Almost ready to plant the tomatoes

[GoDawgs]

Monday we fetched potting mix for the 20 big mostly-for-tomatoes buckets. The buckets are now filled and on pallets up by the house as usual and the extras are now on pallets in the garden, something new. It's the Garden Stretcher at work. : Kudos to Pickles for the idea! Those four buckets in the foreground get morning shade and full afternoon sun. The shade will lessen as the season (and sun) move along. The tomatillos will go into three of the garden buckets out on the all day, full sun pallets.



There was potting mix left over so we dealt with it like we did last year. Lay down two pallets, cover with giant tarp, shovel the mix onto the tarp and bundle it up so no rain and no fire ants get in. It worked well last year with no problems. It will get used for late tomatoes and fall stuff so I'm pretty sure it will all get gone.



The potatoes have flower buds. I haven't found a Col. potato beetle yet. More proof it pays to rotate planting spots. To the left of the potatoes is the first double row of corn. Nothing has popped up yet.



Sunday is planting day for the tomatoes, peppers, okra, and watermelon. The garden will then officially be “in”.

I am amazed at your garden. It's so well planned and taken care of!

[GoDawgs]

Thanks, PJ but sometimes I think it's an illness.
It wasn't always neat and planned, like when I was working and too tired to mess much with it. Once I retired it was like, "Oh wow... I can play with this ALL the time!"
And once I learned how to do spreadsheets at work, that's all she wrote. The garden kept expanding. Getting organized has made a large job a series of smaller ones. One can eat the whole elephant... one bite at a time.

I was going to say it gives me something to ponder over and do during the winter but then there's always stuff growing in the garden year round except those hot, dead days of late July and August. Funny how this is the only area of my life that's this organized. Everything else is in general outline form.

Lol, I can’t imagine how much damage I’ll do once I no longer work full time.

I was wondering ... do you keep chickens or any other livestock? How about fruit trees?

[GoDawgs]

Nope, no livestock. I just don't want to be burdened with taking care of them and don't have anyone trustworthy who lives close that could take care of them if I went away on vacation. It would be great to have free fertilizer and eggs but I'd have to set up a real secure coop and run for chickens due to all the coyotes and raccoons around here. Too much work.

I planted two apples, two peaches and a plum four years ago. Both apples died over the first two years in the ground as did one peach. The plum, a Methley, is happy and has little plums on it for the first time. The peach is living but hasn't set anything yet.

[Gardeneer]

Great,
I planted out mine first week of April. They are all flowering and setting. One Big Beef has a walnut size tomato.
My potatatoes have been flowering. I reckon they are setting tubers in thd ground.

[SteveP]

I planted half of my tomatoes about a week ago and hope to get the rest in the ground this weekend. Chances of rain over the next several days, but I am gambling it won't be an excessive amount. I am only growing 10 plants this year and none of them will be hard to replace if need be.

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by GoDawgs

Nope, no livestock. I just don't want to be burdened with taking care of them and don't have anyone trustworthy who lives close that could take care of them if I went away on vacation. It would be great to have free fertilizer and eggs but I'd have to set up a real secure coop and run for chickens due to all the coyotes and raccoons around here. Too much work.

There's also snakes and Red Tailed hawks to guard against, (Red Tailed Hawks are also known as chicken hawks.) I agree with you - too much work for some eggs.

[AlittleSalt]

Originally Posted by Gardeneer

Great,
I planted out mine first week of April. They are all flowering and setting. One Big Beef has a walnut size tomato.
My potatatoes have been flowering. I reckon they are setting tubers in thd ground.

Originally Posted by SteveP

I planted half of my tomatoes about a week ago and hope to get the rest in the ground this weekend. Chances of rain over the next several days, but I am gambling it won't be an excessive amount. I am only growing 10 plants this year and none of them will be hard to replace if need be.

I planted our 10 tomato plants out in containers on April 15th. They are looking good. I have 6 more tomato plants and a few extra pepper plants in the solo cup stage. The extra plants are for 'Just in case of bad weather' - The 6 tomato plants are also for seeing what happens when they get planted late. I'm trying to mimic volunteer tomato plants in my neck of the woods. It works or it doesn't - I figure, why not give it a try?

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

There's also snakes and Red Tailed hawks to guard against, (Red Tailed Hawks are also known as chicken hawks.) I agree with you - too much work for some eggs.

Plenty of both here too. I love to watch the red tails wheeling around in the sky. A long time ago one red tail thought one of the cats might be a tasty meal but after tangling with low tree limbs and a flurry of cat claws it decided it wasn't worth the work.

I hear you on the chickens ... another thing I’m putting off myself for now.

I have 2 apples that are growing ok and producing some fruit, but the issue is ripening extends too far into the REALLY hot, humid weather. I may pull them in favor of something that ripens earlier, like the low chill cherries I have my eye on.
The 2 pluots look really happy and I have baby fruits now. The nectaplum is a nice tree but not a single fruit going on 3 years ... so also destined for the axe. I may replace it with a plum so glad to hear your Methley is doing well.
I have my other eye on a pomegranate... so much fun to research these things.
Blueberries are of course all loaded up. The birds are checking each berry 12 times a day now, so funny. They get most of them as I don’t have the heart to net.
All 3 figs are looking great, too as it was such a mild winter. You need a fig tree!

[GoDawgs]

Originally Posted by PlainJane

You need a fig tree!

Got one! A plain old Brown Trukey. It got so out of shape and also had some winter dieback so last year I cut it all the way back to about 2'. It grew fast last year and is putting on more new growth now. The only problem is getting figs before the birds do! And I can never get enough at one time to really do anything with them (make jam, etc) but to eat them fresh.

Originally Posted by GoDawgs

Got one! A plain old Brown Trukey. It got so out of shape and also had some winter dieback so last year I cut it all the way back to about 2'. It grew fast last year and is putting on more new growth now. The only problem is getting figs before the birds do! And I can never get enough at one time to really do anything with them (make jam, etc) but to eat them fresh.

Lol, that’s why I added 2 more after the first fig I put in (Green Ischia).
With it never turning pink or red the birds just don’t seem to see it. They were on to me though with Petite Negra and Smith; I guess we split about evenly.