Getting Ready for Tomatoes (and other stuff!)

It's almost time to plant out the tomatoes.  Our nights are almost consistently above 7 degrees C and warm days are coming - after a couple of cool rainy ones, of course!  The bed for the tomatoes has already been prepared with a couple of wheelbarrow loads of SeaSoil.  I've decided to plant fewer tomatoes in the bed and only the ones which I'll use for dehydrating and sauces/salsa.  I already have a couple of cherry tomatoes in large pots on the deck and a half barrel in the garden will be home to a Sweet Millions tomato.  So that makes 10 tomatoes going into a raised bed - 4 Health Kick, 2 Classica and 4 Principe Borghese.

Tomato bed ready for plants

I dug the holes for the plants and placed 6' stakes beside each hole.  I'll add a cup of homemade fertilizer to each hole and work it into the soil before planting.  The stakes will be the foundation for a framework of bamboo poles lashed to the stakes.  It makes a surprisingly sturdy support for the tomatoes.  Initially I'll put hot hats on the newly transplanted tomatoes until the days and nights are consistently warm enough and then water lines and tomato cages will be set in place.  Then it's just waiting for the crop!

After reading about all the food shortages which will be coming our way, we decided to be pro-active.  We will already be growing beans in the Three Sisters Garden and I'm going to put up the framework my husband made for me to grow my Italian heritage beans on.  This year I'll plant Fortex beans in with the corn.  The vines aren't as heavy and vigorous as the Italian heritage beans and perhaps I won't have broken corn stalks this year!

A bean barrel experiment

I'm setting up for a third bean garden and this one will be in a half barrel.  I set in a tripod of 6' stakes and joined them to a nearby fencepost with a long, thin piece of wood. I've planted 6 of the Italian heritage beans here and will grow these ones for dried beans.  These dried beans will be the seeds for next year as well as a store of dried beans for using during the winter.  Cheap protein!

The pond from the back looking to the house

I also did a little work around the pond.  The steam leading to the pond had to be relieved of its pebble bottom as it was causing the water to spill over the sides of the stream.  I'd just left it beside the stream and of course, it's created a huge mess as the grass has grown up around it which I've made a start at repairing.  The pond is starting to come into its own with 3 Japanese maples around it. I'm particularly pleased with a self-seeded bullrush which appeared 3 years ago.  I recently saw hummingbirds taking fluff from an exploded seed head for nesting material.  Now if only the redwing blackbirds would come, the pond would be complete!