June 2014 Garden - Part I - mostly tomatoes

OK people, it's time for my semiannual blog post!

We (well, it was mostly my hubby, but I am a very good supervisor) completely redid the garden this spring.  We built more boxes, moved the pre-existing ones and mixed, mixed & mixed Mel's mix.  A friend from church brought me a large dump truck full of mushroom compost for $350, which should last for as long as I am able to garden (I turned the ripe old age of 65 this year & am proud of it.)

The initial investment is a bit costly, but after the boxes are built & filled, you only need to replenish the compost after each harvest.  When something is through producing, just pull it out, add a scoop of compost & plant something else.  Remember, with Square Foot Gardening you don't use garden soil - a mix of 1/3 each compost, vermiculite and peat moss.  The mix doesn't pack down, you can plant in it right after a rain and NO WEEDS.


My previous beds were 4x8, which were too big.  I could never quite reach the center of them.  I also use a lot of trellises for cukes, delicata squash & Tromboncino squash at the end of most beds, so we changed the sizes to 3x6 and 1x6.   So far I am really liking the new design.  I'm especially pleased with the tomatoes in the 1' wide boxes.  Plenty of air circulation.

You can click any picture for a larger view.

I have eight 1x6 boxes, each of which has 6 tomato plants.  And no, I don't know why I thought I had to have that many tomatoes.  Actually I do have a good idea as to why - I start my own seed & in the dead of winter I get a little carried away sowing seeds.
 

 It is very important to sucker the plants or you will have a major jungle on your hands.

Each tomato is supported with a length of heavy nylon fishing line that is looped over the top of the PVC pipe, extends to the ground with a couple of extra inches.  As the plant grows, I just loosely wrap the nylon around the plant.  Every few days I wrap loosely til the plants are at the top of the pipe.  Nylon carpet yarn is actually better, but I couldn't find any this year.

As large as these plants are, the one strand of nylon is all that is needed & doesn't cut into or through the plant.

 PVC frames are removable - just slip them out of the pipe clamps.  This will help with crop rotation.  My husband is really brilliant figuring out stuff like this.  I give him a general idea of what I want & he makes it.

Huge German Pink tomatoes

   

Rumi Banjan tomato

Rumi Banjan is a new variety I got from Winter Sown; they have been the earliest ones.  It is a medium sized, somewhat ribbed tomato that was brought to the U.S. in 1937 from Afghanistan and is thin skinned & very juicy.    Rumi Banjan is bright yellow with a pinkish blush on the bottom.   The taste was pretty good, especially for the first tomato of the season, but a little too tart for me.  (That doesn't mean I had any trouble eating them!) .

 

    

And now the ugly:  My grandmother always said the Japanese beetles arrive after the first rain in June and unfortunately this has been my observation too.  I hate that they are so reliable.  

Stay tuned - I actually have plans for another show & tell post.

Monday, July 26th. 
I haven't posted in a while, but the garden is slowing down, as expected.  My tomatoes have lasted much longer than usual, but they are finally getting the blight, plus it has been so hot that I fear none of the blooms are going to make fruit.  I pulled several tomato plants out this morning, making way for my Fall plantings.   The last section of corn didn't make it either.  The wind blew some of it over & before we could get it back up,  my son's hybrid wolf decided it would make a nice cool bed & trampled & dug the rest of it up.  He won't stay inside the fence, so I don't know what we are going to do. 

The Emerald Giant bell pepper, pepperoncini, Hungarian hot yellow & jalapeno peppers are coming in now.  The Hungarian hot is really long and definitely hot.  We picked a few green for canning, but will let the others ripen to yellow.  The Emerald Giants are very nice.  They are unsuitable for stuffing because of the irregular size, but thick-walled and very good flavor.  We were able to find some regular bell pepper plants at the feed store a few weeks back & they are doing very well, just starting to bloom.  What I don't use for pepper relish I just slice & put in a container in the freezer.  I just take out what I need for baked beans, meatloaf, whatever I need them for. 

I have been planting cucumbers at intervals & planted my last seeds today. They have done  great on the wire trellis, but I now know not to plant them on the same trellis as cantaloupe and delicata squash.  I'll stick to one type of vine to each trellis next year.  It has been so nice having a steady supply of cukes for eating (although DH won't touch them) and I've made lots of pickles:  Bread & Butter, sweet pickle relish, Dill and a very simple recipe from my grandmother.  I will post it below. 

I harvested my one & only Sweet Dumpling (delicata type) squash last week.  The squash borers got the vine & it only had the one fruit, but I will grow it again next year.  I cut it in half, scooped out the seeds & zapped it in the microwave til soft.  Then I sprinkled on brown sugar, cinnamon & a little butter.  It was yummy.

Today I decided to pull 2 of the Honey Boat Delicata.  I wasn't sure how to tell if they were ripe, but when I touched them they fell off, so I guess they were ready.  Growing on the trellis the stem doesn't dry out & the bottom of the melons don't turn yellow.  I have 2 huge cantaloupes that I'm watching closely.  They are supported by a panty hose sling & I'm watching for the color to change.  The webbing has developed, but they are still green, so I guess it will be a while yet.

I can't think of anything else right now, but I hope you are getting lots of yummies out of your garden.

Here are a few pics from today:

June 14, 2010

Pictures from June 14, 2010:  My corn has gone crazy - it is Peaches & Cream & the seed catalog says it grows 5 1/2 feet tall - I think mine is at least 10 feet tall & started silking a week ago.  I wonder how long it will take before it's ready to eat?  DH is 6' tall & is standing at the end of the bed by the cucumber vines.

You can click on any picture for a larger view. If you are interested in seeing the project from the beginning, click on "older posts" at the bottom of the page.

I've already pulled out my 2 bean crops & planted a last plot of corn.  I also pulled up my zucchini (I don't know why I insist on planting it, we only eat a very small bit of it grilled.  I guess it's the instant gratification of something growing).  I've cut my yellow squash back some since it was taking over & I'm still harvesting from it.  I've had a steady supply of cucumbers - Boston Pickling & Homemade Pickles & made a few jars of pickles.  They didn't really do well - they shriveled really bad after cooling, but I'll keep trying. 

I am well pleased with my tomatoes - I started all of them from seed, as well as all my pepper plants.  These are German pink tomatoes.

These are a new variety for me - Orange Banana. 

My hollyhock's were beautiful until the latest storm blew them down flat.  They were from a mixed packet & had all colors imaginable, singles and doubles.  You can see the damage from the Japanese beetles on the Amaranth leaves below the blossom.

  

 

My peppers are blooming like mad, but this sweet banana is the only one that has any actual fruit on it.  My youngest granddaughter loves my chow chow, which is actually a pepper relish without any cabbage, & eats it with a spoon right out of the jar & we are completely out, so I planted a LOT of peppers, sweet & hot.

 

Here is the garlic harvest.  I thought it was a little early to be ready, but the tops had dried up & fallen over so we dug it up.  It's garlic from the grocery store.

 

 

Purple Cleome, one of my favorite plants. 

 

On another note, I did a craft show last weekend, National Moofest (in celebration of National Dairy Month) in Athens, TN.  I will NEVER, EVER do another early show - I thought I would have a heat stroke.  The temps were in the 90s, the festival was downtown on the city streets & I was miserable. And of course it stormed both days, just long enough to have to put the tent sides down & then dry everything back off.  It was a profitable show, but I'll stick to September & October shows from now on.  Here is a picture of yours truly dying in her booth.

Last, but certainly not least, is the Mayfield Dairy cow, I think her name is Maggie, but not sure.

I had intended to chronicle this as I went, but that didn't happen. I was too busy playing in the dirt and hanging around the forum at Square Foot Gardening and the SFG Forum at Gardenwebs. Be sure to check them out - lots of great information from very friendly people.

(Excuse the mess...we had just finished a remodeling project, have a big orange dumpster & lots of trash to clean up, but that will all have to wait til I get my garden planted.)

Here's what has happened so far:

MARCH 23, 2010:  First I had to dig up a lot of iris & peonies. Here is a tub of peony rootstock from my grandmother's family, well over 100 years old, and some iris to transplant.  I also gave lots of iris away.

Here is where my new Square Foot Garden boxes will be.  It is my front yard, which turned out to be an odd terraced area when we added a basement addition to our house a few years ago.

 

Isn't this beautiful?  Only a fellow gardener would understand.  See the classic VW's in the background?  DH restores these & does a great job at it.  I found my compost on Craig's List and it was delivered  in about 2 hours.  Living out in the country has definite advantages - you can have 13 yards of compost dumped on your driveway if you want to. 

While we are at it, here is where my blackberry patch will be.  It is quite long, but doesn't look like it from this angle.   I have 3 Triple Crown plants in the middle and this end has bookoodles of red garlic from the grocery store that I forgot to dig up last Fall.

This is the lower side of the retaining wall.  I have put in a potato bed since this picture was taken and will have a compost pile here.  It will be really handy to just toss trimmings into it.

Now, back to my compost.  This is some good stuff - not like the bags of composted manure from the big box stores that seem to be mainly burnt wood chips.

I had to buy a new Mantis tiller this year, the transmission finally went out on the other one.  I would probably still be using it except I got a good sized rock stuck between the tines.  This is my third one since the 1980's.  I don't know how I could garden without it.  They seem to last forever and almost always start on the first pull.   They are everything the advertisements say they are, plus things they never even thought of (see the pictures of Mel's Mix being mixed below).

DH definitely didn't want his picture taken.  Too bad.  The following pics are of the boxes being prepared.  When our son showed up the work went a lot faster.

They got 3 boxes finished before quitting for the day.  That's quite an accomplishment (and expression of love) after already doing a full day's work.

One granddaughter was excited about it, one wasn't.......