It's been raining too much here...today's the first day we haven't had a rain shower yet this morning! Very odd for our climate. I actually stuck everything back in the greenhouse the other night, with lows predicted around 37.

Today it's supposed to start warming up finally (and hopefully drying out), so maybe this weekend I'll get things planted.

We've had some fairly good gusts, but my plants seemed to take it in stride (I just left them sitting out in front of the greenhouse all last week/weekend)...the wind was really the least of my worries, but they're fairly good sized plants with strong stems, and when I plant them out, the peppers will be caged, and the tomatoes on trellisses, so that should give them enough support, I think.

I can't wait to get them planted out!

I planted a few out - but I have lots more just in case! They are set quite deep, so that there's not much above ground for the wind to tear up. Plus they have been out in the strong winds every day on the patio for several weeks.

I don't even worry about it. :-)

- Michelle

ps. one 'mater planted out got stepped on and flattened by the guy moving my henhouse. He actually stood there on it for a couple of minutes - I didn't say anything to him since he did me a favor moving the henhouse. It popped itself back up and looks fine. They are tougher little buggers than I would have thought.

I'm in the process, which is going to take a few days. I spent over 100 bucks last year on green chili from NM, and figured that's kind of silly, so I have a lot of pepper plants. I'm a little leery about the wind.

I put out two tomato plants and two pepper plants a few weeks ago. I was brave. I did wrap some weed fabric around the cages a few nights. They are managing so far. They look good. One tomato plant already has blossoms. I have a few smaller plants to plant outside but I'm going to wait a few more weeks for those.

Tomatoes and peppers are planted out - weather here is benign!

Bonnie, have you considered a "silt fence" there in Silt? Seriously, it would be the simplest thing to construct.

Silt fences are used to control water erosion but as protection from the wind - they should really help.

digitS'

My plants will go out this weekend, too. My first year here I did lose some to the wind (big wind - 60 mph), so now I

1) put the fan on them while they are growing inside,
2) tip over the tomato and bury a part of the stem when I plant so they are shorter and
3) tie them to a small stake until they are big enough to be supported by the tomato cages.

That, and make sure they have enough water - the wind really takes it out of them. In fact, if you are going to have sustained winds for a week or so after you put them out, digit's advice is probably best - think windbreak.

WW

My son and I tilled in a mountain of two year old compost in 4 x 70' lines, spread black plastic weed barrier between them, and just transplanted 70 squash plants, with another row to go. In that bed. I think every gardener should have a 16 year old son, so idealistic that he's there figuring out "lets see, each plant gives, on average, 4 squash, and I sell them at $3.00 each...." And can you imagine what a creep I'd be if I mentioned the pitfalls? So I kept quiet, and let him work.

30 mph winds, 14 % humidity, but these things were started too early and were already getting huge.

I've begun putting my tomatoes out into their final containers. Two of them are out in the garden in the sun. The rest are still on the back porch. I have some still inside. I don't think they're quite big enough to set out yet.

Everything is in, and growing in my garden. OK, not quite true, no peppers yet, they go in this weekend.

I've been trying to find time for the past week, but with family visiting it just didn't work out. None of them have their true leaves yet and everything sprouted except for one cup of thessaloniki and both cups of Wisconsin 55's. I'm determined to get them in this weekend.

Everythings finally inÂplants and seedÂand doing really well for me so far. Just put the cuke seeds in todayÂthe last thing. This is the first year IÂm starting to feel somewhat organized! I just had my first baby spinach and lettuce salad todayÂa premonitor of all the wonderful things yet to come from the veggie garden this year.

With your tomatoes, Bonnie, I recommend removing all but the top few leaves and then burying them all the way up to those leaves. The wind will help them develop strength as they growÂin addition to the trellises or cages youÂre using. I find that when they get put out in the ground they grow much more quickly than they do in small pots. Mine have been in less than a week, they were buried most of the way up to the top (just a couple sets of leaves), and IÂm seeing obvious new growth already. Just keep a few empty pots around to cover them in case you still get too cold out there.

Dreaming homegrown veggies,
Skybird

Bonnie -

Once you begin the hardening off process, the plants do not revert back. While indoors, under fluorescent lights, the plant's cells develop in a very coddled environment. As they are slowly exposed to sun, wind and rain, the cells will adjust. This takes time, as chloroplasts rearrange within the cells and the stem becomes stronger. A more waxy, and stronger, stem surface will become visible and new leaves will sprout that are smaller and perhaps a different color. These are signs that your plants are hardening off. As the plant begins this transformation, it will continue and you shouldn't need to start the process over; unless you leave your plants in a coddled environment for longer then a few days. Wall o Waters protect against the elements, propped with bamboo to create a teepee, and plastic garbage bags taped around the tomato cages act as a wind break.

I was hoping to get it all done before I started summer classes, but it did not happen. I put up the first of the trellises up yesterday (old hog fencing) and the tomatoes are hardened off. Now we are just waiting for the planting fairy to come by...

Billie

I got the tomatoes that I had from the swap planted out just before all the rains came down. They look like they're doing okay. My seedling peppers and eggplants never got very big indoors, but I planted them out anyway to see what they would do. Likewise with the basil.

The lettuce that I sowed back in early April has given me a couple crops of baby leaves for salads. This is my first year doing any veggies so I planted too much and I'm noticing which salad leaves I actually feel like picking and eating. I planted Orach, which is really pretty and has a mild flavor, and the forellenschluss lettuce is also pretty and tasty. The mesclun mix that I bought at the grocery store came up faster than any of the others, and makes a nice combination of flavors. I was disappointed at how little of my mache germinated. I might have planted too deeply. I'll probably skip the arugula and the barcarole lettuces next year, assuming I find time to do this again.

What I haven't gotten to are my melons and sunflowers and I'm starting to feel anxious about that.

Well, I gambled on the wind today. I was gone for a few hours this morning, and the plants were out on the porch. When I got home, the peppers were leaning a bit, but otherwise looked fine. The tomatoes are another story. The sturdier varieties held up, but some that have more relaxed (?) foliage, like the Opalka, really took a beating. Some of the leaves were just dangling. The plants will probably recover, but I was glad they weren't in the ground yet, and I could bring them inside.

Digit, I had to look up what a "silt fence" was. They seem to run about $30 for 100', which is way more than I need, but like you said, maybe I can create a homemade version. That sounds like another project for DH, LOL!

Austinnhanasmom, thanks for the information! It's good to know that I'm not undoing any progress by bringing them in for a day or two. I like the idea of the garbage bags around the tomato cages, but I was only planning to stake mine, since the veggie garden is in the front yard, and I am trying to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible.

Skybird, isn't that area on the right where your tomato cages are, your wintersowing area? Did you get everything planted out, or did you move your containers to another area? I will definitely plan on planting the tomatoes deep. Can I do the same with the peppers?

Foxes, don't feel bad, I haven't planted my cucumbers or canteloupes yet either. I also have bush beans to plant, but I may have to skip them this year, because I have too many tomato plants, and I don't think there will be enough room left in the garden. With the lettuces, I'm trying a couple of varieties that are supposed to hold up well to hot weather - Jericho, and New Red Fire. The others I am growing include Parris Island Cos, Black Seeded Simpson, and Buttercrunch. I haven't harvested any yet, so I don't know which ones taste best.

Tomorrows forecast looks calmer, so maybe I can try to get some of these peppers and tomatoes in the ground.

Bonnie

Bonnie, the 6 WS flats I have left are back where they started which is behind the wire trellises you see on the right next to the house that have peas starting up them. If you look carefully, you can see the gray flats behind the wire. When I was turning over the garden a couple months ago I moved them over to the left side on the compost end for a while till I needed that space to plant the summer squash and cukes that I just got in. I started the squash in pots inside this year and I actually have one to go out yet thats just germinating now. Its a white patty pan that I used very old seed for, so its taken almost a month for them to germinate. Plan to put that one out next week. The cukes were just direct seeded. The space where the WS stuff is now is where Im putting the leeks, so I dont have any idea where Im going to move them when I plant the leeks in the next few days!

In the picture, Im standing where the tomatoes are planted, so you can only see 4 of the eight of themactuallyone of them isnt out yet either! It was one of the Totally Tomatoes ones that didnt germinate on the first try, so the replanted seeds are up now and will probably go outstill very smallnext week. I really do find that when theyre planted outside they seem to miraculously take off! I do also have a "potato leaf" one, for the first time this year, Bloody Butcher, and Im finding it always looks "limper" and just unhappier than the others with regular leaves. I dont know if thats normal or not (anybody whos grown potato leaf tomatoes before have any advice?), but its out in the ground and on its ownfor better or for worse! I hope to get the 6' stakes in around the tomatoes within the next week since its MUCH easier to put them in when the plants are still very small.

You can see one of my 4 eggplants on the right, near a little, multiple plant, dill that I started inside in a potbut theres reseeded dill from last year coming up all over the area that Im leaving grow wherever it happens to be. I love the airy, ferny look of dilland I love to rub my hands against it when Im walking by, and then I walk around the yard sniffing my hands!

As Michelle said up above, with tomatoesand most of the veggies we growtheyre tough little buggers, and as long as youre staying at least several degrees above freezing overnite, I recommend getting them out into the ground. If youre getting down around the 40's overnite, youd help keep them and the ground around them a little bit warmer if you inverted black pots over them overnite. Just be sure to take them back off in the morning by the time the sun comes up or youll steam them with your high altitude sun! As long as your tomatoes have a couple sets of leaves that look pretty good on top, remove everything below that and bury the whole stem. Since you wind up with very little actually sticking out above ground at that point, there really isnt much of anything to blow around till they start growing, and since theyre growing out in the normal wind, theyll learn very well to live with it and develop nice strong stems that they dont in a pot inside. I buried a good foot of the stem of one of mine, with only about 5" sticking out. And I bury mine straight down rather than laying the stem sideways, because, since Im gone so much, I figure the deeper the roots are, the less likely they are to become stressed because of lack of water. Other than that, I dont think it makes any difference if the stem is buried sideways or straight down.

And, no, definitely dont bury the peppers deeper! If the seed leaves are high up on the stem, you can probably bury them a little bit deeper than they are in the pot, but generally bury them at the same depth they are in the pot they were started in. If they seem to need some help with the wind, put small stakes in next to them and loosely tie them. Im sure you do get a lot of wind out there, so a little extra support would probably be good for them.

Gotta go! I have perennials to get into the ground.

Skybird

I have two little tomatoes out. We are keeping them in giant pots again this year as we get year-round hail and high gusts that just clobbers the heck out of them.

Last year we just brought them in when the weather was naughty. This year we are both working in Boulder and so I've already worried about them several times.

They have only had to come in two nights so far and they did get hardened off, so hopefully they will be fine. They haven't really sprouted out much new growth but the yellow pear has the most fantastic and glorious energy feel/look to it. Must be a very happy plant!

This year we are thinking of inserting flat strips of bamboo into the wire fencing to help block some of the winds. I don't think it will take them long to get used to it though. I will also remember to put the shredded bark on top as I never did that last year. I hope that helps them retain some moisture, seeing as they are in pots.

J.

My 2008 garden:

Started from seed:
Tomatoes: (- my observation of seedlings indoors)
Sweet Baby Girl - strong grower
Viva Italia Hybrid - strong grower
Giant Valentine Hybrid - average grower
Mama Leone - strong grower
Cisineros Tomatillo - average grower
Yellow Pear - strong grower
San Marzano Redorta - hard to germinate, average grower
Jersey Devil - very difficult to germinate, average grower
Yellow Oxheart - difficult to germinate, average grower
Yellow Brandywine - average grower

Peppers:
Ancho 101 - very difficult to germinate, average grower
Ancho San Luis - very difficult to germinate, average grower
Mulato Island - very difficult to germinate, average grower
Pasilla - very difficult to germinate, average grower
Pueblo - very difficult to germinate, average grower
Anaheim

Purchased:
Golden Roma
Holy Mole
Anaheim
Italian Roaster
Big Jim

My 2008 goals are to 1) narrow down which paste variety grows well in my horrible soil and still gives good flavor for the yield and 2) make mole!! Last year I grew very spicy peppers next to more mild ones and ended up with crosses. Now each year I'll grow one or the other. My paste tomato experiment is of course skewed by the growing season, but hopefully will yield good data. The Jersey Devil seedlings looked good inside but all died outdoors. Although I didn't put much effort into the seedling growing process, some on my list were definitely easier to sprout then others. There's a shop called www.chileplants.com that has an amazing assortment of tomatoes, chiles and eggplant. Perhaps next year I'll grow a variety from seed and buy the same kind from them to compare the growth and yield.

Good Gardening -

Its done. approx 80 pepper plants, 50 tomato plants, 70 winter squash, and 4 plum trees. Still to go, another 20 squash and the genetic mutant giant pumpkin DD10 wants to grow. Green bean seeds planted, okra planted, and I X 72 cell tray of chard to replace all garlic in a month. Golden beets not up. Carrots are hiding under the plank. Egg plant outside in their containers.

I have muddy knees and sunburned ears.

Wow! This year - my garden is smaller. It was time to draw back a little.

I may have matched David's 50 tomatoes but I'm not sure about the peppers and there are no 70 winter squash out there!!

I'm very jealous of Austin'n'Hana'sMom's contingent of tomatoes & peppers. I have grown a few of those varieties, but far too few.

digitS'

Good for you, David! The only thing accomplished outdoors today, was putting wire fencing around the apple tree that the deer snacked on the other night. The winds were gusting between 30 - 35 mph, so I just wasn't willing to take a chance on the peppers and tomatoes. I lost quite a few leaves on them from the winds yesterday, so they are tucked into a protected corner on the porch. We'll see what tomorrow brings ... other than baseball practice.

Off to make dinner,
Bonnie

I am definitely somewhat envious of all you growers of zillions of produce! Last year was our first year for both the high altitude and, for me, Colorado. We took it easy with the two tomatoes but thought we'd be expanding that this year. Naw, too much working and too little time. I knew it would be a big commitment going back to work, mainly less time with our dogs and less time in the garden, but, wow, full time work really takes a lot of time and energy!!

Tomorrow is a highly valued weekend. Oh, yes, I'll be covered in dirt, I mean, fine soil and compost. I'm going to the garden center and picking up a flat or two of really easy, hardy and self caring flowers. Hmm, probably some johnny-jump-ups. I am going ga-ga over the little violet coloured ones who came back from last year, so pretty and simple.

I'm also going to take all my fall and spring swap perennials and relocate them to nice locations. The strawberries are going to get moved to a slug-free area and the tomatoes will have their shredded bark.

What I would deny planning to do (but I won't because I know I'll do it no matter what) is make a list of least-days-to-maturity tomatoes and then buy a couple. The ones in the shops are so much bigger than the ones I have...

I think I can handle more than two tomato plants. I'm just not sure how happy they'd be up here during a hail storm while we're at work.

Maybe next year I'll try a whole new produce!! Come to think of it, maybe I'll come home tomorrow with an eggplant!

J

My maters are still tiny, but I'm determined to get them in the ground Saturday. Have to go look at irrigation systems drip lines, etc. and have been thinking of getting a couple of eggplants at Nick's. I'm realizing I have more room than I thought since I'm putting some peppers in the front yard.

I've been outside all day, but boy did I get a lot done! All the peppers have been planted, eight tomato plants went in the garden, two will go in an Earthbox, and the rest I will have to give away. I also direct seeded some bush cucumbers, and sowed the vining ones, plus the canteloupes and pole beans, into containers, until the peas are finished up.

Here is the final list on my tomatoes and peppers.

Tomatoes:

Sungold
Supersweet 100's
Black Cherry (Thanks, Margaret)
Cherokee Purple
San Marzano
Opalka
Azoychka
Moskvich

The two that I will put in the Earthbox are

Roma
Kimberly

Peppers:

Alma Paprika
Albino Bell
Cubanelle
Fooled You Jalapeno
Giant Aconcagua
King of the North
Revolution

Here is the tiny space that I have squeezed all of those plants into:

The right side has all of the cool season veggies - lettuces, broccoli, peas, carrots, and onions:

The empty area on the far right is where the cucumbers are going.

The left side is tomatoes in the back, peppers in front of them, and too tiny to see are the basil and marigolds in the very front:

I told you guys my tomatoes and peppers were small. This was the largest tomato plant I put out 'Cherokee Purple, and I did bury it pretty deep:

The skewers are my attempt to outsmart the cutworms, plus I thought they would give the stems support from the winds.

... and here are a couple of close ups of the lettuces, broccoli, and peas (since I had the camera out):

{{gwi:405819}}

My muscles are stiff and I outlasted the sunscreen, so you know it was a good gardening day today!

Bonnie

Anyone who says gardening isn't hard exercise is going to get whacked upside the head with my favorite trowel. I spent most of this afternoon weedwhacking my back yard. Took a while for my arms to stop vibrating after I was done. Then I planted more lettuce and carrots, watered everything, and moved another pot full of tomato plant out into the raised bed area. Then I jammed in some bamboo stakes so my sweet peas and snow peas would have something to climb. In between things, I weeded.

Now I'm wishing I had a beer to go with my pizza.

So far, I've got a Roma, Sausage, Opalka, Black Plum, and Orange Banana out. I've got some others still inside. I think they're still too small to go out yet. My rows of lettuce, carrots, and spinach are popping up. I've been planting a couple rows a week for about the last six weeks.

Bonnie, what lettuces did you plant? I tend to scatter them all over a bed and never get such cute mounds :-)

Lilacs, I'm not sure whether the tomatoes are too little or not (mine don't even have true leaves), but they're going in tomorrow.

My overwintered spinach is just about gone so I need to reseed that. Out of 2 areas of scarlet runner beans I planted only one has come up. I dug down where I had planted those and where I had planted yellow wax beans, tendergreen bush beans, okra and both cucumbers and nothing's there, can't even find the seeds. I'm going to have to replant them soon.

I picked up 3 Ichiban eggplant, a 6-pack of sweet cherry peppers, a jalapeno, a "Fantastic" tomato plant, 2 pickling cukes and a burpless cuke, a 6-pack of brussel sprouts and 2 "sugar baby" watermelon.

Dafy, I wintersowed those lettuces, and didn't even try to separate them into individual seedlings, I just cut them into several chunks and planted them in groups, which have since grown together into the clumps you see. I planted Buttercrunch, Parris Island Cos, Black Seeded Simpson, Jericho, and New Red Fire. The last two I picked because they are supposed to have a high heat tolerance. This past week the have really grown. It looks like I may be ready for some salad. What do you think?

Bonnie

Eh-hem. I thought I'd toss out that my containerized eggplant is now starting to fruit.

My list in 2008

Tomatoes

Big Beef - probably the best I grow each year
Tessaloniki - both saved seed and "store-bought" to see if those might be a little earlier
Mountain Spring - determinant
Legend yet another try at a determinant variety. I'm holding out hope for this one because of purported good size, disease resistance, and marked earliness. (Also, it is an OP so I can save the seed if it does well. ;o)
Early Girl - always seem to have a few plants of these
JaliRanchr - (also known as Bloody Butcher)
Large Red Cherry - didn't realize that this was an heirloom until last year
Sweet Chelsea I'll mix up these jumbo-sized cherries with the LRC but they are really sweet so taste-testing will work.
SunSugar my favorite
Sugar Lump - probably shouldn't have grown this one. The "old-fashioned flavor" is welcome but they are tart and it's tedious to pick these little 1/2 inch tomatoes.
Ildi cnetter's tomato in 2007

Peppers

Thai Hot tiny 8" plants ripen fruit really early and they're really hot
Super Chili another productive, hot one - very pretty, too
Jalapeno M
Garden Salsa - Really nice, productive pepper
Big Chili Anaheim
Giant Marconi Hybrid Very sweet and excellent both fresh and cooked.
Marconi more productive than GM
Marconi Red maybe a misake. I have a feeling they won't turn red until very late in the season and maybe too late.
Canary Belle free seed.
Peto Wonder a good early, large, sorta bell
Whopper very consistent at producing nice bells.

Did someone say eggplant?

Dusky a proven performer
AppleGreen - didn't get the seed early enuf for planting these pale green round guys in 2007. Very early and a nice mild flavor
Thai Long Green Hybrid These green-skin eggplants are really good.
Green Beauty May have gotten these mixed up with the Thai LG last year so will grow again to make sure I know which is which.

I also start lettuce in the greenhouse and set them out as "clumps." They grow reasonably well like that.

Harvested the first small lettuce leaves a couple days ago - along with some orach and green onions for salad. Oh, and the arugula too . . . .

digitS'

Everything is in - veggie-wise! My labeling system left a lot to be desired, so I'm hoping that one of the tomatoes is a yellow pear, and that at least one or two of the peppers are jalapeno.

Tomatoes:
Early Girl
Big Boy
White Bianca
Yellow Pear?
Italian Ice (White Cherry)
Honey Bunch (current)

I'm trying to find room for another Honey Bunch, but it's not looking good...

Peppers:
Green Bell
Sweet Crimson
Alma Paprika
Sweet Cayenne
Hot Portugal (already has a pepper)
Kalediscope
5 Color Marble
Brazilian Pumpkin
Yellow Mushroom
Flourescent Purple

Eggplant:
Black Beauty

Cucumbers:
Pearl Hybrid (already fruiting)

The greenhouse was good and bad this year - good to get everything off to a stellar start, and bad because I have *way* too much stuff started! The people I've given the extras to don't seem to mind though...

Yeah, I finally gave away all of my extra tomato and broccoli plants to a neighbor down the street, and sent the tomato plants that I was growing for my DH's coworkers to work with him yesterday, so my pot ghetto (aka: the porch) is looking a little less cluttered. Yippee!!!

I'm glad I grew a few extra, because I did end up needing a couple of them. Plus, it feels good to share : )

Bonnie

Finally got my tomatoes in the ground. Had to wait so long to get them hardened off because I sold my cold frame so I didn't have that to help the babies and was at the mercy of a loitering cold May. But went ahead and planted 11 varieties with a total of 26 plants.

Yes, Steve, I have Bloody Butcher right up front. :) That sweet production gem. :) Mostly old favorites but a couple new to me in Rainy's Maltese from Australia (Mantis says it does well in the aridity) and Yellow Submarine from Spud's growout. Skorospelka of course for the canning - that's a winner too. Not real adventurous this year but gotta have plenty to gorge on and I've been buying bacon like crazy before they up the price come BLT time.

My tomatoes, peppers and cukes are growing slow in the hoop houses because of the cold. Wish it would warm up some. Deoesn't sound like it for this next week though. Digit, I wasn't really impressed with Legend. Grew it the past two years and decided not this year. Had problems with Isis Candy cracking last year and not so bad the year before but decided that I didn't need to grow it this year. Had real good production on Big Rainbow last year. I try to grow several yellow, black and orange ones. Aunt Gerty's German Green is good tasting but not producing more than a couple tomatoes per plant. Green Zebra wasn't exceptional for me. I am trying some new ones this year that I have't tried before. Think I counted 45 varieties. Hope they make it to ripen. Have really had a problem with flea beetles this year and lost a couple young transplants. After the plants get a llittle larger they don't take them out.

Shelley, can you believe that I've got a Bloody Butcher with a tiny fruit on it?!? It's smaller than the end of my little finger but . . . . kinda scary . . . . the plants are purple from the cold!

45 varieties, Margaret!!? If two varieties have fruit with the same look to them, I'll mix 'em up. Since I try to harvest at "first blush," that means I can't figure out what I've got on the kitchen counter.

I didn't even know that flea beetles liked tomato plants so well until 2 years ago. They darn near killed a few plants before I realized what was happening and ran to get the sprayer.

Flea beetles like the eggplants too but I've gotten to expect that kind of behavior out of 'em. Leaving 'em go would be like allowing the gun club to come in and use the garden for skeet shooting.

digitS'

My tomato plants are still small, but a couple have flower buds. They're not growing very fast. I think possibly because they're busy growing a root system to fill out the large containers they're in. I have one tiny bell pepper seedling still inside, and it's growing at a geological pace.

I still have a couple tomato seedlings inside, and I hope to get them outside tomorrow.

Last year I found that Spinosad and Pyola help against the flea beetles. But I discovered it too late. I saved my third attempts at squash and melons, but by the time they thought about setting fruit, the frost hit them.

Everything is out in the garden now. I spent this past weekend transplanting and planting. Our weather has turned from spring winds and frosts to temps of 90+ with lows around 60.

For those worrying about the wind damaging their transplants, the easiest and best protection I've found is a coffee can with both ends cut out. Push the can down around the plant and you have great wind protection. I've never had the hot sun heat up the can and burn any part of the transplants, either. When the weather settles, pull the can from around the plant and let it continue to grow. We get some mean winds here in the high desert, but this trick has always worked well for us.

To keep my peppers from being beat up by the wind, I circled a strip of sheer curtain, about the height of the plants, around them ( I only have 3 though) and attached it to a few sticks. My tomato seems big enough to handle it, but the poor peppers looked like they were going to be flattened. It seems to slow the wind pretty well.

The Beloved Hubby Unit bought me two new tomato plants to replace the two I set out in early May. One is a heat-resistant (just in case it's a hot summer)and the other is a Big Boy. We are seat-of-the-pants gardeners, but when the stuff does grow, abundant harvesters...lol! One year we gave away over 200 lbs. of patty-pan squash to the zoo and Silver Key, and one year I made about 3 gallons of yellow pear tomato puree cooked down from all the yellow cherry tomatoes that ripened...Made beautiful, golden spaghetti sauce all winter.

We had trouble believing the "bury 80% of the plant" directions, but skybird's post verified that this is okay for the plants, so I am less concerned. They went into a mix of potting soil, composted steer manure, and time release fertilizer pellets, and yesterday was cool and overcast, so they transplanted well.

With the tasteless tomatoes in the store hitting $2 plus a pound, I end up "visiting" them at the store, like you visit the animals at the zoo, so I wanted just a couple plants to remember how good home grown really are...when you don't set them out too early and they freeze, that is.

I tend not to bury the tomato stems deep. First of all, deep soil preparation is found in my old established gardens where cultivation is done with a spading fork. In the newer, larger veggie garden (with zillions of rocks), soil prep is a rototiller job. I'm lucky to have 6 inches of loose soil to set any plant in.

The 2nd problem with setting them deep is that the soil is cold in May. I hope that what amounts to a "stone mulch" will benefit the surface with heat-gathering but know that soil temps fall quickly into the 40's at any depth. I've used a soil thermometer but haven't tested this idea using "double blind" experimenting and all that, however.

The 3rd problem is that if I lay the plant at an angle, which is suppose to overcome problem #2 by keeping it close to the surface, it will continue to grow at an angle all season. It is already difficult to deal with the "tomato jungle" but this would add to the jungle jumble.

I do "butterfly" out the roots when transplanting to encourage roots to spread and bury the tomato seed leaves. Now, do I have problems with the wind - you bet!! There are 3 plants laying down in the patch. One was actually broken . . . . ? I think I'll blame that on the rabbit.

I carefully gathered soil (sifting out the big rocks) and buried the stems. Those plants have already begun to grow roots from their stems. They will be fine and should produce nice crops.

digitS'