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How Does My Garden Grow..............

14 years ago

My tomatoes are doing great. The weather here has been in the mid to high 90's for the last week and it is suppose to continue into next week. The tomatoes are loving it

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Comments (16)

doucanoe
14 years ago
Oh...I am envious! This has been the weirdest, chilliest summer I can remember. My gardens look terrible.

Thanks for showing us that ther really are some great looking gardens out there!

Linda
Lars
14 years ago
It's been in the low 80s here, but I have not yet been able to plant tomatoes yet. I'm really putting off most planting until next year, after I can get rid of the horrible trees that I've inherited. I might give the Fuji apple tree a chance, but I'm definitely getting rid of the puny plum trees and stupid ornamental peach tree so that I can replace them with lemon, lime, and orange trees. If I get rid of the apple tree, I will replace it with an avocado tree.

This is a great time of year to be in British Columbia. I have extremely fond memories of my summers in Vancouver when I used to live in chilly San Francisco. I'm anxious for another trip to Canada, but I might go to Toronto the next time. I really do miss Canada, and I love seeing your photos to remind me. I always think of Canada, and especially B.C., at this time of year! I had been thinking that you must be having so much enjoyment now that you would have no time to post!

Lars
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Tannatonk & Goldenpod - thanks a bunch! :) Your kind words are much appreciated. It was just about bare out there when I bought the place in '05. Coffeemom - I had a feeling those babies wouldn't be easy and haven't attempted it yet. I'm thinking once it gets huge it'll work better and I'll be able to underplant...wishful thinking, lol. I've got some heliconias coming back (way on the left) and am going to be giving some very serious thought to your advice. Thanks as well.
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Comments (10)
Betty, Did you take the broken rose branch and root it? Might as well make lemonade when life gives you lemons. The wind here is ridiculous today. It is a wonder the row covers haven't blown away but I do have them pinned down pretty firmly. I have tried to keep the peppers warm by having them in the greenhouse during the day, and bringing them inside the house if I think the greenhouse will drop below 40 degrees or so. My poor pepper plants barely know what real sunlight is because they haven't seen it in so long. I want to plant all the rest of my hot-season stuff, but have been waiting for some consistency in the forecast too. Since I couldn't direct-sow anything today (I would have had to remove the row covers), I started a lot of warm-season herbs and flowers in flats, and a few veggies like cukes, melons, watermelons, Armenian cukes, etc. I hope to pop them out of the six-packs and into the ground the minute the first tiny bit of green pops up out of the soil-less mix. I intend to put bean seeds in the ground tomorrow. They raised tomorrow night's forecast low from 44 to 48, so I feel like it will be warm enough. Our 3-day average soil temp dropped from the low 70s to the mid or upper 60s with with this last cold front, but the soil in the raised beds is still pretty warm. Likely the row covers have helped them stay warmer by holding in the heat. Carol, I am concerned about the weather too. I am hoping that the cold spells haven't lasted long enough to cause bolting. If they do, they do....there's nothing we can do about it. The reason I have covered my onion bed's hoops with the 10-degree row cover for every cold spell is not because I thought the onions might freeze but because I hoped it would keep them warm enough that they'd be less likely to bolt. I guess we'll know in the next couple of weeks if they are going to bolt, and I am hoping they won't because they are so lovely right now and will make a great crop if they don't bolt and if hail doesn't get them. Our Sugar Snaps are producing faster than we can pick them and eat them. I guess it makes up for the early heat wrecking the crop the last two years. Either we need to start eating them at every meal, or I need to freeze some. I planted mine in paper cups in February and then got them into the ground as early as I could, but I planted a certain percentage of them every week for 3 or 4 weeks, trying to spread out the risk of a late freezing getting them. I also staggered the potato plantings quite a lot. The first two beds that I planted are the tallest, and the third bed is not far behind. They are getting too tall to cover so we're in trouble if we get another cold front, which I hope doesn't happen of course. I was looking at the first two beds a few minutes before sunset, and the plants look like they've grown 6-8 inches since Tim covered up those beds on Wed.evening. You can see the plants pushing and straining at the row cover. I think it keeps them so warm that they grow faster while it is on them. I haven't planted a single bean yet, but hope to rectify that tomorrow. We have a lot of rain chances in our forecast for next week, and since lately our rain has come only in little bits....a few hundredths of an inch here, a tenth of an inch there, we really need that rain. Maybe if I get the beans in the ground and then it rains, they'll sprout quickly to make up for going into the ground so late. You still might get more parsley volunteers. Just this past week, volunteers started popping up like mad. I imagine when we rototilled all the soil repeatedly while rebuilding the beds this spring, we exposed a lot of buried seeds to sunlight. While weeding on Wed. right before putting on the row covers, I saw volunteer seedlings of all kinds---okra, watermelon, ornamental purple-leaved peppers, flowers of several kinds, tomatoes, etc. I even saw basil and corn volunteers. The basil can stay but I'll yank out the corn since it is in the middle of a row of garlic. I know you don't like cilantro and won't try to change your mind about it, but I grow it near potatoes and I do believe it helps keep the potato bugs away. I planted about 30 lbs. of seed potatoes so we have row after row of potato plants and I haven't seen a single CPB yet. Grasshoppers, however, have arrived in full force. Dawn
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Q
Comments (4)
Dear Peplil, I think the word is surprised. The Angela tag says 1.2 m but I have a feeling that it could get taller here because it's such a grower. Towards the back of the gardenbed you can see the upright light green bush, the tallest of the lot already. I think it will need some hard pruning. Cathedral City - should be a bright orangey red. You know,tho it starts out red, I wonder if it really is the WIlliam Shakespeare and I've mixed them up ...it ages into dark red, has that strong rosey smell to it (I can't walk past it without smelling it but it does take an enclosed space to pick up on it) and it certainly has that David Austin look. I just love this flower. If I have swapped them it'll take a while to know it as the other rose has moulted its leaves completely twice due to blackspot and is on its third run now - that sounds even more David Austin like in behaviour LOL. As far as I know Cathedral City doesn't have a scent. I wonder.
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shellm
14 years ago
Wow,Ann,those look great.Nice job.

Shelley
canarybird01
14 years ago
Oh those look like a good crop Ann. The leaves look healthy too. I've heard about that heat on the island. It's much hotter over there than it is here at the moment.
We have 30-ish temps and humidity around 70%. It's still uncomfortable though.

You should be able to make lots of salsa and tomato salads with those. Fresh off the vine they are wonderful.

SharonCb
trudymom
14 years ago
Oh those looks soooooooooo gorgeous that I can almost taste them. I miss home grown tomatoes...
lindac
14 years ago
Beautiful! I am wondering what variety they are?
Linda C
User
Original Author
14 years ago
Linda, First picture is Sweet One Millions. Second is Money Makers and the third shows Money Makers and Black Krim. I also planted Early Girl, Erins (another cherry type tomato) Sasha's Pride, Yellow Taxi, Radiator Charlie, San Marzano and Bonny Best. There are more pictures on my blog.

Ann
petaloid
14 years ago
Ooh, your tomatoes are happier than mine.

So far we've eaten some from Early Girl, but the other varieties have to catsup, um, ketchup, er, I mean catch up...
Terri_PacNW
14 years ago
LOL Petaloid...

Ann, I'm jealous..mine aren't doing much at all!!!!!
lsr2002
14 years ago
Your garden looks fabulous! But, what are you going to do with all the tomatoes?

Lee
jessyf
14 years ago
I just love the tomato names! We don't have a garden this year....drought...being socially responsible :-(. Enjoying yours vicariously!
hawk307
14 years ago
I can't have a Garden here with all the animals.

So I planted 3 different types at my daughters, a while ago.

They came up for Spaghetti Dinner and brought the first batch.
Don't even remember the names, of the ones I planted.

Think they were Cherry Tomatoes. These were like someone put sugar on them, instead of salt.
The 2 were Big Boy's . Larger one is a Mariglo? Spelling.

Naturally we made BLT's . Great Tasteing.
I ate one sliced with Mayo.

{{gwi:1542900}}
User
Original Author
14 years ago
Lee, I'll worry about what to do with them when and if they ripen. Sometimes that is a problem here.

Jessica I like the names too. Some of them are Heirloom varieties.

Ann
bunnyman
14 years ago
If they don't ripen outdoors bring them in and spread them out on a table. Check them everyday as a few will rot on you. Others will ripen just fine. I've had "fresh" tomatoes up until Christmas this way. Some people hang the whole plant upside-down in the basement and pick the tomatoes as they ripen. Living alone I have no problem just leaving them spread on the dining room table for a couple months.

They look wonderful! I just checked mine this morning and all I have are a few small greens (at last!) and lots of flowers. The coldest summer on record going on here.

: )
lyra
diana55
14 years ago
Oh Ann.......I can smell your Tomatoes from here !!! I just love the smell of Garden Toms, don't you? They are so good to eat too. Wish I had the time to grow them this year, but not !!! LOL Way to busy. The weather sure has been great for them. Well enjoy them, and please let me know how they tasted. LOL Diana55
jessicavanderhoff
14 years ago
Jessy (nice name, by the way :-D) I think you can justify anything using social responsibility! For example, water is still being used to grow the tomatoes you buy at the market, you might even be a more efficient water-user! And also, I can testify to the fact that you can grow tomatoes without watering, although your plants will look rather more like mine (abused, lacking foliage, but plenty of fruit), and rather less like Ann's (as if they're part of some sort of domestic goddess culinary-garden-of-Eden paradise) :-/

However, if you find gardening to be a chore, I think you're totally right about it not being a good idea due to the drought :-D

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