Picked my first “real” tomatoes today. Unfortunately, I did not remember to look what type they were. One is a Striped Roman, two could be Black Krim and one could be Baker Family Heirloom. I have to go back and check the labels. I also harvested cherry tomatoes, two pickling cucumbers, a large zucchini and a few green beans. And flowers.
Lots of things are coming up in the garden right now: eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, cukes and kale and chard. I will pull some carrots and beets soon, and plant salad greens in the spot where the garlic used to be.
I am so happy I planted more flowers this year. Zinnias, dahlias, sunflowers. I am picking several bouquets each week. Also harvested today: a giant zucchini, a couple of handfuls of green beans and a few tomatoes.
I harvested all the remaining garlic scapes today and more peas. I also adjusted the velcro around the tomato stakes. Everything is looking good so far. I will need to harvest the rest of the lettuce in the next few days; the head lettuce is starting to elongate meaning it will bolt soon. Salad for dinner for days!
Today, I planted the remaining seedlings. I meant to do it last weekend (Memorial Day Weekend), but it was so rainy and cold (in the 40s at night) that it seemed wise to wait. In order to make space, I had to take out most of the walking onions and six humongous leeks. I planted 2 eggplants (Fairy Tale and Ping Tung), 1 pepper (the mystery one), 1 more tomato (Striped Roman), 3 kale seedlings, 3 Swiss chard plugs, 3 cucumbers (pickling, Dekah and Tokiwa), 3 winter squash (Butternut, Delicata and Lakota), 1 zucchini and 1 watermelon. I also interplanted the tomatoes with marigold, planted camomile and sowed glass gem corn among the squash and Zinnias with the Swiss chard. I don’t think I can fit anything else in my plot.
The only thing not in the ground yet are green beans. I will plant some with the corn and squash once the corn has a good height and will plant a lot of beans after I harvest the garlic. Last year, I planted beans late in July and it was very successful.
I spent a good three hours in the garden today, weeding, spreading compost and planting tomatoes, basil, parsley and dahlias. I planted a total of ten tomatoes: one each Striped Roman, Paul Robson, Black Krim, Valencia, Break O’ Day, Poll Robson Angolan and two each Green Zebra and Baker Family Heirloom. That’s a lot of tomatoes. I was going to go for eight, but alas ended up planting ten … I used the central stake method this time, which will be a first for me. I am just so tired of these flimsy cages. They will serve me well for growing cucumbers though.
I also planted dahlias in the back of the plot near the fence, where I usually put my flowers. No edibles there because dogs like to raise their legs on the other side of the fence. I planted two dahlias each of: Arabian Night, Lakeland Autumn, Park Princess (Cactus) and Star Elite (Cactus). I ordered three each from Holland Bulb Farms and all except one are looking healthy and have new growth. Very excited about the flowers. The remaining four (or three) dahlias will be planted in my front or side yard. Need to find a full-sun spot.
Tomorrow, I will go back to the garden and tie the tomato stems with garden velcro. I also will sow Zinnias and sunflowers (and harvest some leeks and lettuce).
It has been (and will be) really warm these days and I could not wait any longer and planted my porch containers today: hot peppers (Early Jalapeno and Thai), Thai basil, Green Zebra tomato (with the parsley, and I am planning on using string to trellis it), Fairy Tale eggplant. I had fertilized the soil a few days ago.
I have been hardening off my seedlings for about five days now, last night was the first night they spent outside. The nights are now consistently above 50 degrees, so I am planning to transplant them into the plot next weekend.
I have a ton of seedlings: 12 tomato seedlings (one each Striped Roman, Paul Robson, Valencia, Black Krim [all of those are from the Neighborhood Farm], 1 Break O’Day; 2 each Beaker Family Heirloom, Poll Robson Angolan (according to Sand Hill Preservation Center it is not entirely clear what variety this is, but I grew it last year and it was not a true Paul Robson) and 3 Green Zebra). I also have 3 peppers (one each Early Jalapeno, Thai and Chico Invite), 3 eggplants (2 Fairy Tale and 1 Ping Tung), 2 each Butternut Squash and Honeyboat Delicata, 3 each Tokiwa cucumber, Dekah cucumber (a pickling cucumber), National Pickling cucumber, 3 watermelon, 1 Lakota winter squash (a gift from a neighbor) and 1 Zucchini (all cukes, squash and melons have three plants per cell), 2 Thai Basil, 3 Genovese basil, 1 cilantro. I also started new head lettuce for succession planting.
On my porch, I will plant two peppers (Early Jalapeno and Thai), 1 eggplant (Fairy Tale), 1 tomato (either Green Zebra or Poll Robson Angolan) and maybe 1 cucumber (likely National Pickling or Dekah). Also the basil, Thai basil, cilantro. The rest of the seedlings will go in the plot and I will give some away.
I lost a few seedlings yesterday: lettuce, all Zinnias, all Genovese basil, all cilantro, all but one Thai basil, all Dr. Wyche’s Yellow tomatoes (my favorites, sigh) and one Break O’Day tomato.
Currently, my seedlings are either under the grow lights (2 butternut quash, 2 Delicata squash, 3 Pickling cucumbers, 3 Dekah cucumbers, 3 Tokiwa cucumbers, 3 watermelon, 1 lettuce, 1 mystery pepper, 1 Thai basil, and some very mangled cilantro) or are in bigger pots and grow next to the window or under regular table lights in the evening (1 Darkibor kale, 2 Fairy Tale eggplant, 1 Ping Tung eggplant, 1 Thai basil, 1 parsley, 3 Green Zebra tomatoes, 1 Break O’Day tomato, 2 Paul Robson (?) tomatoes and 2 Baker’s Creek Family Heirloom tomatoes).
I will supplement the loss with seedlings from the Neighborhood Farm and/or the Trustees. I will get basil, cilantro, flowers and a couple of heirloom tomatoes. Lettuce is growing on the back porch, so I will just transplant a few of the larger heads into the garden.
This afternoon, I repotted the remaining tomatoes (Green Zebra, Paul Robson, Break o’ Day – Dr. Wychee is still in its seed trays) and eggplant (Pint Tung and Fairy Tale), peppers (the gifted mystery pepper), cilantro, parsley, kale and Zinnias. I also started new seedlings: cucumbers (Tokiwa, Dekah and National Pickling), winter squash (Waltham Butternut and Honeyboat Delicata) and a watermelon (Sugarbaby, an heirloom variety). I started three each for the cukes and the watermelon and two each for the winter squash. I just realized that I have not started any summer squash yet. But as, with my daughter away for college over the summer, I am currently the only one in our family who will eat Zucchini, I might want to rethink planting them. Still, one plant would be nice.
