Fertilized the garden again

Round of fertilizer went into the garden. Last weekend I also planted tomatoes and peppers, rounding out the Spring planting. Next up: build a box for strawberries, and figure out how to put another eight pepper plants in the ground. Apparently it is going to be a summer of peppers.

fall garden

In what might be termed a last gasp of futility, I fertilized the red peppers and tomatoes last weekend. With a kind of Pollyannish determination, I am trying to will my plants to produce one more harvest before the frost comes. The last batch was quite good, and so I was fairly convinced that an early November harvest might be possible.

This would be harmless except that it kept two large double rows occupied. Meanwhile, the arugula and radishes have sprung up. I am already enjoying a daily harvest of arugula which, combined with the last of my cherry tomatoes, are producing lunch-time salads. Delightful salads. With two more rows available, I could have another variety of chard, perhaps some more greens, carrots and radishes, and a welter of lettuces. And fennel. I'm sitting on a bag of fennel seeds that I really want to get into the ground.

And now we've had two unseasonably cold nights, dipping below freezing. I may be Pollyanna when it comes to my garden, but I'm not the village idiot. They are going to be mealy, and there is no real point in keeping them.

So they have another two days. On Saturday I will perform the massacre of red hill. I will leave the volunteer tomatoes in (they take up no real room, but will pull all the big plants. Then I'll prepare the beds and lay seed.

In my newly planted rows the chard is slow to rise. Coming much faster are several volunteer squash plants. Hopefully the vine borers are all dead from the cold.

The case of the missing tomatoes

The wet weather has claimed my tomatoes, I fear. So too did an ill advised decision to try and train the tomato vines to a single vine. My more successful plants were allowed to bush out somewhat. Also, I had a reversal of fortune. The front planter put up an admirable show, but did not produce near the level of quality fruit as last year. By contrast, the tomato in Maia's corner has produced succulent cherries, tart and sweet with a fair pop. Last year, that plot was near dead. My amending of the soil clearly had the intended impact.

I fertilized the garden two days ago. 2 oz. on everything. Last of the fertilizer.

Fertilized

Simple record of fertilization. 2 gallons on tomatoes and peppers.

Fertilizing the garden

Fertilized the garden. Yesterday. It has been tough to get to this because it has been so wet. Everything is coming along fine, although I lost a branch on a pepper plant. Too heavy, I s'pose. The squash borer is slowly threatening my summer squash plant, although I have now gotten at least six squash from it and more are coming. We've made one casserole and grilled up the rest. So I can't really complain.

You can kind of see one pepper that is ripening here

The tomatoes continue to sit, and the fruit is not ripening. This is the coldest, wettest summer I've seen since I moved to Atlanta. Whoever thought I would complain about rain! The upside is that I haven't turned a hose on in weeks.

The sunflower my daughter grew. It stands ten feet tall now

Lettuce

Caring for the garden

The garden is on autopilot now. With the bee balm fully in bloom the bees are out in force. I presume they are pollinating everything.

The squash looks healthy, but I could have sworn we had a beautiful squash growing that appears to be gone now. That is weird. I would imagine that pests would eat it on the vine, leaving some behind. Or it could be that it stopped growing. Insufficient pollination? Insufficient flowering? That stupid bore beetle everyone keeps warning me about?

I fertilized yesterday. Used two gallons of Neptune's Own organic and fertilized all of the rows, the hydrangea and the petunias.

First cucumbers are in. I believe it was the Diva, but I have been too lazy to check and see whether it was the Jade or the Diva. Quite tasty. Made a salad with it.

The Jethro Tull Experience

Jethro Tull can refer both to the famous British farmer or a British "progressive" rock band. Both had big hair, which gives them some connection. Both enabled big business as well, perhaps unwittingly. But I'm not sure how much further that connection goes, having never heard even one of the band's songs.

Jethro Tull is also the name of a flower hybrid, a fluted coreopsis. It is a hearty southern plant that grows a brilliant yellow fluted head. I have two that I planted in my garden, neither of which has done horribly well. Both are somewhat disease prone, and I, being both a conscientious organic gardener and decidedly lazy, have neglected to treat them with some insecticide.

Until now. I finally dropped some 3 in 1, which I detailed in another post. It is my sincere hope that this makes the Jethro Tull blow up, as I quite like the flowers. They also last a week or more as cut flowers, which makes them wonderful to pair with herbs, miniature roses, and other small flowers for bud vases.

Big hair, big style

UPDATE: since this post seems to be attracting traffic from real gardeners, any advice on controlling disease or helping the plant thrive would be most welcome.

The Rose and the Black Krim

I broke down and bought some 3 in 1 and treated my knockout roses, miniature roses, and Jethro Tull. 3 in 1 is this ugly milky concentrate that does not mix well with water. So I really don't know if I got enough into the soil, or if it all went into the last plant that I treated. Which is good news for the Jethro Tull, and the knockout roses closest to Doug's house.

The Black Krim is starting to flower. Given that I'm not allowing my tomato plants to vine out like I did last year, I'm anxious about fruit production, especially after the squirrel's share is calculated.

the Krim flowereth

The Whoppers Are coming in

Fertilized the garden today. 2 gallons of fertilizer went on the blueberries and the tomato plants. Also fertilized the begonias and the summer squash.

The summer squash is beginning to come in. The plant looks healthy. My lettuce is producing beautifully. Enjoy it while it lasts--my best is that two weeks more is about as much lettuce as I will get.

Tomato report. The transplants all did quite well. Only the Juliette cherries did not survive. I'm not sure what happened, except that the stalk broke at its base. Given that the plant was not top heavy, I have no idea what precipitated this. I staked the plant immediately, but it is worth pointing out that none of the other plants required staking at this point. The leaves have all since wilted, but the stalk still appears to be alive. I'm monitoring it daily.

The Black Cherries were the first to fruit. That planter has always produced beautiful tomato plants, with thick, Jack-and-the-beanstalk-style trunks and multiple vines that I train up the light pole (and whatever plant grows around it).

The Whoppers and the Beefy Big Boy plants are beginning to bear fruit. They are quite pretty, and my guess is that we are three weeks from potential harvest here.

Planting dilemma. The lettuce will doubtlessly bolt sometime in June. I have to decide whether to let the space remain fallow until the winter garden is planted, or try and bring up something else in the meantime.

Finishing the Rows

Today I laid out the rest of Maia's plot.

Juliet Tomatoes and Max's Wild Cherries.

Chives (still flowering from last year); Matilda butter lettuce and red arrowhead lettuce; gentry summer squash

Diva -- Jade -- Diva cucumbers -- Matilda butter lettuce -- red arrowhead lettuce -- tomatillo.

I mixed black cow and my homemade compost into the rows and topped them with Miracle Grow Garden Soil. The soil quality doesn't look perfect, so we will see. I added some blood meal along the top, fertilized it all right off the bat and mulched the whole thing. Now I will let benign neglect bring the fruits in.

fertilizer and pruning (boring)

SHOOPING carts need not apply

Today hardly seemed like August. It was cool and dry this morning and remained so through 10:30 a.m. It made for a beautiful walk and then hour or two spent in the garden. I fertilized the vegetables, the backyard gardenia and lantana and roses with 2 gallons of neptune's own. I also pruned back the knockout roses in the front by almost one third. And I destroyed the privet. Damn that felt good.

An ill omen indeed

This morning I fertilized the tomato plants, spreading nearly two gallons over all of them. This represents the heaviest fertilizing I have completed to date. But given that the soil must be weakening and the plants are getting ready to bear fruit, I was anxious to accelerate the fertilizing schedule and increase its volume.

I fertilized at about eight thirty this morning. I should have done it earlier to avoid even more evaporation. When I left the house at nine, the smell of fish emulsion was still heavy in the moist morning air. Will water tomorrow to counteract our droughty conditions.

Also, I saw this sign on my way to work today. I'm still puzzling over it. In relation to my garden, this might be an omen. My second crop of tomatoes may disappoint. Or perhaps the lettuce I plan to plant next weekend will not take. Maybe the squirrels will tighten their racket and take a larger share. I feel oddly concerned.

garden update

The Sunny Boy plant, rolled over

 I have posted several times about the out of control tomato plants, and have now come to grips with the fact that all of this really is my fault. As a horticulturalist, I am a failure at best. My only consolation is that the mammoth fruit the plants produced have kept me and my neighbors and my friends happily munching on salad caprese, BLTs, and just plain tomatoes ever since late June. With the current crop starting to vine ripen, the party might keep going until November. So I don't feel too bad about failure in this case. But, time to reflect.

The squirrel's share at mid-center

This Cherokee Purple is the size of two fists. I shall name it "two fists"

• Plant two determinate vines, one as early as possible and another one month later. Put them in cages and keep them away from the other plants. My orange blossom tomatoes were the first to arrive and were delicious. I would have loved to have them about two weeks earlier than they did arrive, and would love another batch right about now. The determinate vines produce a huge bunch of fruit all at once. They are great for gift baskets, and they would enable me to keep a more steady crop going.

Barbarella out on the town

•  Stake the vines, dammit. Tomato cages are useless (except for the bushier determinate vines). I need a real stake, not the fake bamboo junk I was hustled into. I need at least six feet of stake above ground to house these monster plants. 
• Once staked, trim so that the plant grows along the stake. This involves pulling off the suckers and making sure the plant doesn't veer off in one direction or the other. 
• I know the above two points are elementary. I had read them before I planted. But last year I survived on cages, so it was stubbornness rather than stupidity that led me to try and cage these beasts.

Bell's early orange, not quite early, but orange-y

• This year I planted one cherry (Juane Flamee), one grape (sweet olive), one determinate (Orange Blossom), and four beefsteak style plants (two Cherokee Purples; Mortgage Lifter; Sunny Boy). 
• Next year plant at least two cherry/grape plants, two determinate plants, and at least five other heirloom varieties. Cherokee Purple is a must. 
• Maybe avoid the eggplant next year. Although it is beautiful.
• Need. more. peppers. Hot and sweet. A full row next year. These plants could take the cages.

fertilizer

boring post--just to record that I fertilized the rest of the garden today: peppers, eggplant, roses, etc. Everything I missed last week.

The last Cherokee Purple of the first harvest are ripening on the vine. I've nicknamed one of them Baby Jesus. It's fabulous.

fertilized the out-of-control tomato plants

Yesterday I fertilized the tomato plants. There was much rejoicing. I also fertilized the peppers and the eggplant, yada yada yada.

I am not sure what to do with the tomato plants. They have all grown out of control. Top heavy, loaded with big fruit, gnarled and angry in some cases, distressingly tall in others. I've staked them all now, given that they destroyed the cages that I initially placed them in.

I don't know what to do. I want tomatoes to continue through October, but I am at a loss as to how to control these crazy vines. The harvest so far has been brilliant, so may it continue.

This is a huge platter, so imagine these tomatoes as fist to two-fist size...

latent fertilizing

garden, west view (during rainstorm)

I unfortunately missed a post about my last fertilization, which occurred sometime before I left town on July 4. I'm waiting to fertilize again given the massive rains we have received this last week. The soil is soaked and soaking more every day. No extra water needed, and no need to dilute the fertilizer just yet.

Fertilizing

Fertilized the garden today. On the eight tomato plants I broadcast 2 oz. (in 2 gallons water) of Neptune's Own fertilizer. On Maia's patch, the knockout roses and minature roses I dropped 1 oz. (in one gallon of water).

Orange Blossom: boxy and bodacious

The delicate sweet olive grape tomatoes

Mortgage lifter grows a second floor

Cilantro and Parsley a comin'

Juane Flamee on Fuego

fertilizer

Fertilized the garden again yesterday. Fertilized tomato plants, begonias, jethro tull (and whole front bed), and Maia's patch. I also added compost to the half-ass herb garden and to various backyard plants, such as the Lantana.

The Orange Blossom tomatoes are popping. The Sunny Boys are beginning to fruit as well.

garden update: fertilizing

Mortgage Lifters, finally lifting

I fertilized the tomato plants, eggplant, cucumbers, and herbs yesterday. I know I promised not to overfertilize the herbs, but I'm fairly well convinced that my 2-4-1 fertilizer is not going to strip the herbs dead. I did not put too much fertilizer on the herbs. I was much more generous with the tomato plants. In all, I used two gallons of diluted fertilizer, and at least 1 1/2 of that went on to the tomatoes and eggplant and cucumbers.

Juan Flamee looking butch

The sweet olive tomatoes are beginning to flower and fruit. In two weeks the plants have grown considerably and are looking healthy and strong.

Sunny Boy and Cherokee Purple

Da Row

Sweet Olive . . . first fruit of the season

garden update

Today I pruned and fertilized the front rose bushes. I also fertilized the pepper plants and eggplant, as well as the mortgage lifters, which are the weakest of the tomato plants at present. Carrots have done NOTHING, and I'm about to throw in the towel on growing from seed. Maybe a row of flowers.

I've also removed a bucket of compost from the back lot. It is not completely broken down yet, but it is now in a plastic bin and will decompose further before I throw it down somewhere.