Off to a Rocky Start!

As is typical for me, I started my tomatoes, peppers, chard, basil and eggplant earlier than is typically recommended for my zone this year.  They all went into seed flats on February 19th.  This early start is part of my annual plan that generally succeeds in netting me produce weeks earlier than my neighbors.  Unfortunately this year I hit a bump in the road. 

There were two major changes to my process this year.  I switched seedling starting soil and I switched the place I bought my seeds at.  Last year, reviewing my notes I had 100% tomato germination at ten days for all varieties.  This year it was zero percent.  I decided to do a few things I normally don't.  I replanted everything after first giving each seed a two hour soak in white tea and I applied bottom heat with a heating pad on medium.

As of today about half my seeds are now up.  It is clearly the soaked seeds that are germinating as I can tell where I planted them.  I suspect that my issues this year are two-fold.  I am unhappy with the soil mix I used (Epsoma Organic seed starting mix).  It is chunky, holds too much moisture and really seems to compact down hard.  It also has developed a fine teal moss-like growth on its surface.  Something I've never had an issue with before.  I also have a sneaking suspicion that the seeds I purchased may be older.  The packets were not dated and they were very bleached and dry looking.  They are sprouting now, so I'm happy about that but this morning I'm glad that I started everything early.  Had I waited until the "right" time, I would already be behind the eight ball.

This Year's Tomato Selection

I've finalized my selections for this year's tomatoes.  Last year I leaned heavily towards unusual colorations.  This year my primary focus is excellent taste and decent productivity.  I also want to make sure that I am not selecting too many late season varieties.  I like to start my salsa consumption in June!  With sunny spots being at a premium, I have to keep my selections limited.  Here is this year's winners:

Striped Roman:  Pictured above.  Highly productive, delicious and very meaty.  Superior to paste type tomatoes as far as I am concerned.  It is returning this year after being found to be excellent in 2010.

German Red Strawberry:  New for me this year.  This variety is well known for its excellent production of big hearty shaped, excellent flavored tomatoes.  On the sweet side.

Pineapple:  New for me this year.  Its a bicolor, on the sweet side with big fruits.

Matina:  Returning.  I've now tried both Stupice and Matina for an early.  I think Matina slightly edges out Stupice both for taste and productivity.  I grow this one to assure I have tomatoes before July first.

JD's Special C-Tex  New for me this year.  Described as a purple-black slicer with excellent productivity and outstanding flavor. Midseason.

Black Cherry:  I tried to grow this last year but Bakers Creek sent me mislabeled seed so I'm trying seed from Mariseeds.com this year.  This is the only cherry I'll be growing this year.  Its described as a black with excellent flavor.

NevesxBrandywine: New for me this year.  A midseason red purported to be in the OMG arena for flavor.

 Chocolate Stripes:  A regular in my garden every year.  Delicious, beautiful, productive and healthy.  This year I'll be growing from seeds I saved from a particularly luscious fruit last year.

Aunt Ginny's Purple: Described as a vigorous, pink potato leave of outstanding flavor.  On the sweet side.  This one is new for me this year too.

Anna Russian: Heart shaped pink with good flavor.  New for me.

Teton de Venus: New for me.  Really meaty red heart.  Very sweet,  Very delicious. 

Earl's Faux: New for me.  Mid-season potato leafed pink with good production and excellent taste.

Brave General:  Returning.  Among my most productive last year with 84 pounds yield on a single container plant.  Its a rich tasting mid-season pink.

Dawson's Russian Oxheart:  A big meaty bi-colored heart with good productivity and excellent flavor.  New for me.

Brad's Black Oxheart:  Elongated black hearts with very good flavor and mixed productivity.  Early for this size tomato.  New for me.

Sylvan Gaume: Huge red heart of excellent flavor.  New for me.

Shuntukski Velikan:  Big Russian red with traditional tomato taste.  New for me.

Midnite In Moscow:  Prolific, early black Russian  of excellent flavor.  New for me.

Galinas Cherry:  I forgot I ordered this one!  Potato leaf, yellow cherry with huge yields and excellent flavor.  Said to do good in cool weather.

Heart Shaped Brandywine:  Received this as a gift from Mariseeds.com.  I know nothing about it other than it is a mutation of Brandywine.  Should be fun!

 Well that's the list.  If I end up with more room I'll be adding Vorlon and C. Yugoslavian which were excellent for me last year.  Thanks to Tatiana's Tomato base for helping me remember why I ordered these.  Her site is the best on the web for zonal descriptions of heirloom tomato performance. 

  

Backyard Ice Rink

Its bitter cold outside, the yard is covered with snow.  What's there to do outside?  How about ice skate!  I've always wanted to attempt an ice rink in the backyard.  The fear of dead grass and a ton of work is what has held me back.  This year I decided to do some actual research on making one of these and learned that they can be as simple or as complex as you like.  I favored really simple, and it turned out to be just that.

This picture shows the gist of the process.  Find the flattest area of your yard.  This is really really important.  Small slopes make a huge difference in how much water you use.  Our rink is about nine inches deep in the back right corner and three inches in the foreground.  Once you find an area, use a snow shovel to scrape a rectangle out.  Leave about an inch of snow down to protect the grass.  The snow around the edges help provide support for the tarp.  We used a single giant sheet of 6mm plastic that we got from Home Depot.  get white if you can.  Black heats up fast and melts the edges.  Some websites say that you can use only snow to hold up the tarp.  We found that with the depth that we needed, that we needed some boards too.  We just stuck scrap boards in the snow around the perimeter and draped the plastic over it.  

The next step is to add water.  This should be an easy step.  It won't be if you didn't put away your hoses in the fall and they are filled with ice.  We thawed them out in the laundry room sink.  We did not use an outside spigot to fill the rink, we were worried about pipe breakage.  Instead we connected to the spigot just before our water softener and ran the hose out a window stuffed with towels around it to keep the draft out.   It works well, not only for the initial filling but also the homeboni process.

It didn't take that long to fill the rink but you'll want it to freeze for a few days before going on it.  Aim for at least three inches of depth minimum.

Maintenance is simple.  After skating or after snow, shovel the surface.  Then resurface it with another coat of water.  For the smoothest surface, do this in the evening when snow is not blowing around.  Make sure that the water you are using doesn't combine with snow on the surface or you get rough spots.  You can either prevent them by using hot water or just making sure your surface is clear enough.  That's it!  It took us a couple of hours to set up and takes about five minutes of time to resurface after each time we skate.  So worth it and its creating lasting memories of our winter garden.

Pretty Tomatoes!

I've taken a few vacations this summer and 30 days away from the garden has led to neglect of both plants and blog.  All has not been lost however.  I have peppers, cukes, and tomatoes coming out of my ears.  Here are a few of this year's prettiest:

Copia is both beautiful and delicious.  This big juicy slicer has averaged about nine ounces for me, grown in the self watering container.  I've found it to be moderately productive.

Big Rainbow could also be called Big Yum.  It's absolutely delicious.  Unfortunately for me, productivity has been low.  I think this was a combination of factors.  I think it may be too large for the self watering container.  I also think the early heat of the season took out a ton of buds on this one.  Still, the few fruits I've gotten have made for some memorable salads.  I'll be growing it again.

Chocolate Stripes:  I'm losing last years picture here because this years came out blurry and I'm too lazy to retake it.  Chocolate Stripes has been a star for me this year.  I think it likes heat.  Last year productivity was OK but this year it has been very high, though grown in the exact same spot.  Its a tasty tomato that holds up really well on the kitchen counter.  The stripes almost glow on this one.  Way cool.

Striped Roman

Striped Roman:   This variety is proof that an annoying youngster can still grow up and shine.  SR was a fragile, delicate, constantly looked like it was suffering seedling.  It wasn't much better as a young adult.  There were times I didn't think it would make it.  It was best described as wispy.  I noticed in mid-June it seemed to be getting stronger, and now it is as big and strong  as anything else out there.  I've found it to be highly productive.  The fruits are meaty, just as pretty in the inside as the outside.  Skin is a little thick but its a minor thing.  Taste is good!

It's Grow Time!

Looking back at last years blog, I am about ten days ahead of schedule in the plantings when compared to last year.  Blogs are so useful for this sort of thing.  I was getting a little anxious about where things were at, then I looked back and saw that I'm in great shape!  Its grow time in the garden.  All the productive stuff with strict timelines is in, that means I could sit back and just watch the growing.  (If I didn't have so many other non-producing areas to clean up that is.  :P

Here are some pictures from Memorial Day weekend. Click them to see more details.  I have a few days left of the peonies before they get chopped back to give the tomatoes more room.

Broccoli is starting to gets heads on it now.  Lettuce is huge but still tastes great.  Spinach is about ready for one last harvest before I plant the summer crop of it. 

This is the  same bed looking back the other way.  Sagae is the big hosta in the foreground.  This is a young plant and is showing every indication that it will be a monster!  This is probably this area at its prettiest.  Once the alliums and peonies fade and get chopped back, the colors go to white and yellow for summer.  I'm thinking about sticking some red in there for a change this year, but we'll see what the schedule allows.  There is a house to be painted and a fence to be built!

The circle garden is my source for angst this week.  See the big tomato in the center?  It has blossom drop.  I suspect the cause might  be that it doesn't like tomato tone on top of the rich soil it is already in.  The other possibility is that since it is from the Ukraine, it didn't like being on the black during our heat last week.  I'm going to pick up more cocoa bean mulch this week and cover the weed barrier now that the soil is warm.  Hopefully between that and the rains, it's  blossoms will start sticking again.

I love the way peonies look right before they drop their petals.  The lightening around the edges is so pretty!  We had some storms that knocked down the light pinks the other night, so they are done.  These guys are holding their own for a few more days though.  yay!

Storms also cracked one of the balcony tomatoes in half but otherwise, no other carnage with that one.  I cannot believe it is the first week of June and I already have quarter size tomatoes on some plants.  Mystery one and two look like they'll have something for snacking maybe as soon as next week!  Weird season, but good so far!

Very hot, but very productive weekend.  I have completed transplanting it all!  That's 277 plants that have been moved from their seedling containers to the garden and does not count anything that was direct seeded at all.  Getting the rest of the stuff out took more time (as usual) than expected because those bazillions of propellers are still needing to be yanked and I had a few areas of soil that needed cleaning up, weeding and compostifying.

 Tonight I though I would put up some starter pictures.  I like to refer back to them as the season goes on.  First, here are this year's balcony tomatoes.  I wasn't going to do this, this year because we are replacing this balcony railing this summer, but I needed good space for tomatoes and they grew so well here last year that I did it again.  This year I used about half the volume of soil in the containers.  It will be interesting to see how that impacts yield and watering.  In the containers from left to right are Galo De Melon, Black Cherry and returning this year, Dr. Carolyn.  No blooms on any of these yet, though BC is close.

This is the rose bed.  It is another bed slated for improvement this year as part of the patio project.  The roses in this bed are 20+ years old.  They are hardy.  I ignore them always and they still live.  They are very fragrant and are different colors depending on the weather.  I should enjoy them more but since they frequently impale me with their giganormous thorns, I tend to resent them.  OK I wish death on them from time to time too.

The brick wall and nearby concrete patio get a lot of heat, so this bed always gets some of my heat lovers.  In addition to the roses and perennials in this bed, I have four eggplants, two tomatoes, some cilantro and some chard.  The tomatoes are Striped Roman (left pole) and Chocolate Stripes.  Both of these are blooming but man is SR one wimpy plant.  It constantly looks limp and pathetic.  It's a healthy green but it has the demeanor of a frail, overbred lady in a heatwave.  It always  appears as though ready to keel over in a dead faint.

This next bed is currently breaking my rule for productive AND attractive.  This is the hot bed and is my hope for actually producing melons this year.  The last couple of years I had no luck.  This year I made two more changes.  1) Direct seeding to avoid stunting and 2) increasing bed and plant temps by using the cold frame to do it.  The seeds I planted in here sprouted after two days.  My fingers are crossed that I'm on the right track.  

Planted in front of the frame is amarynth and cukes and cilantro.  To the right of it you can see Mystery 1 and Mystery 2, the volunteer tomatoes from the worm poop.  Both of these already have little tomatoes on them.  Mystery 2 is starting to look like a relative of Sungold.  I'll know soon!

In the back of this bed you can just see three tomatoes in their self watering container peaking out.  These were my shrimpiest seedlings, White and Pink Stripes, Illini Star and Black from Tula.  These varieties have their twins planted in the garden.  Their twins are currently bigger.  My shrimps might be needing a pep talk, or perhaps a bit of organic fertilizer.  This is the one container where I reused about half of the potting mix.  They might be potting about that.


This is getting long.  I'll post pictures of the other beds tomorrow.  For now, I'm going to start enjoying phase II which is water occasionally, watch for pests and sit back and watch the growing!

Pictures After a Weekend of Work!

Transplanted out this weekend:  Chinese red noodle beans, all the rest of the tomatoes except for two, all the peppers, all of the eggplants but three.

Removed this weekend: 2839723429 sprouting  &^%$^&$ propellers!

Seeds started this weekend:  Cukes and melons.

Bags of cocoa bean mulch spread:  Only three!  It goes far.

Motrin required after 17 hours of digging:  4

Hope everyone had a great weekend. 

Stacy

Ramping Up for the Big Weekend

I heard on the radio this afternoon that the Farmer's Almanac says this is the weekend to plant.  I didn't catch what it was I'm supposed to be planting but it doesn't matter.  I plan to try and plant it ALL!  If I am to have any hope of getting the patio project done this summer, I need to get this stuff in and growing.  The ten day forecast looks good.  May 15th is the last frost date.  It's time.

I got a jump on things tonight after work.  I hit the nursery for some mushroom compost so that I don't have to waste time tomorrow running out and then I came home and started planting.  Three more tomatoes went into the tub in the hot bed.  These are currently my puniest seedlings.  It will be interesting to see how Black From Tula, Illini Star and Big White and Pink Stripes do now that they are in the hot zone.

Once those were in I planted all fourteen Molten Lava Amarynth.  In hindsight, my placement of these was a bit off.  I forgot they get to be four feet tall and planted them in the front of the beds.  Oh well, maybe it will still look cool.  

I stayed out until about 8pm since it was such a nice night.  The whole rest of the time was spent on propeller removal.  I filled one huge pop up bag already and have barely made a dent.  Nevertheless, it was a good start for what I hope will be a very productive weekend! 

Propellers

This is horse chestnut Fort McNair.  Its a good tree.  A bit susceptible to mildew in the fall but otherwise not remotely needy.  To be fair I suppose the eight maples in the backyard are not particularly needy either.  They are better described as annoying in the springtime.  Annoying due to the propeller factor.

Propellers are what I call the seeds of maples.  They fall from the trees like thousands of little helicopters.  The kids have a rip roaring good time throwing them up in air and watching them spin downwards.  Unfortunately when weekends are spent taking apart all of the gutters to remove the propellars, our joy at throwing them off the roof is much more limited.  We have grates on all the gutters to prevent this sort of maintenance need of course.  The problem is, propellers laugh at these grates.

Beyond, the hint of not  planting maples within 500 feet of your roof, my only advice with respect to propellars is about mulch timing.  Try to avoid mulching before propellar season.  If you don't, you get this. 
Once it rains, all these propellers sprout.  They then become weeds with very sturdy roots.  Better to take a leaf blower at them to blast them into the yard then to let them sprout.

I've considered spending the upcoming weekend on propeller clean-up but the ten day forecast is looking just too good.  Instead, if the forecast holds, I'll be giving Mystery 1 and Mystery 2 tomatoes some company and will be emptying out the cold frame and planting it all out. I already have baby tomatoes starting on Mystery 1, in the foreground as well as several other varieties that I put out a couple of weeks ago.  It's time to get their brothers out there and producing.  Times a wasting, propellers have to wait.

Landscape Design Software

I have spent the last few nights working on the design for the reclaiming the patio project.  We generally refer to this area as the dog's area.  That's because currently it is a glorified dog run.  Our yard is not fenced, so when Spazzy McDrool goes out, he heads to this area.  In the picture from the balcony above, you can see the path he is most fond of taking in this area.  We are planning a complete overhaul here.  The balcony rails and treads are getting replaced, the fence-line is getting replaced and moved outwards, the patio is getting expanded and beds are getting dressed up.  The new area will hopefully also include a pond provided we don't have issues with underground utilities in the area.  There will not be much grass.  This is because grass is not all that eco-friendly, we hate mowing it and the weirdo pooch hates walking on it.

I've been doing it using a software called PUNCH Landscape, Deck and Patio Designer.  This product does lots of cool stuff but the learning curve is not small.  If you are familiar with CAD you'll have no problem with it.  If not, while the 490 page instruction manual pretty much tells you how to do everything.  It does not tell it in any sort of rational order.  

It does also not tell you what NOT to do.  A component that contributed to significant colorful language on more than one occasion.  Several days later I still have not figured out how to draw a decent curve, as evidenced by the weird shape of the pond.  I also am finding roofs impossible, after many hours trying to do them.  Posts are easy.  Spacing them not so much.  Can you tell?

This program was really designed for house building.  Many of its features are related to building a house.  It has a robust landscape component though, so they repackaged it and called it a landscape design program.  For gardeners, it does a ton of cool things.  The plant and tree library is huge and if by some weird chance you need something that isn't there, you can import it easily.  You can sort thru the library by gardening zones, sunlight, or whatever parameter you are challenged with.

There is a plant aging function which allows you to see what your design will look like in 5, 10, up to 20 years!  Even cooler you can plug in your GPS location and your property's position related to the sun and the program will accurately project shadows depending on what season you look at.  That's huge!  Want to know how much mulch you need for that bed you just drew?  Press the calculate materials button and it will tell you, once you plug in how many inches deep you want it.  Plug in some prices and it will total up all your material costs related to your project.  

My favorite thing I have discovered so far about this program is that you do not have to view your design birds eye.  If you click the person icon, you can walk thru it as if you are doing it in real life.  It allows you to feel what the space will feel like.  It was this feature that clued me into the fact that the design above needs a bigger area.  The patio pad feels too small for what we'll be using it for.  Unfortunately I haven't figured out how to correct that without redrawing the whole entire thing.   Sigh.

The software was $39 at Best Buy.  It's a memory hog and will require a reasonable decent system to run it without wanting to heave it out the window.  If you want to mess with design and have a bit of skill related to figuring out software though, you might find this fun for rainy evenings.