View Full Version : Smiling veggies
Since this is the first time we've ever planted anything, you'll have to indulge me :)
We started our tomatoes to go out June 1st. Apparently we either screwed up our date math or these are some sort of mutant tomato seeds:
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These are some of our san marzano tomatoes. We're hardening them off now (mainly because we don't have room under the lights for 'em any more) and I'm thinking of taking off the bottom leaves, planting them extra deep, and just putting some water walls around them.
We direct sowed 50 potatoes. Everything I had read said to expect leaves in no time at all. So, after a couple weeks, I was convinced that we had somehow lost our crop (non-stop rain, etc). But, they're all up and saying hi now:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sg_gKkWhhSI/TcurURvZGxI/AAAAAAAAA9I/OcDrddalLyE/s1600/023.JPG
And, since we need some success, we figured peas were a no-brainer:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6-snx-9Yn9o/TchMGdHo2HI/AAAAAAAAA8w/98XTRa_pcdc/s1600/009.JPG
The asparagus (first year so we won't get anything to eat) just poked their heads up also. I'll grab some pictures of them once I teach 'em to stand up straight and say cheese.
Your plants all look beautiful! But the first thing I thought of when I read the thread title was a radish I grew a couple years ago:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_dp0PWyNAeVY/TcwgQxRi2uI/AAAAAAAADq0/kTpd0CoOXHA/s400/IMG_4330.JPG
Now that is a happy radish!
Nice tomatoes, Benhyr! You don't have to plant the tomatoes deep. You can gently turn the pot sideways and bring up the rest of the stem upwards. (Does that makes sense?). It keeps you from having to plant real deep. You just have to be careful about cultivating in-between your tomatoes, that you don't go too deep.....since the roots might be off to one side.
We've gotten alot of asparagus this year. Its soooooo good! I guess you can pick just a couple next year, and then a few more the year after that, then more the next.
Its always fun digging up potatoes! I keep thinking of trying the garbage can method, but haven't yet.
I planted snow peas. I have to pre-sprout them though, or the mice eat the seeds.
Looks like you're going to have a nice garden!
LOL Daisy!
Oh, I was thinking of planting them deep because we're still two weeks away from when I had planned to set them out and they're getting too big for their pots (again!). If I put them out now I want to protect them from frost and I don't think a water wall is nearly tall enough... I thought that might give them a little leg up too if they can put out plenty of extra roots. Our plan with the other tomato transplants that'll go out mid-June is to plant them sideways as you suggest.
We're just hilling the potatoes but I had wanted to try a tire next year maybe... plant them in a tire, as they grow, add a tire and more dirt. When you're done, remove all the tires and enjoy! I am a bit worried about leaching from those tires though... is the process similar with the garbage can?
I think so. I would rather use the garbage can though, than tires. Another way to do it is to make a circle with fencing and just pile stuff in there.
Its funny........when we started planting potatoes, we got a ton of the Colorado potato beetle, which we had never seen until we planted the potatoes. Its funny how certain insects just suddenly appear, when you put their favorite plant out.
Great photos! Daisy, that radish is too much! :)
I'm growing potatoes in wire cages this year because the pocket gophers ate ever single one last year. I wrapped the inside of the cages with newspapers and have been adding soil as they grow. I won't know how well they did until it's time to dig them, but they are very healthy looking so far.
They look very happy indeed.
flowerseverywhere
5-13-11, 10:19pm
Oh, I was thinking of planting them deep because we're still two weeks away from when I had planned to set them out and they're getting too big for their pots (again!). If I put them out now I want to protect them from frost and I don't think a water wall is nearly tall enough... I thought that might give them a little leg up too if they can put out plenty of extra roots. Our plan with the other tomato transplants that'll go out mid-June is to plant them sideways as you suggest.
We're just hilling the potatoes but I had wanted to try a tire next year maybe... plant them in a tire, as they grow, add a tire and more dirt. When you're done, remove all the tires and enjoy! I am a bit worried about leaching from those tires though... is the process similar with the garbage can?
I think the rationale behind planting the tomatoes sideways as opposed to deep is that the soil is warmest near the top. When you dig a very deep hole it is much colder and the tomatoes may not do as well.
I try to keep all chemicals out of my gardens so I would not do the tire potato garden. As others have posted, just a plain wire cage will work just as well.
Also, see if you can find any old men gardening in your area. I have two in my community garden and I copy what they do. If they plant their tomatoes, I know it is time. I watch how the amend the soil and copy, and every day they stop in for a short period of time to cultivate and weed. Keeping a step ahead of problems is very useful. June first is very late to plant, and I live in the US very close to the Canadian border and I'll have everything planted in the next week or so.
also, keep a diary. write down when you started your seeds, when you planted outside etc. Pictures are very helpful. Then in December when the wind in howling and snow is flying you can dream and plan. As the years go by you will get better and better.
Ahh, that makes sense. I guess I was thinking about an article I was reading about how Basque farmers used to grow their tomatoes. They'd start them indoors in a sunny windowsill and then bury them several feet down in a hole and put a plate of glass over the hole. I believe they also laid straw over the glass at night. As the tomato grew towards the light, they'd add compost and the plant would be at ground level by the time the growing season started. Of course, it probably helps that they were adding lots of sheep manure which was certainly keeping the roots warm.
The old men gardening around here told me I wasn't safe if I even thought about putting the tomatoes out before June 1st so that's why I was shooting for that. It does seem late to me but then we do have a couple light frost warnings in the forecast this week :(
We've bought even more potatoes so I'm going to try a wire cage! Thanks for the tips.
flowerseverywhere
5-15-11, 7:11am
The old men gardening around here told me I wasn't safe if I even thought about putting the tomatoes out before June 1st so that's why I was shooting for that. It does seem late to me but then we do have a couple light frost warnings in the forecast this week :(
I'm glad you weren't offended by that remark. I have lived all over the country and I would walk around town looking for people that had big gardens. People love to give advice if you ask, I have found. Funny thing is I had a young couple stop by my community garden plots and ask me questions. They probably said "Let's ask that old lady, she looks like she knows what she's doing". I also am frequently asked at my house, which had huge flower beds all over for advice. I am known to dig up plants and give them away even to perfect strangers.
My one gardening regret was I had a neighbor who used to plant peas and beans his mother had bought over on the boat from Italy. He was childless and is gone now and I wish I had asked him for a handful of seeds, but at the time I did not appreciate the value of heirloom seeds.
Our official last frost day is today, and I have most of my planting of plants (peppers and tomatoes) done, but it has been so wet I haven't put my beans and other seeds out yet. It is just too cool and wet and they have a good chance of rotting. Another few weeks of waiting won't hurt.
We devour books, bug our grandparents, our good friend who grew up with a 2 acre farm in the '30's, and our uncle who still has part of his farm where he raises a nice garden and some beef cattle. I also just introduced myself to some neighbors who looked like they might have a veggie garden tucked in among their flowers.. retired teachers and very nice folks. I had actually stopped in to see if I could pawn some iris off on them but they pointed out they have a similar problem. Maybe I'll sneak into a few neighbor yards and prank 'em with some beautiful iris transplants.
Anything I can do to learn, I'm all about. I like to experiment on my own also, but if someone tells me it's a bad, bad idea because they've done it, then I'm not so bull-headed that I ignore them ;)
Our official last frost day is today too but we're under that same horrible cold and wet front. The potatoes seem to be thriving but I'm not putting the tomatoes or peppers out yet either. Ground is so wet, even with raised beds, that I think we'll hold off on even the beans until next week. The high will be back up in the 50's by then.
What is the reasoning for putting the potatoes in a garbage can and how is this done?
Its just like a big container to grow them in. I've never done it, but I think you put in cured compost/straw, etc., and then the potatoes and then cover them up with a small layer of the same. Then, repeat that several times. They grow out the top. Then at the end of the growing season, you just dump it out and harvest your taters. Just google "growing potatoes in a trash can" and you'll find lots of info.
Also, see if you can find any old men gardening in your area. I have two in my community garden and I copy what they do. If they plant their tomatoes, I know it is time.
Ahem! some day I believe you young-uns will be copying this old lady! I think there are a few of US around to emulate, too! I'm a much more learned gardener than my old man! ;-)
edited for typo
flowerseverywhere
5-18-11, 1:16pm
Also, see if you can find any old men gardening in your area. I have two in my community garden and I copy what they do. If they plant their tomatoes, I know it is time.
Ahem! some day I believe you young-uns will be copying this old lady! I think there are a few of US around to emulate, too! I'm a much more learned gardener than my old man! ;-)
edited for typo
very true. I just ask the old men because the best producing, best kept and most interesting gardens in my community gardens happen to be worked by men. In my old house I had a gardening neighbor who was also a man so that is where the reference is from.
Now I am being asked so times they are a changing.
After discussing with a few more old... I mean, experienced... people, and I'm shooting to put the tomatoes out this next week. A week later than our official last frost date but a week earlier than others had recommended. I've still been told to get ready with frost cover but we should be safe. We have blossoms forming on some of them already so I'm anxious to get them out for the pollinators.
More exciting, the strawberry beds will be done by Saturday and I can get these 50 plants out of my hair!
Rest of the garden should be ready this Saturday also and fence should be up by Sunday. I'll post pictures after I get the yard cleaned up. DW planted 14 raspberry plants the last two days and has some blackberries to put out as well. We had to take some time away to deal with cutting down a tree and cutting up another tree that had fallen over.
We've had an unusually cold, rainy season. I heard someone ask a worker at a nursery I was at, "when is it safe to plant?" The lady said "Around here May 15th is the last frost date." The woman acted like it was written in stone! You have to go with the flow with "last frost dates". You have to be prepared to have a good way of protecting, should the temperature dip low, even if its after the "last frost date".
I always put milk jugs over my tomato plants when I first plant them. It helps them heat up during the day, and helps them through a cooler night. It also protects them from wind. But if it was going to frost, I'd cover them with tarps.
But I just wouldn't go by the "last frost date". mother nature is too variable.
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