Ready to spread their wings and fly. Or rather, spread their leaves and grow.
I don't harden off my seedlings, meaning gradually acclimate them to the vagaries of outdoor conditions after a lifetime of temperature control. Frankly, I'm not good at this. I tend to forget about them outside and they get too cold or fried in the sun, or something. I prefer to let the milk jugs shelter them and create a stable environment right off the bat.
All of the milk jugs had already been removed from the cabbages and kohlrabi:
And replaced by the small walls.
I can re-use the milk jugs as many times as I wish, but only for one season. After that, the plastic gets too brittle and they break when I push them into the soil.
I was left with about a dozen jugs ready to go. I had 26 tomato plants, so I sawed the bottoms off 14 more milk jugs while A. dug the bed for me. After hoeing and raking the bed smooth, and then building up the earth berms all around it to hold in the water, I flooded it.
And then, after the water soaked in, I could finally plant. Plants in the mud, milk jugs firmly anchored over the top, and . . .
The jugs go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah . . .
I had two more plants than I had thought I did, so the bed ended up a little crowded, but that's okay. Makes it easier to mulch and water them.
We haven't quite figured out staking yet. With this configuration, we could put cattle panels in the middle and tie the plants to that, but that would require buying more cattle panels, and I always find tying tomatoes to be much easier on individual stakes. A. got some cedar pieces for me that he's going to try to split into stakes, so we'll see how that goes.
I didn't stake my tomatoes last year, which was fine insofar as they don't rot here, thanks to our dry climate, but it's a mess of vines and hard to find the tomatoes. Staking is a lot of work, but I like it better.
Next step for the tomatoes is putting in the stakes--I learned early in my gardening life that I should do this when the plants are as small as possible--and mulching with the waste sheep hay that's right on the other side of the fence from the tomato bed.
Oh, I forgot to tell you what tomatoes I'm growing! Thirteen of those plants are Romas, and then the other half are Stupice, Cherokee Purple, and Chocolate Cherry.
Anything exciting happening in your garden lately, fellow gardeners?
5 comments:
I put Japanese indigo plants in a raised bed in a community garden plot. I didn't have a chance to look in on them or water for a week, but yesterday I looked and they're doing fine. None of the seeds (more dye plants) I sowed are sprouting, but it's still early and the heat that seeds like hasn't settled in yet. If I don't see anything by Memorial Day, I'll throw something else in the bed.
Radishes and bindweed, and a fuzz of carrots finally. Lettuce never came up — I imagine my seed was too old.
Stupid bindweed came in with a straw bale we used for mulch several years ago and I cannot get rid of it. So frustrating.
Need to get tomatoes and onions in right soonly and get some beans and cukes and maybe watermelon and some kind of pumpkin something in the ground as well.
Rabbits seem to have nearly girdled the apple tree so I need to prune the dead off it. Normal people do not plant apple trees in their garden, so there's that. It's probably never going to bear but the kid was so excited to have a grocery store apple seed grow. The things some people do for their children. Sheesh.
p.s. indigo! That's exciting.
Have you heard of the Florida Weave for staking tomatoes? Works great!
My tomatoes are going in today! I used to wait until Memorial Day (Wisconsin cold, ahem), but climate change has made a difference in planting times. I have Brandywine, Independence Day, orange, and some basic large red cherry and yellow pear. For the last few years, I've gotten quantities of Romas for canning at the farmers' market and my favorite produce stands.
Nothing edible to justify the water use. Just a ton of flowers on everything that can flower, which doesn’t do anything for the stomach, but definitely works for the soul, especially here in the desert. Your garden is just beginning, as ours will soon be going to brown and dry. Yours is definitely better.
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