Archives for category: In the Ground
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How do you stake your tomatoes?

By jannalyn
June 7, 2011 //
9

Hello friends! My name is Janna.  I’m Joey’s wife.   I also love to garden, so I thought I would give this blogging thing my husband is always doing a try.

Warmer weather means tomato season is just around the corner.  There is nothing better than eating a  homegrown tomato fresh from the garden.  A question I have been struggling with since I started growing tomatoes,  is what is the best way to stake them.   Since we live in the city, space is one of my primary concerns.    The first year we grew tomatoes I used cages.   They worked great, but with limited space I couldn’t get as many plants as I would have liked  into our raised bed.  They can also take up a lot of space when storing them during the winter.

The next year I looked  for an  alternative to cages.   I researched the internet and found a method of wrapping the tomato stem around a string as it grows.  This sounded like a good idea to me, and I decided to try it.   I didn’t know what to attached the top of the string to though.  I finally came up with the idea of making an arbor out of PVC piping.   I thought it would look a little more attractive if I sprayed painted the PVC pipes.   I first painted it a bright red, which looked horrible.  I then repainted it black, which looked better.

So this is what our tomatoes looked like at the beginning of  last summer.   You tie the string to the base of the tomato stem, and then as the tomato grows you wrap the tomato around the string.  This method requires a lot of pruning, and by the end of the summer I had multiple strings holding up each tomato.  Our tomatoes did okay, but definitely not as well as I would have hoped.  This may have been due to a couple of different things.   It was a HOT summer, and we got an infestation of  small white flies on our tomatoes.  Also it was my first time training tomatoes up a string, so I could have pruned too much. My main dissatisfaction with this method was it was not very attractive.

This year I decided to try something more tidy.   I found tomato ladders at one of my favorite garden supply websites.  What I like about this method is that it allows the tomatoes to grow very tall instead of sprawling, so I can fit a lot of tomato plants into a raised bed.  The ladders I bought are stackable.   I can stack three ladders on top of each other as the tomato plant grows  for a total of 91 inches.  This will work well for all of my indeterminate plants.   I think they look nice….. well much better then my PVC arbor anyways.  The disadvantage of this method is that the ladders are expensive, although they are supposed to last many years.

I will keep you updated on how our tomatoes are doing.    Here is how the tomatoes look  so far.

This is after they have had a little bit of time to grow

So how do you stake your tomatoes?

Categories In the Ground, Tools of the Trade

Fresh Foraged Berries

By Joe
June 4, 2011 //
3

Now that the weather feels like summer, fresh berries are coming into their own. I’ve picked a couple of ripe strawberries, a few ground cherries have ripened, and the red and black currants aren’t too far from being ready. But the park down just down the block from my house is practically brimming with ripe, delicious fruit that you would never find at a grocery store or even at a farmers market.

The first fresh mulberries of the year.

This time last year, the big tree in the park was laden with ripe fruit, but this year, things seem to be at least 10 days later than last year. Still, the fruit is starting to ripen little by litte – I just picked enough to eat fresh. I’m going to have to back for more in the morning, because I’m really hankering for Janna’s mulberry cobbler. The ripe berries just fall off into your hand – they couldn’t be easier to pick. Look of deep black berries, but make sure they’ve got a glossy sheen. As the berries get overripe, they turn dull black, and start to taste a bit watery. For the best jam, pick fruit that’s slightly underripe – you want the berries to be mostly black, with some areas of red.

Juneberries still in clusters on their stems.

A new discovery this year was a good-sized juneberry tree. Last fall, I planted two little bush-sized  juneberries – I probably wouldn’t have even noticed this tree had I not researched the fruit before. Juneberries are also known as saskatoons, and serviceberries. They are extremely cold hardy, and make a really beautiful landscape shrub or small tree. Juneberries aren’t botanically berries at all – they’re pome fruit, like their relatives apples and pears. The individual fruits look a lot like a more reddish blueberry – they’re similar in size and texture, but there is a larger, yet still edible, seed inside the juneberry.

These are a little more of a challenge to pick. They grow in small clusters, and berries in each cluster aren’t necessarily uniformly ripe. The more purple the fruit, the more ripe and perfumed its flavor. The redder berries are more tart, and do have their charms.  I started out picking them one by one, but soon learned that picking the whole clusters was the best way to do the job most efficiently. I picked them with the hope of making jam, but with an end result of only three cups of fruit, I didn’t really have enough to do that. We’ve been eating them fresh, and loving them. Their flavor is different than anything I’ve had before. I’ve spotted a few more trees, so I might yet make some juneberry jam this spring.

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Categories In the Ground

Succession Planting Part 1

By Joe
June 2, 2011 //
3

The first plantings of aurgula and spinach in the shady bed were getting well past their prime – leggy and starting to bolt. Still, with four-foot rows of each, there have been plently of leaves to put into salads over the last few days. In addition, the red orach seeds I planted a couple months ago have resulted in about five little seedlings in a four-foot row, and I left one row unplanted.

Red orach.

As we get into the heat of summer, some of the more tender lettuces won’t do too well. Spinach is pretty much out until late August or September. But I did find a few things in the seed drawer that will do pretty well in the empty spaces.

First, I’ll plant a new row of arugula, but not in the space I just pulled it from. I’ve got another row about a month old and getting into its prime, so this schedule should keep us pretty well stocked through October. Next, I’ll add a row of parsley. We do have a good-sized patch of it in the herb box, but we go through quite a bit – it makes a great salad green, and it’s a biennial. I’m also going to try a row of fennel. It might be too hot, but that’s one thing I meant to try earlier, but never got around to it before – hopefully, the shade of the bed will keep it happy. Finally, I’ll plant a row of oak leaf lettuce. Most oak leaves tend to be more heat-hardy than other lettuces.  

A huge bowl of salad greens from the garden: spinach, arugula and Swiss chard.

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Categories In the Ground

Mushroom Log Update

By Joe
May 27, 2011 //
1

It’s been about a year since I started my mushroom logs, and I’m glad to say, they’re doing great! Before the snow of last winter, two small oyster mushrooms had appeared. Since about the beginning of April, there has been a proliferation of new mushrooms. I haven’t eaten any yet (and actually, I’m not really sure how I’m going to cut them from the logs or cook them yet…) But at some point later this summer, we’ll have what looks to be a pretty large harvest of mushrooms.

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Categories In the Ground

Sorrel as a Landscape Plant

By Joe
May 26, 2011 //
0

The sorrel lasted through the winter really well, and ended up as a big, luxurious clump of long, sword-shaped, red-streaked leaves this spring. Thought I had it in one of the raised beds, it was time the sorrel had a home in a permanent location.With a small strip of treelawn bare, we decided to play up the beauty of the foliage by giving the sorrel a prime spot where everyone will see it.

I divided the sorrel clump into six plants, and added four new plants from the nursery It’s amazing to see how much larger the leaves get with time. Hopefully, in another year, I’ll have as much sorrel as I’ll ever need, to use as a salad green or in cold soups. In between my two rows of sorrel, Janna planted a couple varieties of ornamental sedum, mirroring the sedum behind the apricot tree, closer to the house. Even in a tiny space (1.5 x 4 feet) you can make a landscape edible and beautiful all at once.

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Categories In the Ground

Spring Salad Greens

By Joe
May 25, 2011 //
1

Spinach and arugula

I think most everything has had a slow start this year, but the shady salad greens bed has really loved the cool, rainy weather. The early sowed arugula and spinach is at its peak, and the row of arugula I planted three weeks later is filling out, too. The lacinato kale, Chinese kale and Swiss chard are all coming in really well, and should last through the fall, though they’ll need a month or so before I can pick large amounts of leaves.

Tiny jewel-like leaves of lettuce

The lettuce is more slow going that I would have though, and of the three types I put in the ground at different times, they’re all about at the same size. The amaranth seed I got from the Asian grocery store never sprouted, so something else got that space. The chrysanthemum sprouted slowly, but is starting to come into its own. The purslane and red orach are tiny, but will undoubtedly shoot up soon. The salad burnet is going well, but it’s leaves are anything like I expected.

Swiss chard with chrysanthemum at left and lettuce at right

Chinese kale and lacinato kale (cavolo nero)
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Categories In the Ground

Progress with Fruit

By Joe
May 23, 2011 //
1

The upside to the veritable monsoon season we’ve been having (literally, only 11 dry days since April 1) is that the fruit trees, bushes and plants have been getting as much water as they can drink. While we’ve had very limited time out in the garden, the plants are doing really well!

My cherry tree had exactly two flowers on it, both of which fell off before too long. The leaves came in very nicely, though, and there is lots of new branching. I think it must fruit on two-year-old branches. Next year should be a good beginning year.

I left two apricots to grow on my tree. Picking off the buds and young fruit was heartbreaking, but I'm sure next year's crop will be worth it. The tree itself is branching out really well this year - I've pruned back some early unwanted branches that would have crossed to give the tree better air circulation. There are still a lot of new branches that will bear flowers and fruit next year.

 

My plum tree came with several flowers already on it - I can't take credit for these tiny plums, but I'm going to let two or three mature. The plant seems to be a couple years ahead of my whip-grown apricot and cherry.

The two red currant bushes are the oldest edibles in the yard - I bought them back in 2008, and have transplanted them several times. They're thriving in their new spot next to the cherry tree, and are both about three feet high. For about a week, the leaves were getting eaten by caterpillars, but I defeated them by picking them off manually. I'll probably end up with 1/2 pound of currants this summer, and with smart pruning, a few pounds next year. i do need to invest in bird netting to protect these guys.

 

I'll only get a handful of black currants this year, all from the new bush I found. All three plants transplanted really well, and even the midget plant has filled out a bit. Some of the leaves of two the plants have curled under, and had insect eggs layed on the underside. I manually shook these off and sprayed them with neem oil, and the eggs haven't returned, though the leaves are still sad looking.

 

The strawberries transplanted well, too. I lost a few of the weaker plants, but the healthy ones have sent out flowers and are starting to set fruit. It won't be too long before these are ripe and ready.

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Categories In the Ground

Early Planting at the Community Garden

By Joe
May 11, 2011 //
0

Last Sunday was finally dry enough to start working in the community garden. Well, not all that dry, really, but I needed to get something started there. With my elaborate plan in mind, I planted some kale, parsley and cilantro from seed, lots of red and yellow onion sets, 12 cabbage plants, 3 cauliflower plants, 6 broccoli plants, and my four artichoke seedlings. While the top few inches of soil was perfect, a deeper dig revealed a lot of water. So I hope that won’t hurt too much. It actually hasn’t rained again since Sunday (but the forecast has at least a chance for the next 10 days…) The forecast also shows that it’s going to be very warm – so I’m going to risk planting the tomatoes, peppers and everything else very soon.

Categories In the Ground

Seed Starting vs. Seedling Buying

By Joe
May 8, 2011 //
4

Every year, I’ve set out to start seedlings of the exact varieties of plant I want to grow in the garden. Some grow well, others flop. In the spring, I get magnetically drawn to nurseries and garden centers, lured by seedlings of vegetables that make me green with envy. This weekend, Janna and I went to Bakers Acres, a greenhouse northeast of Columbus with a huge variety of less common vegetable seedlings (and perennials, annuals, bushes, trees and native widlflowers.) Though I have two trays of seedlings at home, we stocked up on tomatoes, peppers, squash, and more.

The nursery-grown seedlings tended to be less leggy, more robust, and all around healthier than those that I started. I did do relatively well on tomatoes, though. I was really excited to find huge ground cherry seedlings – with flowers and fruit set already, even! My tiny ground cherry seedlings have produced flowers, too, but I’ve pinched them out to get the plants to concentrate on making roots. I found a three-pack of huge purple tomatillos that tower over my 1/4 inch sprouts. Also, Jarrahdale and Rouge d’Vif Etamps squash, a few kinds of cucumber, three varieties of hot pepper, and lots of tomatoes that Janna’s in charge of.

My seedlings.

Seedlings from Baker's Acres.

 

Next year, I think I’ll face the fact that nurseries can just plain start seeds better than I can. While some of my starts have been really successful, others are duds. The seeds worth starting for me are ground cherries (though mine are midgets, compared, I’m sure they’ll fill out, and I was very lucky to find seedlings in the nursery,) tomatoes (mine did great, and there are thousands more varieties than can be found in even the most comprehensive nursery) and peppers (same for the same reason as tomatoes.) If my chichiquilite huckleberries and artichokes do well, I’ll probably start them from seed again as well – those are just plain never found as seedlings here in Ohio.

Ground Cherries: Baker's Acres' is on the left, mine is on the right.

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Categories In the Ground

Rain, Rain, Rain and a Community Garden Plan

By Joe
May 7, 2011 //
3

This may be the rainiest spring I can remember. Almost every day, since late March, we’ve had rain. It’s also been unseasonably cool, which has been great for the lettuce and other greens I planted in March and April, but pretty dreadful for the prospect of getting the heat-loving summer veggies in the ground. The community garden has been so wet that I haven’t been able to do anything with it.

Even though it’s raining right now, tomorrow looks clear for a change, and I’m resolving to get something in the ground over there. While it is a huge space compared to my yard, it’s not unlimited. I want to make the most of what I have, and most plants will need to be spaced further apart than if they were in raised beds. So last night, I put together a very nerdy, but I hope, very helpful plan to maximixe the space.

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Categories In the Ground
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