Friday, May 13, 2011

Tomato Row


Isn't it amazing how cutting grass seems to make a place look so much larger?  And nicer too!  Oh, and a bit of new springtime green never hurts either! Everything is so much prettier now that spring is in full bloom! Knowing that it is ours makes it all the more beautiful.

My friend Mushroom and her hubby gave us their old riding lawnmower. What a wonderful piece of equipment it is.  I can tell you already that it is going to be well used and well loved around here! Thanks again "Shroom"....You guys ROCK!! 

These two pictures are of the part of the land that edges the government land.  The first is looking from the road towards the back of the property before it was mowed.   The second picture is looking towards the road. Isn't it amazing how much bigger things look once you knock down all the weeds!  This is the area we will be using for the garden.  The plan is to find someone around here with a tractor to come plow all this up. That way we can start working on it for the fall garden. This is going to be one big garden!  As has always been the plan, it will be one of our main sources of food one day.

I don't know if ya'll  remember but I planted a whole bunch of tomato seed back in early March.  I had them in Mushroom's greenhouse and they really did well.  What with moving and getting settled in we didn't have time to get a spring garden started.  But since we already had all the tomato's started, Mars tilled up a good size row for them.

We got alot of them into the ground yesterday.  There are also some cucumber's and one spaghetti squash plant on the far end of the row. Notice how a lot of the tomato's leaves are kind of yellow looking?  Poor things were super root bound.  I can't wait to see how they will take to all the new room.  Wouldn't you know it... Shortly after we got them in the ground  "The Big Guy Upstairs"  decided he would water them for us!  It came one heck of a "gully-washer" here for an hour or so.  You just can't beat that now can ya?
It looks like we are going to have to have at least one more row to get the rest of the things we have started from seed in the ground.  We kind of ran out of room.  There are close to another dozen or  so tomato's still left to plant.  These are the ones that got "leggy" while patiently waiting for us to do something with them.  I've read about planting tomato's sideways so that's what we are going to try with these.  Why?  Well, first of all it would take one heck of a deep hole to plant these babies straight up and down. And secondly, because I want to see how well it works. 
and lots of herbs that haven't made it in yet.  Somehow during the move I lost all the markers for them so I'm really not sure what is what on some of them.  I know I should know what they all are but as some of you guys know... I've never had a lot of luck growing herbs.  As a matter of fact that tray you are looking at is by far the  best luck I've ever had even getting them started.


 I know that there is Dill, Parsley, Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender and one other type which for the life of me I can't remember right now.  You watch though, about the time I doze off tonight I'll sit straight up in bed and yell out it's name.  Needless to say, Mars hates it when I do that!

     ~~~~~  Hey ... I'm Just Sayin' ... ~~~~~

10 comments:

  1. Looks Great. Congrats on all of the work. Little tip...next time you have leggy tomato plants, plant them all the way up the stem until just the top 5-6 inches is sticking out of the soil. They will sprout roots all along the buried stem and that gives them an even stronger root system. I have done that for decades. It always produced stronger plants that better withstood winds, the weight of ripening tomatoes, hard rains, ect. Good luck and a big applause for all of your hard work.

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  2. I've done the sideways thing,sorta kinda,I guess.Once you get a long branch near the bottom of the stem,dig a small trench,lay the branch in,then slice it lengthwise,cover in soil.As the plant tries to "heal the wound",it grows roots!A great way to grow late season plants.
    Dean in az

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  3. I guess I should have mentioned that when we plant tomato's we always bury them really deep. As Op3 says, it makes for a stronger plant. I have read that when you plant them deep the roots will grow all along the buried stem and I KNOW it makes for a stronger plant!
    Thanks for stopping in and for the comments! :)

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  4. Tall grass always reminds me of chiggers. Hope your mowing was uneventful. You are going to have sooo many tomatoes.

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  5. the way you have the tomato's planted,it looks like a great layout for a 3 sister thing,corn in the middle,some bean's,so on.As far as planting deep,the old saying goe's,"plant it high,its gonna die".
    Dean in az

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  6. Looks awesome SFC - very exciting. I do have one question - arent' you worried about critters - because I know my FIL had to completely fence [HIGH!] his huge garden because of deer and groundhogs - and that is in a hugely populated suburb!

    Just curious. :) So when can I come over for some yummy tomatoes.

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  7. Fran, so far so good on not having chiggars... but then we have a horrible tick problem :( I'm hoping to get some chickens in the next couple of weeks. That might help some but I think I'm going to end up having to dust the whole place with sulphor or something.

    Dean I like that saying. I've never heard it before but it sure is true.

    Skippy I guess I'm just going to have to find out the hard way. I don't know what else to do. I haven't seen any deer tracks yet but if they end up in the garden, their next stop will likely be my deep freezer!

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  8. Guinea hens are tick monsters...a couple will eat up all the ticks around the garden and from what I hear, they won't bother the garden the way chickens sometimes can.
    It's looking great....been a long time coming! I'm so happy for you. :)

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  9. Looks like I"m not the only one who has been busy around this place. Well done on the tomatoes - I wish I could come over for salsa...The place looks better and better each time you post!

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  10. What times dinner ? just asking

    Northpal

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