So what do we have in the garden? Well we got pepper seedlings in - I think the variety is called Red Beauty and they also came from the farmer's market. 18 of those. We've also planted pickling and regular cuke seeds as well as sugar snap peas, yard long beans, green beans (not sure the variety). We put some snow pea seeds in the ground too - probably too late in the year to do that but we'll see what happens.
The cukes, peas, and beans will grow up the trellises you see in the left side of this picture, the peppers will be next to them, then zucchini, and then two rows of tomatos. Note the headless scarecrow - extra scary. You can barely see it in this picture but I use a string between two stakes to lay out my planting rows. Some may find this a little anal - but I like my rows to be fairly straight. I saw Eliot Coleman use this technique on the gardening show that he and his wife Barbara Damrosch used to have. That was a great show - wish it was still on.
Our tomato cages are made from field fencing. We have an extra roll around for making fence repairs and I figured it would work well for tomato cages. I snip the bottom horizontal strand of wire off each cage which allows 6 or 7 vertical wire pieces to penetrate the ground about 5-6 inches. This keeps the cages from toppling over in a heavy wind.
What else are we doing around here . . . .? Well, the strawberries need mulching, the hops are doing well, we cleaned out the chicken coop for the first time. This took a little longer than I anticipated. I'm thinking maybe we need to invest in one of those big-wheeled garden carts - those things are cool. The wheelbarrow is good for hauling really heavy stuff, but a garden cart could hold more light, loose material like the old straw from the coop. We also planted Verbena around the coop to spruce it up a bit. We're planning to do a good bit of mulching around existing and new flower beds this weekend - maybe get some horse manure too if my source comes through.
Finally, I'm writing for another blog called Gardenaut as a contributing gardener. My first post was posted 4/17/08. Check it out.
5 comments:
I heard you were supposed to scale back on the tomato plants this year....hmmm, don't think that happened. But if you find you have an over abundance please feel free to send some in with the wife. ;)
Yeah, that was the plan. Ooops. I think we'll have plenty to share.
Brian those tomato plants should get nice and thick fairly soon. They seem to thicken up after their roots get a little more confined. Let me know if any don't make it and I can set you up with some more :-)
If they're too leggy you could always use that trench technique to plant them.
I'm waiting til mother's day to plant ours per local advice.
Dude - I was just giving you a hard time on the tomato plants. A few could be planted now and I'm sure the others will be good to go soon.
Waiting until Mother's day, eh? Interesting.
Hope Pat's doing ok.
I think the Mother's Day advice is a zone 6-7 folklore sort of thing. I may have read it in the farmer's almanac. I think traditionally Mother's Day is beyond the last frost...
btw, here's a link on that trench technique.
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8107.html
Pat is good--she's kicked the hillbilly heroin--it's all ibu from here on out. Stitches out on Thursday.
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