09 plant list & new bed photos

[Thawley]

Just about done putting everything in the ground & thought it'd be a good time to take some photos. They're on Flickr too if you want to see full rez.

The List:

• Wes
• Black Prince
• Big Beef
• Glacier
• Brandywine Sudduth - Sand Hill
• Brandywine Sudduth - saved
• Stupice
• Kanner Hoell
• Matina
• Tibet Apple
• Sungold
• Brandywine Red
• Traveler

Driveway bed – East end: The hanging twine near the downspout is for pole beans. Daughter Grace sowed Jeminez seed two days ago (3-20-09).


Chimney bed: I couldn't let this strip of irrigated soil go unused. I built it up with a couple of 10" cedar fence boards to hold more soil. Still can't decide what to plant there. (Probably herbs.) DW Sharon is against the idea of anything that climbs the chimney. She's a keeper – so I'm not going to raise a stink...


Driveway bed – West end: More pole beans – Rattlesnake from Sand Hill.


Brandywine Sudduth: I've read nothing but rants & raves about the Brandywine Sudduth since I first started reading about tomato growing a couple years ago. The one plant I grew last year was started very late and produced poorly. This one is from seed saved from it. I also ordered new seed from Sand Hill to be sure I gave the genuine article a fighting chance.


Wes from Dr. Carolyn: Among the twenty plants in the ground this year are several that came from TV seed give-a-ways. The Wes plants came from one of Dr. Carolyn Male generous offers. Thanks Doc.


The penalty box: This weird little cutout is against the back of a neighbor's garage. I was thinking of putting a BBQ in – but a spare 2x12 & two bags of organic mix got there first. Well isolated from the rest of the yard – I figured this would be a good spot for aggressive plants that don't play well with others. It's also the only bed without dedicated irrigation. Perfect for Sungolds. They'll put up with most neglect I can dish out.





Rear bed: New 3x32' raised bed with dedicated irrigation circuit. (Lumber score on Craigs List!) A buddy gave me a zillion feet of drip-type emitter hose I'd planned to use but it was a total pain. Had a mind of its own about where to go. The soil is so loose it would have taken more garden staples than I wanted to deal with. In the end I just drilled 3/32" holes every 12" in some 1/2" PVC (as per Charles H. Wilber – RIP). It's worth noting that I had WAY too much water pressure for the drilled PVC to work right out of the gate. The fix was to choke the supply line down through a 7/32" hole in a piece of plastic I sandwiched between two fittings. I shoulda taken a picture of that but I was pretty muddy at the time...

The lone cage at the end is for eggplant seeds a neighbor gave me. The surrounding unmulched area is planted with Sand Hill's "sping greens mix" of leaf vegetable seeds. No idea how well that's going to work – but I thought it would be worth trying to grow something besides tomatoes...


Brandywine (red?) hiding in the straw: These Brandywine reds are a crap-shoot. I lost track of the variety tag just after planting last year and don't remember exactly where I got it or what specific type of Brandywine it was. I saved some seed from it and – despite my inexperience – they germinated and grew.

The straw-bale mulch is an experiment for this year. If Mr. Wilber's World-record tomato plants came from this method – it seems worth a try.

Thanks to everyone here for all your posts, help and forum participation. Just about everything I've learned about tomatoes (and gardening) has come directly or indirectly from this site. Most of my inspiration, planting & bed ideas came from the posts and photos here on Tomatoville. I especially appreciate the photos everyone posts. I wanted to post a few of my own with the hope it would help others the way everyone else's have helped me. Thanks all.

[sprtsguy76]

Well done! Every thing looks clean and in place ready to go. I will be using straw mulch for the first time too. I'm looking forward to sampling Red Brandywine. Good thing you caught the water pressure issue with you irragation set up. I can just see what that might have looked like when you turned the water on, "Old Faithful!!!!". I also like the driveway beds there. Tomatoes off the vine when you get home from work, cant beat that. Good luck.

Damon

[duajones]

Very nice and tidy looking. Looks like you are making the most out of space you have. good luck

[Thawley]

Thanks guys... Here's one for you Duane – started all my seed under the race car this year. (Sadly that's about all the use its seen in some time.)

[duajones]

Thats cool. If I still had my shop it would be a great place to start seedlings. I dont even have a garage now.

[dew]

so beautiful!
and I got 5 boxes of drip setup on clearance for four bucks each...I am not optimistic, given what you just said about drip stuff...should I just give up and find some pvc pipe?

[Barbee]

Looks great! I am so impressed with the way you have utilized those areas. Just goes to show everyone that you don't have to have a big yard to grow veggies.
Bravo!

[Thawley]

Originally Posted by dew

so beautiful!
and I got 5 boxes of drip setup on clearance for four bucks each...I am not optimistic, given what you just said about drip stuff...should I just give up and find some pvc pipe?

It's good stuff and I still use it in the flower bed and driveway bed – in straight runs only.

I was trying to do too much with it I think. The barb tee- & ell-fittings take a lot of force to do/undo. (This coming from a pretty dam big fella...) So I tried to do without them and just coil loops around each plant hole in one long continuous length. It worked. But it was a hassle. One that would need to be repeated every year upon prepping the bed.

After reading Wilber's book – the brilliance, simplicity and low cost of drilled PVC was attractive to me. I was looking for a reason to try it. To be honest – I was a little bummed out when my pal gave me all his leftover drip tube. But it was free. And four 20' lengths of 1/2" PVC would cost over $16!!!! So I messed around with the drip tubing for half a day before I went out and did what I really wanted to do all along.

Wheew. Feels good to get that off my chest...

My favorite thing about the PVC solution is that I can easily unscrew the supply end of each from the threaded tee-fittings in the center of the bed and lift them out in full lengths. The tubing is a pain to deal with when pulling plants at season's end or prepping/tilling for spring. The brown tubing is certainly more attractive than white PVC. But since I'm covering it with mulch and not using it in the flower beds in front – who cares?

[Thawley]

Got my photo geek on this morning when I noticed this light. Thought I'd share...

[newatthiskat]

Those are some really cool pics!!!
Kat

[sfmathews]

Awesome, such detail. I can smell them now....