June 30 Update

TOMATOES

Cherokee Purple getting some support

Tied up the Tomato Cherokee Purple in bed V1. The poor thing didn’t even know it had a huge cage to climb up in. To give it some direction, namely ‘UP’, I used jute twine tied off at one leg and then tied to the opposite leg diagonally.

Cherokee Purple tied with jute for support

 Then came back on the other side of the plant. Then repeated it using the other two legs. It looks like the plant is confused but I’m hoping the sun will help ‘straighten it out’. I’ll repeat this tying up about every 15-18” as it grows.

 

Juliet grape tomato 1st of the year

 First tomato of the year. Juliet grape is a very prolific producer. The plant will get very large and bushy If left unchecked as I usually do. This year I plan, as I do at the start of every year, to keep its size in check. It usually gets its own 4’x4’ bed, this year it is sharing an 8’x4’ with the Cherokee so it simply MUST behave.

 

GARDEN BED NAMES

I think I’m finally getting to the point, after six years here, where I can begin to better identify my garden beds. When we first moved in to this house in 2004 I was so excited to finally have a place where we could settle for more than just a few years that I went a little ‘random’ as to where I planted things. My main plan was to just get them in the ground and find out what makes it here. Some have survived, others have not.

Now that we are setting down roots as deep as the plants we are growing, I’m beginning to get the urge to move away from my previous random plantings and create beds like ‘Butterfly Garden’ and ‘Hummingbird Garden’ and ‘Cut Flower Garden’, etc.

In the backyard, I have eight clearly defined beds, not counting the raised beds for edibles. In the past I have very originally referred to them as B1, B2, B3, and so on because they are in the backyard. Yes, before you ask the beds in the front yard are labeled F1, F2, F3, and so on. Not very insightful labels by anyone’s measure but in my head each bed had a specific ‘calling’, even if I couldn’t put into words what it was. Now, I’m beginning to see the plan more clearly and have decided on the following ‘themes’:

• B1 will now be known as ‘Deck Side Garden’. How’s that for a descriptive name? Bet you can guess where its located.
• B2 is now the Hummingbird Garden;
• B3 the Bird Garden;
• B4 is simply the Garage Shed;
• B5 the Herb Garden
• B6 has yet to be built much less named
• B7 Butterfly Garden
• B8 another as yet built garden
• B9 the Vine Garden because it runs along a fence, very handy for vines and such
• B10 will be the Cut Flower or Fragrance Garden

I have been building lists of what plants are suitable for each garden, such as what attracts butterflies, and I have also been able to track what plants can survive in our climate. Keeping track of the performance of my plantings has been time consuming but rewarding. I have found that gardening affords as much pleasure in the journey as it does in the destination. Hopefully, all of this hard work will soon pay off and my landscape won’t look so random.

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Anticipation

We humans like to have things on a schedule, I suppose it helps us believe we are in some sort of control. But deep down we all understand that nature controls everything in the garden. Sure we can mix up some 'booster fertilizer' recipe that has been handed down through generations to help get tomatoes ahead of everybody else, or just help our little dependent plants get off to a good start. But if the weather isn’t right ‘it ain’t gonna grow’.

It has taken two weeks for these plants to go from here. . . 

Tomato Juliet June 9

 

Tomato Cherokee Purple June 9

to here . . . 

Tomato Juliet June 20

Tomato Cherokee Purple June 20

These tomato plants have some BIG shoes to fill.

Tomato Juliet last year June 21

 I figure they are about a week to 10 days behind schedule but with the upcoming hot weather they'll get back on schedule in no time.

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Green Tomatoes: Ripen Them, Compost Them or Eat Them?

I still have a bunch of green Roma and Grape tomatoes hanging on in hopes of warmer weather that we know isn’t coming. I love fried green tomatoes, but tomatoes this small don’t lend themselves very well to being battered and fried, in my humble opinion.

When the chance of day time temps ever reaching above 60F again have decreased to nil, its time to yank them off the vine and either ripen them indoors, toss them on the compost pile, or cook them up as is. Much has been written about how to ripen your still green tomatoes at the end of the season but I choose to follow the plan C.

I already pinched all the flowers off these plants about 7-10 days ago and there really isn’t much hope left of getting any more this year, especially when our first real freeze is expected this weekend.

If you want to ripen them, there are several methods to choose from, you can take down the whole plant and hang it upside down somewhere such as in the garage to dry out, you can pick them all and place them on a sunny window sill, or wrap them individually in newspaper and layer in a box in a dark corner for 3-4 weeks. But, seriously, these are small tomatoes so I’m not taking this third route. And here’s something I just heard for the first time, place the green tomatoes in a brown paper bag with a ripe apple. The apple gives off ethylene gas, which speeds up ripening. Check the bag daily. I might try a few this way just so I know if it works.

So, on with the cooking them up. You can use them in a green tomato pie, green tomato marmalade, or, as I am going to do, in a soup, recipe follows.

Green Tomato Soup with Ham served with hot cornbread. Yum!
2 T butter
4-6 oz ham (smoked or whatever pleases you)
1 small onion,, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced (I just chop mine. Less work and it tastes just as good)
4 cups chicken broth
8 medium green tomatoes (couple handfuls of green grape tomatoes or green romas)
celery stalk, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat; add ham, onion, and garlic. Sauté, stirring, until onion is tender. Add chicken broth, chopped green tomatoes. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Working in batches, pulse in a blender or food processor until almost smooth. Pour back into the saucepan and add celery. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Taste and add salt, pepper and, if you want some heat add some Tabasco sauce.

Whichever way you handle your end of season jewels, keep in mind that tomatoes don’t have to be red to be enjoyed.

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Expanding and snowing?

It’s snowing! Well, not real snowball, snowman, digging the car out, skiing type snowing. But it’s only October 5, for goodness sake.

I’m in the middle of expanding one of my beds to make room for a beautiful yellow rose bush one of my daughters is growing tired of. How can you grow tired of roses?

Oh well, her loss, my gain.

It’s going to be a bit out of place for awhile because the area I’m putting it in is full of drought tolerant plants. It won’t stay there for more than a year or maybe two until I get its permanent spot prepared in the front yard. That’s going to be a major undertaking.









Speaking of loss and gain, is there nothing sadder than a tomato plant that has been struck down by frost?









Well, maybe a pepper plant.









Oh well, now it's off to plan next years garden.

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First Tomato

Actually two. They are Lemon Boy and boy were they sweet tasting. They lack the acid of red tomatoes so they went down real smooth.

There are quite a few more too. This the first year I ever planted these. I think they are supposed to be a little more yellow from pictures I have seen but as long as they taste good, I don’t care what color they are.

I realize now I should have put something to show size. They are about the size of tennis balls.

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A Gardeners Christmas Season

Woke up this morning with a thrill of excitement flowing through my body, a giddiness if you will. What was on my mind was planting tomatoes. In Utah, the ‘official’ day for setting out tomato plants is Mothers Day. This year that day is May 11. Today is Feb 9th, only three months until I get to set out that most celebrated of warm-season crop, the princely tomato.

My mouth is watering in anticipation of that first bite. Its like looking forward to Christmas day, and I am my own Santa.

The Christmas holiday season traditionally begins after Thanksgiving and runs to December 25. Entire cities decorate themselves and homes are dressed-up in anticipation of the joyous event. People celebrate with parties and gift exchanges.

The gardening season begins quietly with seed and plant catalogs arriving in the mail in early January/late December. We busy ourselves with preparing a list of what we want to grow each new season, and we check it twice. We pour over catalogs with the same child-like delight as with Christmas gift catalogs. We go to sleep at night with visions of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers dancing in our heads. We prepare a ‘special’ place in our homes for seed starting with the same care that we give our Christmas tree. Our target date for the ‘big event’ is the average last frost date. That magical date around which all garden activity revolves.

Every year we pour our hopes for the future into our gardens. We plant seeds in anticipation of reaping the rewards that represents the fruit of our labor, much as Christmas represents the hope of all mankind.

We share our bounty with friends and neighbors for this is a time of celebration. We are acknowledging and validating our future. I cannot help but get giddy when I see gardening from this perspective.

Whatever plants you look forward to nurturing into full bloom, I hope every attempt is fruitful and that you celebrate it for the miracle it is.

Happy Gardening to All and to All a Good Crop.

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A good time for projects

Haven’t done much in the garden itself the last couple of days because it is raining and cold. The rain is always welcome, the cold, not so much. I have taken this opportunity to work on some projects I have been trying to find time for. Such as reshaping chunks and strips of lumber into masterpieces I will call a tower trellis, a planter ladder, a mirror for the shed, water tower, and planter platforms. The 'masterpiece' claim might be pushing it a little but I am determined to turn it all into something useful.
This particular tower trellis is an idea I saw in Birds and Bloom magazine a few years ago. It looks simple enough, I found a note to myself telling me that I could do it so I must have had confidence in me at one point. I’m no master carpenter so I suspect the ‘short-cuts’ I will undoubtedly be forced to take to match my skill level will give the finished product some ‘character of uniqueness’ that I doubt will be found anywhere else. So, I am looking forward to seeing how the finished product will look. It will stand seven foot tall, according to the plans, and I think this should be tall enough for even the most aggressive cherry tomato vine. I’m growing ‘Super Sweet 100 hybrid’ again. Last year I grew it in one of those wire cage contraptions that you just push into the ground. It was no match for that vine. The cage repeatedly fell over and I would have to bend its legs into some indescribable geometric shape in hopes it would stand up strong enough to last to the end of the season. It didn’t really. I had to trim some of the top few feet of the vine off dooming countless future fruit to their deaths on the compost pile. But this year I’m banking on my great foresight and planning ability to get every last one of those deliciously sweet little tomatoes to either my table, the neighbors tables or my grandkids hungry mouths before they can get to the kitchen.

The planter ladder idea is one that I have seen in many places. I will use my five foot metal ladder as a template for the angles and make some legs for it, paint it and set it up on the back deck in full sun.

I will be able to use up some lumber than has been laying around in the wood shed and then I can paint it some bright color and set some of the containers I want to try growing this year.

I will need to make it a little wide than this standard sized ladder because the planters are 12"-14" long and maybe not quite so tall. It should look nice up on the deck in front the blank wall.

Mirror for the shed, an idea that has also offered itself from many different places. It just looks too easy to make to pay retail prices for it. I recently saw a blog from Melissa at Empress of Dirt use several mirrors throughout her garden, looks very nice, Melissa! I want to create a "window" on the side of one of my sheds complete with shutters that will have four panes of 12”x12” mirror squares that can be found at any home improvement center and a few strips of wood. The shutters will actually be the most time consuming part of building the thing. What could go wrong? I sound pretty confident, don’t I? Seriously, it’s got to be easier to make than that tower trellis. I can't seem to find a photo of one online but I saw it in Backyard Living magazine, Mar/Apr 2007 issue. The article covers a backyard makeover that took place in Seattle, Washington.

The water tower is just three tree branches tied together to form a teepee structure with a pvc pipe sticking up through the middle and a garden hose attached at the bottom and a sprinkler head attached at the top. Piece of cake, right?<\p>

The planter platforms will be made of 1”x1” strips of wood glued together in such a way as to form a ‘grid’ of four or five strips laid across two smaller pieces that will be the feet.

I’m feeling more and more confident all the time.
Maybe I should make the simple items first, sort of like confidence builders.

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