Spring Garden - Tomatoes

Here we are with the tomatoes starting to really take. Notice the cages I use for supporting the plants as they grow. I picked these up years ago from a cement company in Berkeley - rebar with wide apertures that can keep the plants upright through the season with easy access to the fruit as they mature.

As tomatoes are the most important planting of the year for me, I plan the entire season around where and when they are set. To avoid any diseases or pests from carrying over between years I move the tomatoes among the various beds in the yard from year to year making sure not to plant them in any bed that had tomatoes (or potatoes for that matter as they're closely related and can share diseases) within the previous two years. Prior to planting I completely turn the soil over and liberally add well-rotted steer manure to keep the soil friable. In the bed (8' x 4') I dig six deep holes, turning the soil in each with blood meal and bone meal, then plant the tomato seedling deeply covering the plant about 1/3 of the way up above the root level as roots will then grow from the portion of the stalk that is buried. The more roots the better. I then establish a moat around the plant so that water can collect when I water them without draining off. Since the best method of watering tomatoes is to water deeply but not too often, I typically flood each plant for about five minutes each 3 times a week. I want to make sure that there is enough water each time to reach as deeply as possible under the plant as that is ideally where I want to get the roots to grow. Watering too shallowly will promote more root growth near the soil surface and watering too often will not allow the plant to get a good dry period which it needs to alternate with wet periods.

 Costoluto Fiorentino - an Italian heirloom

 Roma - a paste tomato - good for pasta sauces

 Better Boy - early, the best bet for large-fruit in borderline fog climates

 Cherokee Purple - an heirloom

Early Girl - prototypical early fruit for this borderline foggy zone

Tomato Planting

Planted the summer tomatoes yesterday - Better Boy, Early Girl, Sungold, Costoluto Fiorentino, Roma, and Cherokee Purple. 

Note that the shade offender is from a neighbor's tree - he has graciously offered to prune the branch that steals the late afternoon sun as it literally hangs well over our property line. This bed is the most precarious in terms of light due to being between two large trees but I think with the pruning we'll be getting at least 7-8 hours of direct sun.

I turned over the entire bed a few weeks ago with a couple of bags of steer manure and added a good amount of blood meal and bone meal to each hole when planting yesterday. I've been using the cages for about 25 years now and always start the seedlings with a large bowl around each to capture the water to get them started. We'll be out of town for a while soon so even with a friend watering while we're gone I want to get them as ready as possible before we leave.

Spring Is Here!

Now we get the rain, sopping wet since the middle of March and now well into April after a bone-dry winter. It's even threatened the respective home openers of the A's and Giants, fairly an untypical situation to be sure. This is the third year in a row that we've had rain extend well into the Spring months. It's all good as we really needed the rain, not only for the drinking water from the mountains but also for local gardens as watering can never substitute for the real thing from the sky.

 Arugula seedlings - seeds planted on April 7

 Mint growing - replanted last month in the rain

 The Greek oregano is looking healthy indeed

Greek bay laurel re-potted into a large wine barrel. Tag says it can grow to 40 feet!

I was finally able to get some seeds in the ground last weekend. Sown beets, chard, salad greens and lettuce, and radishes. Although it's very sunny today, we've had a cold front come in last night, accompanied with thunderstorms, and it's only in the mid-50's at best. It's looking like it will climb up to the 70's by Sunday and will remain dry and mild all next week so hopefully I can get the tomato seedlings into the ground this weekend with the hope that by the time we travel back East in a couple of weeks, they'll be well on their way. I also started some parsley seedlings in a flat on the porch.

Hoping to add a pot for continuous cilantro seedlings, some fennel and a few more things shortly.

Spring Is Near!

Getting to the be that time of year with the vernal equinox just around the corner. Since my last day at work in January, it's been bone-chilling cold, hot and very dry and just the past several days, tons of rain so a bit awkward to get started in the garden. I finally got underway yesterday repotting the 3 mints (spearmint, peppermint, chocolate mint), the sage and the lemon verbena.

Here's a view as things looked yesterday as it kept raining continuously from last Monday night until late last (Friday) night. There were no real gully washers, just steady moderate rain every day and every night. A big boon, since otherwise it's been a pretty bone-dry winter this year - we really needed some considerable precipitation.

Next up, completion of preparation for the new raised beds, bay leaf tree transplanting, hedge cutback, vegetable seeds, and yard cleanup.

Brussels sprouts update

Now we're talking. Here are some photos taken last week of the plants just prior to the rain we had over the past few days.

And here is a harvest that we'll use for dinner tonight.

Meanwhile here's a photo of the Satsuma with some of its flowers.

And peeking through the foliage is - voila - an actual fruit. And unlike the couple we picked last winter, this one was quite sweet and tasty. With all of the flowers we're seeing this year, we should start having decent harvests starting next winter.

Why No Rain?

I found this article on the Scientific American web site to be of some interest regarding the lack of rain we've had here in the Bay Area. Apparently the entire nation has been affected this year.

Garden at New Year's 2012

The Brussels sprouts are getting close to picking. I took off the fencing, pulled off some of the bottom leaves, and did some weeding today to clean up the box a bit.

The sprouts start developing from the bottom up. I've read that they should be picked from the bottom if they are not coming out full in order to allow the ones further up to grow to harvest size.

Looks like there will be enough for a dish later this week.

The garlic is still growing and the ones I planted in the inner alternate rows later are starting to come up.

And here's the bay laurel really starting to take off. I'll be transplanting this to a larger pot next month.

Meanwhile, other than a couple of damp days, there has still been no rain for several weeks now and, according to the weather reports, none in sight for the next 7-10 days yet. As I've seen a few winters with no appreciable rains after Jan 1, it's completely possible we may not see any for the remainder of the season. But then I've also seen other winters where we've received over 75% of a year's precipitation between February and April, so who knows at this point. Undoubtedly this will be a below normal year but it'd be nice to get at least 10 inches before the season is over.