We seem to have tapered off from the deluge of rain. However it still was quite cold this morning- 52 degrees Fahrenheit! We had to hand dig a larger bed to finish planting the rest of our many tomato seedlings. Why did we have to hand dig the bed? Well, Dale (Trista's Dad and Serena's husband) and Stuart (Trista's brother) were working hard on fixing the tractor to be able to till the garden up for planting. But, as we really needed to get some planting done on a dry day, we had to just go for it!
First, we dug the bed and then we used hoes to soften up the dirt as much as we could. We decided crowding the tomatoes a little more than we usually do would be are best strategy. We are short on time and so we knew we needed to plant them all as soon as possible. It was do or die time!
During the time we were planting the tomatoes it actually started to warm up and get sunnier. I (Trista) dug the holes while my Mom (Serena) put chicken manure in the holes, put the tomato plants in and put dirt around them to finish planting them.
In all we planted 46 more tomato plants for a total of 90 plants in all! We ought to have a few tomatoes this year! Today we planted four varieties of tomatoes. They are as follows:
--Jaun Flamme- This is a good tomato for drying and takes 70 to 80 days to mature.
--Federle- This is a good tomato for making tomato paste and matures in about 90 days. This might be a difficult one for us at this point, but we will see!
--Purple Calabash- This is an all purpose tomato which takes 70 to 80 days to mature.
--Italian Heirloom- This is a good all purpose tomato which is very good for canning or slicing. It takes 75 days to mature.
We planted our 90 tomato plants between June 4, 2010 and June 14th, 2010.
Trista's Quick Suburban Garden Report:
On Sunday, June 13, 2010 I planted around 10 sweet potato plants (one is pictured above) and around 10 or so seed peanuts in my raised bed garden. I cut slits or small holes in the black plastic I had placed on the beds around 2 or so months ago to warm up the soil. In these slits I planted the sweet potato plants. Then, I removed one of the black plastic garbage bags in another area of the planter in order to plant my seed peanuts. The soil felt very warm and I am hoping that these plants will do well. In other news the "sharecropper" pumpkin plant (pictured below) is doing very well indeed! Great news on the home front!
A Walk on the Wild Side:
After we planted tomatoes my Mom took me on a walk around the property. Normally the grass would be mowed at this time of year but it was "hip high" and we had to take big steps to get through it to the wooded area.
Along the way we saw a young fig tree that has 8 figs on it. (Pictured above) We're excited about having even a small harvest because this tree is about three years old and this will be the first time we're able to get figs off of it.
Later on, we came upon a native Pacific Crabapple tree. (Pictured above) We were able to see an apple on it. It is supposed to attract bees and butterflies and it bears edible fruit that can be used as any other apple can be.
Just as Adam and I were about to head home, the tractor had been fixed and Dale (Pictured below) had begun to finally till the garden! Hopefully in the next couple of days we can get the rest of our planting done!
Happy Gardening!
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