Building the Tomato Support

With the hot weather we're currently enjoying, I do my gardening in the cool of the morning and save the afternoons for sewing.  This morning, it was high time to finish the tomato framework.

Since we vegetable garden in concrete raised beds, there is no depth of soil to take stout poles to support the growing tomato plants.  Most tomato cages are simply too small - even the biggest ones - and I was still left with drooping plants and sometimes broken stems where they fell over the wire of a cage.

Then one day I had a brainwave!  Why not build a bamboo framework to support the whole bed.  On its own, a bamboo pole is not much support, but when part of a structure, it gains strength.  And it worked!

Looking down the bed through the structure.

Over the years I've improved on the structure, with this year being no exception.  As I stated in the last post, I put 10 poles in the tomato bed, one for each tomato.  The pairs were topped with curves of plastic water pipe.  This gives a bit more strength to the structure and if need be, I can drape clear plastic over the bed in times of rain.  The main poles were purchased from Lee Valley and are metal coated with plastic so they'll last for years.

Closeup of the lash work

Today I lashed bamboo poles about 2 1/2 feet up the main poles.  Then I lashed more poles diagonally down the structure - that's this year's innovation, which should provide the strength of triangles.  I use hemp string to tie the pieces together.  At the end of the season, it's easy to cut the structure apart and if any string is missed in the cleanup, it will simply rot away.

The finished framework - potting shed in the distance and peppers to the left.

I'll add another section to the framework about another 2 1/2 above this first section if it's necessary - last year I did fine with just one section as all of the tomato plants, like this year, are determinate and don't get too tall.

Sweet Million in a half-barrel

The one tomato not in this bed, a Sweet Million, received my tallest tomato cage and 2 Lee Valley poles to anchor the cage in a half-barrel planter.  I have one more half-barrel planter waiting for a tomato which I hope to buy at jollityFARM tomorrow.

Bonica Rose

And of course, although vegetables are my focus these days, I do have a few flowering plants.  Above is a Bonica Rose.  This rose is in a bed that I'd hoped to grow rhubarb in.  Cedar roots have foiled the plan, but Bonica seems to not mind the intrusion.  Not a scented rose, although literature will tell you that it is lightly scented, nevertheless, it's welcome in my garden because of the profusion of small pink flowers.

Tomatoes, Peppers, Celery and Mulch

After several cloudy but warm days, the sun has come out and we have a hot dry spell ahead of us.  It's time to give the tomatoes some TLC.

The tomato bed was prepared a couple of months ago.  Several wheelbarrow loads of SeaSoil were added and turned in.  The poles for the framework were put in place and holes dug by each pole - 10 in all.  Each hole was given a cup of homemade fertilizer which was watered in.  The bed sat like this and waited for the nighttime temperatures to be reliably 10C and a couple of weeks ago, that criteria was reached.  The tomatoes were planted in deeply and a week later were tied to the poles.

Today I trimmed off the lowest sets of leaves.  This is a prevention measure for when water splashes on the soil, carrying disease to the plant.  There won't be a lot of soil splashing on my tomatoes because they are mulched.

Every fall, we rake up the maple leaves below our house.  They sit in a pile getting good and wet all winter.  When spring comes, my husband puts them through our shredder and the resulting fluffy goodness is applied to plants that could use a mulch.  It's been very dry around here lately, but when I dug into the pile, the chopped leaves were nice and damp.

After trimming the tomatoes, I applied a good 3" of leaf mulch.  When the plants get bigger, I will probably trim off more bottom leaves.  The mulch keeps the ground nice and moist, which is an important thing for tomatoes.  They need a constant supply of moisture.  They don't want to be waterlogged, but they do need the soil to be consistently moist.

All of the tomatoes are forming flowers now.  My daughter, who is relatively new to vegetable gardening, asked if she should remove the flowers from her plants.  She was concerned that the plants weren't big enough to support tomatoes.  Leave them.  As the tomatoes form, the plant also grows.  If it has proper support, it will easily bear the weight of the fruit.  Since all the plants in this bed are determinate, I won't be pinching off side shoots either.  Gold Nugget (above) is always the earliest to flower in my garden and we love the little sweet yellow morsels.

I mulched 2 beds today.  The second bed to be treated was the one containing peppers, lettuce, celery and garlic.  The garlic has been mulched all winter, so this portion was fine.  As this particular bed was the last long one we built, it is also the one containing the least organic matter.  I've been finding that the top dries out quickly and water just runs off it.  Mulch will take care of this.  After weeding and watering, 3" of mulch was tucked in around the plants.

Mulching is an excellent way to treat celery, which wants lots of water.  I carefully tucked handfuls of mulch around each plant, burying them up to their leaves.

Commercial growers blanch their celery, and while I'm not planning on going to extremes to get pale celery, the mulch will do some of this naturally and keep the plants moist at the same time.

Working in this bed gave me a good look at the garlic, which is now producing scapes - yum!

And that brings me to another question my daughter had for me.  She was concerned about the uneven growth in her garlic.  I reminded her that she'd planted several different varieties - as have I.  Some of her plants are really tall and others relatively short.  She was concerned that perhaps some of her soil wasn't as fertile as other patches.  Not the case at all!  In the picture above I have 5 different varieties growing and it's easy to see that there are different growth patterns.  I have to stress that there are NO DUMB QUESTIONS in gardening.  We are all - even master gardeners, of which I am definitely not one - learning all the time.

Butternut Squash in the Compost Bin

About 5 years ago I had an extra tomato plant and nowhere to put it.  I finally decided to try it in one side of my compost bin.  I was astounded with how huge it got and how productive it was.  I've grown something in the compost bin every year since.  The last 2 years I tried cantaloupe which was marginally successful.  The vines were delicate and I had quite a battle with wood bugs.  This year I've decided to plant a couple of butternut squash plants.

I started the seeds a month ago from the last 3 seeds in my Waltham Butternut Squash package.  I hadn't realized I had so few seeds.  Fortunately 2 of the seeds sprouted, and I decided that today was the day to plant them.

One side of the bin had finished compost in it.  There were some self-seeded plants growing which had to be pulled out first.  Luckily for us, there were several potato plants which yielded tiny baby potatoes - and we enjoyed them with our dinner tonight!  The compost was surprisingly dry.  We have had quite a warm, dry spring, but I had no idea that it was that dry.  A thorough watering moistened the soil.

Waltham Butternut Squash

I dug 2 big holes, watered them well, then backfilled so that the soil around the plants would be thoroughly moistened.  The plants were popped in, protected with water bottle sleeves and container soil was added around them for weed suppression.  And another thorough watering.  Another day I'll mulch the compost with shredded maple leaves.

May is an amazing month for flowers.  The rhododendrons are mostly finished by the end of the month, but the the peonies and bursting into bloom.  Above is a closeup of Bowl of Beauty, which certainly lives up to its name.  Having grown bomb varieties for so many years and endured the staking required to protect them from the rain, I now really appreciate varieties like Bowl of Beauty which look gorgeous and are not as labour-intensive.

Corn and Beans

After a couple of years of growing a Three Sisters garden, I decided to disband it.  I've always, however, grown an abbreviated version, planting corn and beans in the same bed.  I also decided that growing some beans in amongst the corn stalks is a good idea as it provides stability for the corn in the wind.

Today I got the bed ready for the corn and beans.  Actually - beds - as I plan on a new framework for the beans.  I have a framework 4' wide and 8' high that I've always grown pole beans on, but I can never reach the beans at the top.  This year, I though I'd try something different.  My husband will make me 3 rectangles 4' wide and 5' tall.  I'll site these with one one the lip of one bed and the other two on each side of the bed next to it.  The 4'x8' rectangle with wire stapled to it will rest on top.  The beans will grow up the sides and spread out over the top and I'll be able to go underneath to pick the beans.  At least that's how the theory goes!

Bamboo poles where beans are planted and corn waiting for its turn

I started by planting the beans - 5 where each 4x5 rectangle will sit.  Each bean was protected with a water bottle collar and given a bamboo pole to clamber up.  5 more beans were planted in the potting shed as "just in case" a bean or two fails to germinate.  The beans planted are the heritage Italian ones given us by a friend.

Next was the corn.  I've already started the corn in the potting shed and this year I managed to outwit the mice.  29 Bodacious seeds germinated.  The bed was prepared by spreading homemade fertilizer in the rows where I planned to plant the corn.  This was scratched into the surface and watered well.  I dug holes to receive the corn and again watered.

Next, the corn was removed from the cells being careful not to disturb the roots and firmed into the ground, leaving a slight depression where water can pool around the plant.  Then I planted 6 Fortex beans in amongst the corn plants which will grow up into the corn and knit the bed together.  I use Fortex for this purpose as the vines aren't as heavy as the Italian heritage ones which broke the cornstalks when I planted them in the corn!

Finally the whole bed was watered well and will receive a covering of Remay cloth for protection.  Once it has gotten over the shock of transplanting, you can practically see the corn grow!  When this bed is truly moist, I'll top it off with a good layer of chopped maple leaves to help keep in the moisture.

Planting Peppers

We're in the middle of a mini heat wave.  Today the temperature got up to 27C in the shade, when normal for this time of the year is 15C.  I decided that the peppers could go outside as long as they were protected.

I've been reading up on peppers lately as I've only recently started growing them.  They are members of the same family as tomatoes and potatoes, so I've had to readjust where I was planning on growing them because I'd thought to plant them where potatoes had been last year.  Not the best idea, so I've moved their location.

I also discovered you can plant them up to the seed leaves.  I don't think they will produce roots on the buried stem as tomatoes do, but it probably gives them a bit more stability.

You can plant them quite close together, although I haven't done that.  Each plant went into the ground with a good half-cup of my fertilizer which had been mixed well into the soil.  Seven plants went into one space - 2 Jalapeños, 2 Ancho, 2 Salsa and one Hungarian Hot Wax.

You should keep hots and sweets separate.  Gypsy, which is a good one for the west coast, is going to go into pots.  There are 4 of them, and because they'll go into pots, I'm keeping them in the potting shed a little longer.  Apparently if you mix hots and sweets, the sweets will get hotter and the hots sweeter.

Today's planting of the hots went into a bed that had onions last year.  The bed is nicely fertile and as I said above, each plant got a good dose of fertilizer.  Also in this bed are Red Sails Lettuce, the celery and garlic.  I located a piece of Remay cloth which would just cover the peppers.  I'll keep it in place until June.  This will keep off breezes, provide a bit of protection at night and allow any rainwater to go through.  At that time, I'll give each plant the support of a tomato cage.

For now, they're tucked into their loose covering, which is held in place with a few rocks.  The heat we're expecting over the next little while and their Remay protection will give them a good start.

Elsewhere in the garden, things are springing up in the good weather.  The snow peas are starting to climb their zig zag fence and before you know it, will be sprouting flowers.  How I love the spring!

Experimenting with Tomatoes

Out in the stores and garden nurseries, tomato, pepper and squash plants are for sale.  It's much too early to put them out yet, but they're for sale because people want them.  Lovely warm days like today make you think it's safe, but you really need steady 10C nighttime temperatures for them to be transplanted outside.

We are in a nice warm spell and have more and better on the way so I thought I'd make a little experiment with my tomatoes.  Today I started getting my tomato bed ready and am planning on planting out the tomatoes in a couple of weeks if the weather is nice then.  The bed was turned over and I placed the 6' poles in the bed where each tomato is going to be seated - 10 in all.  Each pair was joined across the top with curved plastic water piping.  I dug a good-sized hole beside each pole and put a cup of my homemade fertilizer in each, mixing it in well with the earth, then watered each hole.

Planted and ready for its hotcap

I picked one of the bigger Health Kick plants for the experiment.  Another the same size will be the control and be planted beside it when the time comes.  I removed the bottom seed leaves and planted it fairly deep - just to where the seed leaves would have been - and then filled around it.  I topped it off with a hotcap which will stay on until the weather is reliably warm.

Protection in place for the experiment, the rest of the bed waits a couple of weeks

I've already performed this experiment once this year.  a couple of months earlier, I seeded celery which I'm growing for the first time.  Half a dozen plants were set in March.  The rest of the seeding remained in the potting shed until a couple of weeks ago, when I set out another half dozen seedlings.

Victoria Celery

The difference is very obvious.  The plants on the left were the latest to be set out, while the plants on the right, seeded at the same time, have been delayed by their cooler environment.

Totem Strawberries

In the rest of the garden, the strawberries are now flowering.  A week ago, I gave this bed a good watering with diluted fish fertilizer.  Next month we can expect to harvest juicy delicious Totem strawberries.

Looking up into the pink dogwood tree

Cherokee Chief pink dogwood is coming into full bloom.  This young tree has struggled against deer predation until a few years ago when we enlarged our fenced area and brought it into protection.  This year, it's going to be gorgeous!

Update May 12th - It's only 9 days later, but the weather's been so nice I decided to go ahead and plant the rest of the tomatoes.  Night time temps are above 10C.  The control plant in the potting shed is taller than the one planted out early, but the experimental plant is much sturdier whereas the plants in the potting shed are starting to get a bit too lanky.  If the weather turns cool, I'll cover the tomatoes with Remay cloth for protection.