Season 2019 journal

[taboule]

Hi All,

Bower, this is great timing. I was about to post my last one for a while, and here's your note. I'm writing from the airport before catching my flight out of town.

This morning I took out everything that was close to ready, most of the tomatoes, DW's flowers (the zinnias had overgrown their tiny pots and started to suffer.) We've had amazingly warm weather, today's high =72F. However, we're expecting steady rains for the next few days. The solo cups bunched in these tubs usually flood. When I'm around it's easy enough to drain them when it happens.Not wanting to increase the chore on DW, I thought I could drill a hole 1" from the bottom of each tub so they could drain. But I couldn't get the heart to do it, and also didn't want to subject my babies to a deluge yet. so I bunched them all under the roof of a swing we have in the yard. Here they are huddled together.
outside-1-19apr19.jpg

From the other side/angle. the little guys in the foreground are various lettuces. In total there are 7 tubs, at 10-11 pots each, more than I will need. Still inside the house I have a few more, still tiny, under lights. Along with a few cukes, peppers and other less cold tolerant things. Very little to tend.

I'm sure the onions would have been very happy to go in the ground, I just ran out of time. It will be fun to see all this in 3 weeks, without the gradual adjustment to their growing.

Hope everyone's gardens are taking shape.

[bower]

Travel safe, Taboule! Your plants look great, and you've timed things so carefully, fingers crossed all will be well on your return!

Your plants look great, Taboule, and it sounds like everything is going as close to schedule as it could. Have a safe trip and I'm sure your wife will take good care of the little ones - it's a precious thing to have her supporting you in doing what you love. I'm blessed that way, too: DH helps me a lot, come planting time!

[taboule]

Greetings All,

I returned from my trip 1 week early, and wasted no time getting re-acquainted with my babies. It's amazing how much they grow in 2 weeks when you're not watching. My DW did a good job keeping an eye on them, although we had LOTS of rain where we are.

at-7may19.jpg

Here's the "salad" bed, same view as from 2 weeks ago. I lost only 2 transplants (one lettuce and one cabbage), some were very intertwined and suffered lots of torn roots I guess. Plenty more however that are thriving. In the middle empty space, tiny chard and kale started sprouting (may be hard to see in pic.)

salad-7may19.jpg

tbc...

[taboule]

Yesterday after work, i prepped a stretch of the long/skinny bed, and planted the onions (walla-walla)
Wallas-6may19.jpg

Back in November, cold and after we'd had a few overnight frosts, I decided to try some garlic using left over cloves we bought from a local organic farm. It was quite late for this, October is usually the norm for my area. Was happy to see this, not sure if they'll bulb -they cost me little to try.

garlic-7may19.jpg

Also last night, I prepped another bed for the first batch of tomatoes. Then this morning, before work, I put these 16x in the ground.
toms-7may19.jpg

From memory: Brandywine, SOTW, Thessaloniki, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, GGWT, Carbon, SOO, Coeur du Boeuf, and a 4th of July -for the earliest factor. Some blacks that I want to trial in similar settings to determine a favorite (if that is possible.)

Hope everyone's garden is doing well.

[bower]

Wow! Tomatoes out, and they look great (as does everything).
IMO garlic is very forgiving about when it is planted, and I doubt you'll regret trying it. It is such a joy to see them coming up before anything else here. And they taste better and keep better than anything we can buy commercially here.

[taboule]

We had a nice, warm weekend, especially Saturday. So I prepped another bed (6x24ft), adding 2 bales of peat, a large bag of perlite (2 cu.ft), and some Espoma food. Fluffed it up nicely, and planted another 20 tomatoes. Then more rain.

Problem is, temps dropped dramatically the past few nights, no higher than 38F for the lows, and I'm beginning to feel bad for the little guys - a total of 36 plants, unprotected. We're expecting another night with these lows. I worry about a lower dip, and frost which can occur even at these temps -it's just precipitation from higher elevations, which could be colder.

Fingers crossed.

[taboule]

It stopped raining for a bit after I came home from work, so took advantage of it and went for a stroll -and an inspection. Tomatoes still standing straight and proud -for now at least. At least the greens are enjoying this weather.

Here's some cabbage, lettuce and parsley.

051419greens.jpg

Sylvia lettuce and baby bock choy.

051419-sylvia.jpg

Giant Cesar romaine lettuce, some triplets. All the better, when they get big enough to eat, i'll downsize it -take one out, and leave the other ones to grow some more.
051419-giant-cesar.jpg

I also sowed a few more seeds straight in the ground: radishes, mesclun mix, and swiss chard. Didn't need to water them, more rain expected tomorrow. Will take whatever Mother Nature gives me, and make the best of it.

Hope you're all doing well.

[bower]

I'm glad to hear the tomatoes made it through the cold! Sometimes a good soil temperature makes all the difference when weather takes a turn, but around here it makes sense to keep some row cover on hand for those frosty nights as well.

OTOH the fact your plants are seeing some low temperatures, may encourage them to set a nice big first cluster.

[taboule]

Bower, I think you nailed it here

>> Sometimes a good soil temperature makes all the difference when weather takes a turn...

The combination of 1) even the shallow beds which enabled better drainage than in-the ground messiness, plus 2) I prepped the beds before planting, turning them, exposing them to sunlight which dried and warmed them a tad, and amending with even dryer ingredients .. all helped a bit.

Expecting a dry and warm weekend, will make the best of it. Maxing out on the tomatoes and started to gift them.

[xellos99]

Why not get some plastic drinking water pipe that builders use and make it into hoops,
lay them around the tomato beds and put gardeners fleece over the hoops.

1) it gives more frost protection than without
2) it traps some heat that radiates from the ground and stuff grows faster under it
3) if it is very thick strong fleece it can give a little wind gust protection
4) the hoops are reusable year after year
5) once the toms outgrow it you just pull it all up

[taboule]

Xellos, thanks for your suggestion. I've done that in the past, now trying to keep it simple and minimum time spent fussing. Maximize my ROI. This below was from my previous, older garden.

hoop-1.jpg

And I'm afraid to add, DW likes a super tidy garden/lawn and wouldn't care for the look of the plastic.

[bower]

I have the same issue with my mom - she can't stand the look of row cover. So anything that goes into her garden is sink or swim!

[taboule]

Same here, I baby them to extremes when they're inside, but once they're out in the elements, they're on their own.

It just hit 84F where I am, a high for the year. Yesterday I finished prepping the last of the beds, and started planting the warmer type veggies. Both of these started producing in their little pots, and were dying to go in the ground. Greek zuchini.

051919-zuke.jpg

California Wonder.

052019-CA-wonder.jpg

And my 2nd harvest of the season, Giant Cesar romaine and Sylvia. We ate them plain, no dressing, to fully savor the taste.

051919-salad.jpg

[bower]

Nice lettuce!