Thursday, April 21, 2011

Home Garden & Early Tomatoes

Although this weather really hasn't been cooperating, I finally have managed to get the home garden planting up to date!

Monday I planted the 10 early tomatoes. Four of them are in the greenhouse bed and the remaining six are in Kozy Koats (water cloches). I planted one each of the following varieties, Matt's Wild Cherry (a/k/a "Garden Helper's Tomato"), Howard's German Red, Pineapple (seed from Diana), Black Cherry & Paul Robeson (seeds from EG). I also planted 4 Cherokee Purple. Each one is from a different seed source. CP's are our favorite eating tomato and I have not been happy with the seeds that I purchased for a couple of years now. Thanks to Diana, Thomas, EG & Daphne we now have  a lot of CP's! It will be very interesting to see if there is much difference in this tomato from these four sources.

Early Tomato in Kozy Koat. It's hard to get a good photo with the red color reflection. The plants are doing well in the cloches.

Tuesday, between rain drops I fixed my old strawberry bed for the new owner next door and did some much cleaning up out back. We were starting to look like "Those" nieghbors! I put the shelves up in the greenhouse and moved 4 flats of plants out there to live. All of the eggplant, peppers, some herbs and misc seedlings are now living happily outside!

Peppers in the greenhouse with 3 extra early tomatoes that presently have no home.

A bud on one of the peppers

More seedlings in the greenhouse. The rosemary is doing well!


Wednesday I finally got to sow 4 large planters of carrots! Between the weather and running to the plots I have not been able to get them in. First I had to turn the compost pile to get some much needed compost to add to the planters! I am hoping that the carrots will love these nice deep pots. The carrots were covered with burlap and a tile to keep them moist. If Granny were here, I would have had her cut some nice round pieces of wood with the jigsaw to cover them...you know how handy she is!!

Carrots sown in planter. I even started to set-up the patio furniture.


I cleaned up the flower pots on the deck and porch and planted some new mint I had grown in a few small pots. Six celery plants were put in at the end of the garlic bed and most of the early potatoes were finally planted! I planted 2.5 lbs of Yukon Gold and 1.25 lbs of Sangre. The balance of the Sangre potatoes and the Kennebecs will be planted at the plots today. It seems so late planting the potatoes, but it really isn't. I always plant my potatoes when the first dandelions bloom and yesterday I saw the first one.

Potato bed next door with early potatoes.


The Sugar Magnolia Purple Snap Peas are doing the best out of all of the peas I have planted at home. The Little Marvel English Peas germination rate is a little sporadic. I may sow some additional ones this weekend.

I'll be heading over to the plots shortly and will post what has been going on over there tomorrow. Have a great gardening day everyone!


9 comments:

  1. Robin, You are always so busy. Of course spring is the busy season isn't it? I've been busy working on the garden bed preparation as well. The garden beds are all ready to be planted and I have been working on the automatic watering system expansion. Yesterday I installed the main line for the drip watering system for my trellis on the front yard poor man's patio. Maybe next week I'll get all the containers that will eventually cover the trellis with flowers planted. Today I want to get the first rain collection barrel integrated into the main water supply tank for the gravity feed garden watering system.

    Have a great day at the community garden plot.

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  2. They look great, and WOW! A pepper bud already!

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  3. Your seedlings (plants, actually) look so lush and healthy! Mine aren't doing as well as past years, but probably because I have been exposing them to some harsh weather early on. They should be tough once in the garden! I have Cherokee Purples from two sources this year. I wanted to do a comparison, but when I went to up-pot them, the Sharpie ink had faded on the plastic cups, so I couldn't see the identifying marks. I'll be planting all four, but I sure would like to know which are from Mr. H. and which are from Ohio Heirloom Seeds!

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  4. Things are certainly progressing quickly. Trouble is here it has been like summer so we are tricked into thinking it is July. Hardly any rain since the beginning of march!

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  5. Boy haven't you got a head start! My tomatoes and peppers are all of.... 3 inches tall!

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  6. David, Boy it sounds like you have been busy too! I'd really like to see some pictures in a post...hint..hint :)

    Erin, I probably should snip the pepper bud off, but I don't know if I can.

    Granny, I really have to toughen up my plants to go in at the plots. It is so so windy over there. It got pretty cool and very windy last night. I kept the greenhouse open and they were fine. The eggplant weren't the happiest this morning, but the recovered just fine.

    Sue, We have been having too much rain here. It really messes things up when it get too hot too soon.

    Mal, I think that I may be a bit impatient. My regular tomatoes were started a month later since they won't be planted for about 3 more weeks.

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  7. Robin your peppers look wonderful and healthy, I did a close up and that bloom is a winner :o)...I'm waiting to see if my peppers will get there too :o) ...I saved the seeds from some peppers i bought and I'm hoping they will take ...

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  8. Robin, everything looks so wonderful. I love the carrots on the deck. Your pepper plants are 4 times the size of ours. When did you plant them? And potatoes -we have those to get to on Monday. God's very best with all those wonderful sounding tomatoes. We can't wait to see them in pictures.

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  9. Thanks Ginny, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and your pepper seeds!

    Jody, I have so many large planters on the back porch and deck that I have decided to use some of them for crops. I think that the flowers and veggies will look good together. I am also thinking about a couple of container blueberry bushes for out there. I started germinating the peppers in mid February. They are such slow growers and after many years of growing them from seed, I think that I have finally mastered them. Wait until you see the list of tomatoes for the plots!!

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