went to the farmer's market and saw what my peppers will look like if they ever get ripe. We got some great peaches and some okra for Miname, the japanese exchange student I'm hosting (in case anybody missed that blog entry). She was delighted to find them. I have too many traumatic memories of being forced to eat okra boiled down to its constituent atoms to enjoy the stuff. I will eat a few however she prepares them, just to be polite.
She was impressed with our little farmer's market. I wonder what she'd think if she saw the one outside of Lehigh Acres, Fla. Going to that place is like visiting Disneyland.
I wait anxiously for the cantaloupe vines in my patio garden to show signs of fruit. If I get melons it will be the patio garden trifecta and a successful summer all around.
Pruning tomatoes is one of the easiest and most beneficial things you can do to increase fruit size and help lessen the chances of disease. First, let’s talk about which tomatoes to prune. Indeterminate (climbing) tomatoes should be staked, trellised, or caged, and pruned for best results. Determinate (bush) tomatoes do not need pruning and may be grown with or without support. Now what is the difference?
The fruit of determinate tomatoes ripens within a concentrated time period. The fruit of indeterminate tomato varieties ripens over an extended period, and will continue to grow until they are affected by the first hard frost. For example, you may have purchased a container tomato plant for your patio. Typically, the tomatoes commercially available in containers are determinate and do not need pruning. However, you still should give it some support. On the other hand, the cherry tomato plant in your garden is most likely an indeterminate plant – if you don’t keep it in check, it might take over!
The basic method of pruning is to remove the suckers from the leaf axils of the tomato plant. The sucker is the growth that comes up between the main leader of the plant and the side branches. There are a couple of schools of thought on removing suckers. Some people remove all the suckers. Some leave the first sucker after the first set of flowers. This gives you two leaders. I do the latter.
Since you advertise your book for sale on your website, the URL has been edited out.
Hi, I am Lish from Kentucky. I have been gardening ever since I was a little girl with both of my grandmothers helping them in their gardens. Watching them plant, harvest, clean, cook or can things.
I have since then had many types of gardens of my own, but long for a place of my own to have a much larger garden so i can produce more to can or freeze.
I am engaged to a wonderful man who supports my talents and my dreams. He is a husband in training, we have been together for 4 yrs and 5 months as of this month. He is now living with me as of Dec 2007.
We have a loving kitty named Montana, who is a beautiful maine coon. We had another one his brother but he passed away a yr or so ago, he was an american shorthair but with similar colorings of his brother montana.
Humidity is always bad in kentucky during the summer and little rain. I am presently only growing 2 tomato plants, one beefsteak and a grape tomato, plus one pepper plant.
But I have planted several ground flowering plants and i already had a lot of flowering bushes such as butterfly bushes, lilacs, crape myrtles, spirea, think thats all.
would do more but not enough room and im renting, need i say more, lol.
Im one of those people who has gardening in her blood and needs to garden. Burpees catalog is my wish book.
Lish in Ky.
You may want to go get a cold beverage or snack as this will be a long blog. I havent posted much lately and I have some catching up to do. We had rain for about a week and since then I have not had to water a thing. I kinda felt like I was being a slacker, then I realized, Oh yeah, this is how it is suppose to be. More rain this week probably.
A picture of some of our tomatoes. We eat them every day.
My sister grew this okra and her hens laid these eggs. Wayne pickles them for her because her young grandchildren eat it like its candy.
The little fat dog got a hair cut. He waits for anything to drop while Wayne is working.
Here are some pictures of what is growing and blooming.
This next area is where the old holly bush used to be. Now this is my front porch flower bed.
This is the picture of the new pool bed. We started it exactly 2 months ago and I am very happy with it.
Since everything is finally planted (for today at least) and the rain came, I have been working inside doing some painting in a bedroom and in the kitchen. On a good note, my new kitty, Thomas, is growing like a weed and has a sweet dispostion. My older cat, Peter, is slowly accepting him but she is still not thrilled about it. I have to baby her along.
Peace and love!
Hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th!
I've been really busy the last few days getting ready for the in-laws coming and our 4th of July party. We got the yard looking wonderful, the house was spotless, and then boy did we party!
We invited all the friends, neighbors and their kids. Invited several of the brand new neighbors, so got to make even more friends :) A neighbor smoked a turkey for us, I smoked babyback ribs, and made lots of other food too. The turkey was a huge hit, and everyone had lots of fun. The kids all had a great time swimming and running around and watching our fireworks show. The adults all had a wonderful time too- party went on until about 11pm, when kids were falling asleep on the floor LOL! Thankfully no one had to drive home, they all lived at most a block away.
Steve and friend Dave were our firworks technicians. They did a great job of coordinating multiple bottle rocket launces, roman candles, whizzy things, and the few larger ones that we had bought. Hearing the kids "Oooh, Aahh" made the whole thing so enjoyable.
We were very lucky in the timing too. As the firework show was going on, we began to see lightening (took us all a while to figure out what it was LOL) Afterwards we had a nice storm hit, so everyone came back in. Then we didn't get another storm until after everyone went home. I believe we had about 2 other storms after that too. Much needed rain to water the plants, and put out any smoldering fireworks remnants :)
Today we got another storm, it was raining like a waterfall for about an hour, and we're supposed to get more storms tonight and tomorrow.
This morning I found 4 more baby tomatoes, and some baby peppers too WOOHOOO!!!!!
Until later, Have fun gardening :)
The Cherry Tomatoes are coming on good now, got lots to pick in the moring. Mr Celebrity may not look so hot but the fruit is coming along. There were enough blueberries for my breakfast in the morning. They are so tasty sometimes they don't make it into the house ;-)
The green C's fell off when I was trying to get to the fruit that was redding up. I have been bringing in the tomatoes before they get red because of the birds. Looks like hubby may get a mater sandwich tomorrow. The green ones may get fried soon.
Planning to get up a bit early and do some weeding in a couple of places. This evening I found all those wild viotets are easier to pull up now than they were in the spring. Hopefully I can keep them from reseeding by pulling them before they flower. Pretty little plants but they belong in the woods. Wish I could pot them up and sell them for a few dollars. Then I could go buy some new perennials. ^-^. Don't let DH hear me say that.
Went through all the seeds from the box that traveled the US tonight. Picked out some that I want to try and then I am going to sort them by types and put them in plastic bags to share as grab bags during our next Master Gardener meeting. There were some great looking veggies in that box. Going to try a few of those as well as lots of flowers.
My lilies are really putting on a display right now. I will be taking some pictures in the morning and will share them later. All the plants are suffering. My beautiful white Anget Trumpets up next to the house are really suffering from the heat. They don't look pretty at all. Others in the yard that get a bit of shade sometime during the day look fine. Sure hope we get some bit of a break from this heat. I know you members that live in the north are just not used to this and here in SC we don't expect this heat until late July or August. Guess we will just have to keep posting beautiful pictures for one another to see.
More To Come Later
Well, we now have green tomatoes! Here are pics of what is growing right now.
Roma
Sweet 100 Cherry
Black Prince
Yellow Pear
Yippeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!! :)
I prepared the veggie bed. I must've added about 6 inches of compost to it! I hope the 2 (haha) tomatoes I planted will be happy. I am planning on adding peppers and various herbs. Maybe I'll plant the lavender seeds my mom got me in there too- it's a raised bed so it should get plenty of drainage.
I still need to turn my other compost pile and add a bunch of "green" to it. Not a whole lot of fun without a pitchfork. I just don't want to spend $20- $30 for one!!
Some of the sweet pea seeds I planted about 4 days ago have sprouted! (dance of joy)
I took a bunch of photos the last few days. Now I just need to get DH off of the PS3 so he can offload them. Hopefully I'll have them posted tonight *fingers crossed*
So, this year won't be the year for a 'real' garden, the one that I want! But I am still trying to be this great 'gardener' -we'll see if I can container grow...
I have just the regular flowers, and tomatoes & jalepenos, and herbs to come... I just planted them in temporary container pots -until they get too big for them, then of course I will have to re-plant them...
Will post pictures as soon as possible!
-Samantha
Most of the seedlings have their first true set of leaves! Things are moving along well. I need to get a second grow light and move them higher this week. Here are this weeks photos:
The Tomatoes are really taking off as you can see. As I thought the Chili's did not sprout, but that's ok, I really hadn't planned for space for them in the garden. The Cilantro still might sprout another couple plants but I really only needed two. Finally the Rosemary started coming up, I was beginning to wonder, but right on time there it was. So here are the photos from this week. You can also see them in my photo albums.
Well, the marigolds are starting to set flower buds indoors just 4 weeks after sowing. Sheesh!! I had no idea they grew that fast. Oh well. It will be nice to have some pretty flowers indoors while I'm still waiting for spring.
Two of my coleus are starting to look very nice. They take quite a while to get started, but the longer they're around, the faster the new leaves grow. So they're growing at a decent pace by now.
I finally located some Epsom salt at the pharmacy, after have looked in several nurseries for it. 4 lbs. for 3 bucks. Not too bad. I've already put some on some of my more well established plants. We'll see if it makes any difference. So far, at least, it hasn't killed anything. ;)
I just sowed a bunch of tomato seeds-- beefsteak, cherry, Italian heirloom, and Italian market. Hopefully my crop will be better this year since I'm starting them so early, and I think I have a bit better of an idea of what I'm doing this year.
My one daylily which germinated about two months ago is really starting to take off. It must have been establishing a good root system in all of that time. Now sets of leaves are starting to poke through on the other side of the pot. And the new leaves seem much thicker and sturdier that the first set of leaves. I'm still waiting on the rest of my daylily seeds. Just because they haven't germinated yet, doesn't necessarily mean that they're duds. ;)
I have 58 hosta seeds. I most sincerely hope that all or most of them germinate and grow. I could so easily use 58 hostas around the yard.
What can I say?? I wish it was warm out! I'm so itching to get outside and move around at least a bit. But at least I'll be somewhat prepared this spring. ;)
So we had an amazing wind storm not that long ago. I even cleaned up the yard and battened down the hatches, so to speak. Got all the potted stuff down in a protected spot (will be the winter spot too!) and all the furniture and our bikes nice and tidy and close...
Max is a dumb cat, I love him so but he is CRAZY. The wind started blowing HARD but it was not raining yet so I decided to give him some outside time. Nut job goes running around with the WILD KAT look in his eyes. You know the drill...run run run...mad dash...STOP! look around madly with flashing eyes.
He does not have that collar anymore, little jerk keeps losing them. This time was the worst as it had his license and a name tag. Jerk.
Then he did this and I was thinking 'Ain't he cute!'. As you can see all the brown in him, he snuck in as a regular cat and once he was established he is letting the Maine Coon out.
Then he FLEW over to one of the cedars and ran on the roof. Not
happy. Wasn't happy a bit. He had no clue how windy it was, and how fast
he could fly off! So I ended up standing in the raised bed while he teased me
by coming to the edge when I was whistling and calling and finally came down so
I promptly tossed him inside! Jerk. Cute, fuzzy, lovable jerk.
So, on to the destruction,
The dahlia. It took one hell of a beating...
My tomatoes, oh dear, my poor Black Prince...
The radishes I let bolt? So close to get my seed? Not a chance in hell. The wind snapped every single one of them and it was going so well. They would have had SO much seed. Damn. I had a fit and went ahead and cleared them out. They are now mulch. See all those seed heads? I don't even want to look.
So, upset as I was, daunted by the greenery that needs to be cut, tossed...all of the above, I started looking around. I have pretty much missed the nice fall foliage that so many are harping on as our nicely colored leaves have been passing us at about 90 MPH. I looked at my Bonsai and had to take another glance (and pictures!) as they are most gorgeous! Here is one where I took two different breeds and literally wrapped the Female around the Male to create a piece I call 'co-dependence'. hehe. Her color is amazing! He has just started to change a bit.
And one of my favorites, these are all about 4-5 yrs old. Such a nice yellow! Guess we have to keep our trees behind a wall in order to be able to see the colors!
The Japanese Elm has lost most of its leaves so gets to show off it's corkscrew nicely!
And the Cotoneaster is showing off it's berries, the wind took off a lot of them but it still has a few ;)
Then I notice the thyme and sages, how happy they are...it has finally cooled down enough for them.
And yes, I will get in there and weed them!
My herb pot looked a little unhappy, then I looked closer and changed my mind when I saw the flowers :D
The Parsley is happy finally, it does NOT like it hot-hot-hot, haha!
I come out of the garden area and see this, a cool little volunteer. One of the great things about a rental is you really don't know what is there so it is always a surprise
Yes, I know the buggers next to it have to go, lol. I *promise* LMAO!
Heading up the hill I see the dahlia in a different light...and that bush behind it? Never stopped flowering, it was leggy, like 8 ft tall and I cut the bejeezus out of it. So it flowered and has not stopped since early spring. Oh how the honey bees and bumble bees love it!
Then I look over and see that the yellow rose our youngest decided to trim this summer, with a toy sword *eek!* gave us something.
I look to the left and see fall colors on the hydrangea with a guest that really set it off!
Much better mood. What can I say, there is good in everything...I think. Excepting our present government, hehe. I decided to FINALLY plant the alpine strawberries that have been floundering and mocking me continuing to flourish despite my treatment of them. They will be great here, this spot is full of bulbs so is interesting for about 5 minutes then Blah.
So, I lost power. It was cold and windy, rainy and the power cut off while my non tv watching butt was in the middle of Grays Anatomy. I will not get radish seed this year from my crop. My tomatoes are a mess...the dahlia is half broken and the yard is a basic mess. A basic beautiful mess!
It is
getting cold and much cleanup must be done. I need to get some mulch to
help the fact that I have a neighbor cat that pooped in the bed! Once I
get some mulch I will plant Garlic and Walla Walla sweet onions. I
already picked up some Brussels Sprouts and Purple Kohlrabi seed for
spring too so that will be fun!
And now, for fun, my pot stash!
Well, It's been a week since my last blog. I have been one busy bee, I managed to can my beets, bake a couple batches of zucchini bread, make my salsa, empty the compost pile, keep up with the vegetables and run all my errands that had to be done. Whew! And dinner with the in-laws was very nice. I sent home some zucchini with them, and they brought me some fresh apples.
It has been rainy the last couple of days, so I haven't been able to spend as much time in the garden as I would have liked lately. But all that rain seems to have extended the life of my tomato plants - can you believe they are putting out still more blossoms?!? The rain seems to have revived some of my green bean plants, too. I still have quite a few hot peppers and the zucchini shows no signs of giving up any time soon.
I am getting anxious to get the winter squash. It is such a long wait for those to ripen, and it looks like I will have enough to last me until next year. I also can't hardly wait to dig the sweet potatoes, but the vines are still growing like crazy. You can't tell with those how much you'll get until you dig them. The suspense is driving me up a wall!
We are supposed to have nice, warm weather this coming weekend, so I hope to spend a lot of time out there.
Well, I've spent the last two days doing what I like to call "a million little things" in the garden. There isn't much ripening right now, the tomatoes and green beans have slowed way down, and I have to wait a while longer for the winter squash and sweet potatoes. I caught up on weeding the flower beds, pruning a few things and watering some pots and things that usually get a bit neglected. I also tackled emptying the compost pile. Well, I alsmost tackled it. I was nearly finished when I had a cousin drop by. I plan to finish the compost pile tomorrow.
It looks like I'll be working out there by myself this weekend, hubby is on overtime. I hope I can make a dent in the "to do" list on my own. I have a lot of things on that list that I'd like to get done before the leaves start to fall and create more work for me that way.
It seems like my canning season is over for the year. There just isn't enough tomatoes or green beans coming in to worry about canning them. I didn't get nearly as much put up this year as usual. Right in the middle of the season, my canner had to poop out on me. The seal wore out, and I had a devil of a time getting a replacement. I went from store to store searching, but apparently most stores no longer carry replacement parts for canning equipment. There must not be enough demand for them to justify stocking them. I finally thought to check online (duh) and ordered what I needed from the manufacturer's website. I had been hoping to avoid having to wait for it be shipped to me. So while my canner was out of commision, I was giving the stuff away as fast as it was growing so it wouldn't go to waste. Not that we don't usually give a lot away anyway, because we do. But our family and friends got an extra amout this year. Oh, well. My daughter claims she's sick of green beans anyway.
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