Gardening: 2002-2009 Seasons

[sparrowgrass]

Here is a hint that you might find useful.

Get some long poles that you can re-use, sink them in the ground about every 4 feet, then get some tree netting (to keep birds off fruit trees) and either staple or tie it to the poles (we use the plasti electric wire ties that have a slot at one end for the free end to slip through.)

At the end of the season just take the netting down, clean it and roll it up for next year. 

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I bought some of that--just didn't get around to putting it up. I usually use twine strung between T-posts, but this spring, I was recovering from pneumonia, and just didn't have the energy after I planted.

I use cattle panels for my tomatoes--2 set parallel about a foot apart. All I have to do is poke escaping branches back into the middle once in a while.

[Smithy]

And just to make those of you in Minnesota and environs ill, my parents are already pciking tomatoes in Louisiana.  Unfair, isn't it?

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Oh sure, rub it in. My tomatoes are 4" high.

Where's that "sticking out my tongue at you" icon when I need it?

[snowangel]

Oh sure, rub it in.  My tomatoes are 4" high.

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Mine are all of 6" high!

[lexy]

Oh sure, rub it in.  My tomatoes are 4" high.

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Mine are all of 6" high!

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Bah, mine are still pretty runty at 3" This is my first year taking a stab at tomatoes, and I'm really, really hoping that they don't produce fruit in early August, since I'll be away then, and all my neurotic mothering of them will have gone to waste.

In other news, the rhubarb is almost ready to harvest, and I predict I'll be enjoying a gooseberry pie in the not-too-distant future. Oh, and next Halloween, remind me not to throw all the pumpkin guts (including seeds) from the jack o' lanterns into the compost because come spring, when I spread the compost onto the beds, those seeds will sprout everywhere, grrrr.

[Toliver]

And just to make those of you in Minnesota and environs ill, my parents are already pciking tomatoes in Louisiana.  Unfair, isn't it?

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When I visited my mom in San Diego over Memorial Day, I was surprised to see plump green tomatoes on one of her plants. They're a tad small right now but I am in hopes of tasting the ripe harvest when I visit her for the 4th of July. Her cherry tomato plant is wielding an explosion of flowers right now.

She is also staggering her planting since the season is long for that area. She just planted an heirloom (something with stripes) so she'll have tomatoes all the way through October.

[jess mebane]

Here on my dirt patch the spider mites crawl on the just and the unjust. I have a tomato garden in the early throes of its death rattle, and I can only hope to harvest a measly bushel or two from the current fruiting before I have to rip and burn the lot and start over. That's about twelve or eleven out of thirteen plants downed by those evil orange devils, mind you.

Let this be a lesson to you, children: don't skip the fundamentals, water low and slow and mind your lower stems!

[unixfan73]

I have been growing a small potted herb garden

included is some cilantro...it is flowering..I have been ripping off the flowers, for fear that they will somehow ruin the cilantro's flavor.

is this indeed true, or can I let my cilantro flower?

[Smithy]

I have been growing a small potted herb garden

included is some cilantro...it is flowering..I have been ripping off the flowers, for fear that they will somehow ruin the cilantro's flavor.

is this indeed true, or can I let my cilantro flower?

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My experience has been that once the plant 'bolts' - that is, flowers and starts producing seeds - then the leaves won't be as full or as flavorful. The seeds are good too, but they don't make the kind of garnish I'm really looking for.

[eje]

is this indeed true, or can I let my cilantro flower?

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It's pretty much impossible to prolong cilantro much beyond the point it starts bolting. It is a fairly strict short lived annual herb. The best thing to do is to stagger seeding/planting of it, so you can continue to enjoy fresh cilantro as some of your plants fade.

For what it is worth, I haven't noticed that the herb tastes much different once it starts flowering. I think I've said this before in this thread; but, the immature fruit tastes pretty cool. Sort of halfway between Cilantro and Coriander. I like to chew them while I am weeding.

[snowangel]

I agree about cilantro bolting. And, with the idea of staggering plantings. As the summer heats up, I've also learned to plant it in an amongst other plants so it is more shaded. It's not weeds between my tomato plants, but cilantro!

[snowangel]

My tomato plants are finally in. I made a big mistake last year -- just 3 months after moving in. I planted them where the sun was the best in the spring, before the late-leafing walnuts had leaves. So, what looked like a full sun spot wasnt. But, I do have a full sun spot, along the south side of the house.

So, last fall, I laid down cardboard and killed the grass. Then I laid down a thick layer of compost (beautiful stuff, screened, free from my local compost site) followed by a thick layer of wood chips (also free, from the guy that cut down my oh-so-big and oh-so-misplaced spruce tree. We tilled it up today, and my oh my, was that soil beautiful. So, at one end, in went 6 brandywines. The other end, 24 strawberry plants.

I also batted my eyelashes, and Paul tilled up that spot behind the garage that had, last summer, yielded what must have been another two tons of river rock, so have yet another garden to contemplate. This one is part sun, part shade, but the sun is mid-day. Flowers and herbs, I think. I'm not above trying stuff and if it doesn't work, moving it around. Aren't gardens continual works in progess?

My big flower garden, the one that we tilled up with who knows how much compost looks like it is on steroids. I really need to take a picture of my rhubarb tomorrow. It is of gigantic proportions.

Lessons learned. Adding lots of compost and organic matter to sandy soil is a good thing. It takes a year of constant obsercation to figure out how the sun really moves and when things leaf out, and when they lose their leaves.

I'm dirty. Really dirty. It feels so good. I don't think I was really energized about gardening this year until today, one of the first really beautiful, non-rainy days we've had, and got that tiller and made yet more space for more plants. Paul cringes when I state that my objective is to have little or no yard to mow. Him "but, all that weeding!" Me "weeding can be zen-like. And, much quieter than mowing and weed whipping." Him: "Maybe you need a job." Me: "I have three. Gardens. Three kids. You."

I just love having dirt under my nails.

[Smithy]

I'm dirty.  Really dirty.  It feels so good.  I don't think I was really energized about gardening this year until today, one of the first really beautiful, non-rainy days we've had, and got that tiller and made yet more space for more plants.  Paul cringes when I state that my objective is to have little or no yard to mow.  Him "but, all that weeding!"  Me "weeding can be zen-like.  And, much quieter than mowing and weed whipping."  Him:  "Maybe you need a job."  Me:  "I have three.  Gardens.  Three kids.  You."

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We had the same fine weather up here, and I got my plants into the ground - or, in most cases, pots. We go the other way on the lawn vs. garden business: He Who Mows wants uninterrupted space. She Who Grows wants more space for plants, but is no great shakes on weeding. So there's one smallish plot in a raised bed, a few renegades tossed out into the woods to fend for themselves (although I did give the horseradish some special treatment this time), and the rest is in pots. Everything got planted yesterday, with help of dubious value from the cats and dog. 3 Jingle Bells peppers (new this year), 3 Patio tomatoes, 1 middle-sized tomato (name escapes me now), more basil, 2 kinds of parsley, 2 kinds of thyme, tarragon (but last year's is coming up again! Yippee!), 3 rosemaries, 2 sages, more sorrel.

A few weeks ago I realized an onion was starting to sprout, so I stuck it in a pot with some good dirt. It's putting up wonderful shoots. Now my question is, what will I do with it? Will it eventually turn into a confined onion bed? Or will it just put out nice greenery and maybe a pretty flower?

[mrbigjas]

i thought i was the only person here who gardens in pots...

oh the life of the rowhouse dweller. i have three tomatoes in 16" pots taking up much of my backyard. one brandywine, one pineapple, and one that my neighbor gave me which is some heirloom variety that he says is long like a pepper, very dark, and nearly seedless. but he doesn't know the name. i'm pretty psyched, and i hope it works out. in the five summers i've had at this house so far, i've gotten a little closer and a little closer to actually making tomatoes in pots work for us. with this insanely nice spring we've had, and with the crushed eggshells i put in the planting holes and the tomato food and the mulch and whatnot, if they don't work out this year i'm giving up.

besides that, english thyme, basil, ashe's savory, mint (the variety was called 'mint julep' but i can't seem to find anything more about it), rosemary... the usual stuff. all in pots.

Edited June 13, 2005 by mrbigjas (log)

[bavila]

The good news is that I've got one cucumber that's about 1/2" long and two tomatoes that are about 1/4" in diameter. YAY!

The bad news is something is eating my basil, which is still very tiny, so I don't think vertebrates would be to blame. The tiny holes in the leaves suggest bug or fungus to me. Anyone have ideas?

[snowangel]

It's a pathetic year when it is just after the 4th of July, the tomato plants are only 19" high and each sporting a mere 5 blossoms (let's not even talk about set fruit).

My basil has reached the unbelievable height of 9".

We need nights that are warmer than 55 degrees (F). Some nice steamy nights, the kind where the top sheet gets all twisted up and you awaken all dewey (a nice way of saying sweaty).

The strawberries were late coming this year by almost two weeks.

And, don't they say that the corn should be knee high by the 4th of July? Not here, at least this year!

But, it has quit raining, and the sun is out.

[snowangel]

So, it's almost August 1. Granted, I was late getting my tomato plants in. But, until I got them in, the nights were in the low 50's and the days not much warmer.

However, it is a new bed, and I probably didn't put in as much organic matter as I should have. I'm northern zone 4. I don't have a single set on any of my plants. I think I should just rip them out to give the soil a rest and augment said soil.

Comments?

[sparrowgrass]

Hmmm. I think you should move south, like I did. I have a half bushel of tomatoes in the the kitchen right now. And okra, and green beans. And corn, though it's a bit past its prime. I should have picked it last week, but I was actually on vacation out on the tundra--spent 4 days in Ely.

Are your plants big and healthy looking, with no flowers? If so, could be that you fertilized them too much/too early. I would let them go--you could get lucky, and the soil really won't care if tomatoes are growing or not.

[snowangel]

Are your plants big and healthy looking, with no flowers?  If so, could be that you fertilized them too much/too early.  I would let them go--you could get lucky, and the soil really won't care if tomatoes are growing or not.

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No, they have lots of flowers, I just think I'm running out of time. I did take a stroll around my neighborhood today, and a few people have a few tiny sets and lots of flowers. I think our really cool and wet June set these babies back a long time.

Moving south. Too far from The Cabin.

[Toliver]

...I just think I'm running out of time.  I did take a stroll around my neighborhood today, and a few people have a few tiny sets and lots of flowers.  I think our really cool and wet June set these babies back a long time.

Moving south.  Too far from The Cabin.

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Susan,

As frustrated as I get reading how your crops won't come in I imagine it's no where near how frustrated you must feel.

From your past posts I know you're an advocate of do-it-yourself projects from the description of all the home projects you've done. Have you seriously considered building some sort of greenhouse? Or dedicating part of a room or basement to a greenhouse sort of area? If you did have such an area, you could start your plants indoors and get a head start on the season, transplanting them outdoors after the last frost.

Maybe something as simple as a sort of jury-rigged "sun" lamp and a series of portable pots would help. I used to see such lamps for sale in the ads in Chile Peppers Magazine for chileheads who wanted to start their plants indoors. I think the lamps are regulated by the government, too, but I'm not sure about that (the lamps are also used to grow "illegal" crops so the gov't wants to know what you're using the lamps for).

Just a thought....

[Smithy]

Susan, I think it's the late cool season rather than anything you did or didn't do. I bought 3 tomato plants and 3 baby pepper plants (as well as a slew of herbs) from my favorite online nursery. The herbs have done reasonably well, but the tomatoes and peppers are a bust. I bought yet another tomato plant from a local nursery. These folks were willing to keep the plants in the greenhouse until the purchaser was ready to get them. I took over a healthy strapping potted tomato along about July 4 (maybe a week earlier) with many blossoms and a few green tomatoes. Now there are a few blossoms, many green tomatoes, and only a few red ones. Tonight they're predicting 38F. It's just too darned cold and wet this year. I haven't seen anything red in the Farmers' Market so far, either.

A greenhouse would help. Moving would help. A south-facing wall to back up the plants (for reflected heat) would help. But basically, this has been a tough year.

[snowangel]

As a followup, I do have tomatoes on three of the four plants. One of them is starting to lose it's green color and developing a pre-red "blush."

Reminder for those of us way up north that if you have tomatoes and you want them to ripen, time to trim the plans. Remove any "branches" that have only blossons. Time to trim all of those leaves that are hanging down. Get rid of as much as you can to get light to those precious fruits and reduce the amount of energy the plant is using to bloom and keep leaves green in favor of hopefully having at least a couple of ripe ones off the vine.

The days have shortened dramatically, and although the days have been nice and warm, the evenings and nights have been getting much cooler.

[Smithy]

What timely advice, and I thank you. My mid-sized tomato plant (Totem) has been doing well, and it's trimming its leaves all by itself. The cherry tomato (Patio) plant and the big tomato plant (variety forgotten) are trying valiantly but the fruit hasn't started blushing yet. It was 39F in Hibbing last night, but only down to the 50's in Duluth.

[Smithy]

By the way - does anyone else own a dog that eats raspberries? I couldn't figure out why the wild raspberries everywhere else were doing so well and our crop was so light. I finally caught our husky eating ours! It's both funny and aggravating to watch him delicately nibble a cane, stripping the berries as he goes, with nary a leaf lost or a thorn in his mouth. Since he's a doggie teenager, and I'm always telling him "no" about something really important (my sorrel, my watering can, the cats), I let him have his fun and went foraging elsewhere.

[snowangel]

If we continue to have very warm and sunny days, I will eat the first (and probably only) home grown tomato within the next week. The cold and wet June certainly took a toll on us MN gardeners. The price of tomatoes and other warm weather crops at the farmer's market is quite a bit higher than last year.

[sparrowgrass]

Snowangel, I am eating probably the last of my meager crop, too. Ordinarily, I would be canning salsa by the gallon, but the drought this year just did in my tomatoes--I have barely enough to eat fresh, and none for laying by.

I do, however, have enough okra to feed all of Missouri. I keep picking it, but really can't face eating it any more. I also have jalapenos by the bushel.