Progress

A couple weeks ago we started moving the seedlings into the garden. The new section of the garden was like a clay slurry, didn't inspire confidence in the plant growth.

The poor little pepper in the next photo had to be thinking "What are they doing to us, it chilly and there's not real dirt!".

I'm sure the tomatoes were not very happy either.

Now the plants in the "old" section were much happier with their surroundings. This soil has been worked for the past 5 years and is in OK shape. Every year the straw & newspaper (weed control) gets tilled into the sol along with the years supply of leaves. There's also the addition of some nice mulch from our compost pile which goes under / around all our friends.

Well, today I completed adding the newspaper and straw to the walkways - no more slogging through the clay slurry. I lay down 3 or 4 sheets of news paper (sometimes playing catch the paper when the winds comes along) and cover them with some straw. Besides providing a much nicer place to walk, this provides excellent weed control, retains moisture (we will get to the Sahara conditions in a few weeks I'm sure) and helps the clay turn to plant raising soil as it get tilled in with the fall leaves.

The Kale just looks so cozy sitting there between the straw.

Yes, those straw rows are nice and wide, 18" to 24" at least. After years of wiggling through the garden, it's time to walk easily among the fruit (well, veggies) or our labor. The Kale is coming back after the stunting it received from the rain deluge. Think it was getting tired or treading water to survive. Now it's still in clay (with some nice mulch right around the plants, but at least it's getting to dry out. Actually, everything is starting to pop!

Our newest member of the garden is turning out to be a strong, fast growing colorful plant. Never thought cabbage wold be so cute when it's little.

I went a little overboard with sweet peppers this year. They were very slow to start so I carefully separated each seedling into their own cow pots as they began to grow. Of course, they've now all begun to take off. So, what do your do? You expand your sweet pepper patch AND add a second patch of course.

We had a couple strawberry plants that had to get moved this year. Actually I'm surprised they are still alive. They were in a rather tough neighborhood in the back yard, lots of weeds and not much TLC. Anyway, we pulled them out of the ground and put them into a couple pots (pots embedded in wooden geese sculptures). The geese sculptures are my wife's, a find from one of her garage sale trips.

Of course there are still some over flow plants on the deck, even after sending many to news homes with friends.

This weekend hasn't been all about the garden. I've gotten to spend a good 8 hours or so per day getting things in shape, but we've had a little time distraction. You'll notice in the next picture the back of the house is sporting a fancy blue tarp. Pulled out an old (40-50 year old patio slider door for replacement only to find massive water damage to the structure of the house. Seems I'll be sharing my time between the garden and the new house project at least for a little while.

I leave you with one last photo of the garden, the new back half, It's looking pretty good. Today was a long hot day, but the end result makes me smile.

The Big Planting, Part I

This past weekend, I completed a marathon.  A planting marathon, that is.  My dad and I were up early on Saturday to start the long process of planting the 100 tomato plants sitting on our deck, under our make-shift greenhouse.  The morning started with a quick rototill and rake of the garden where we were going to be planting.  From there it was all digging, planting, and staking our tomato seedlings.

Ok, I'm missing a few steps.  We first laid out where we were going to plant the tomatoes,  deciding to make each row and aisle 2".  That will give the tomatoes plenty of room to spread their little leaves and us enough space to walk down the aisles without fighting the plants.  The two middle tomato rows were combined into a 4" section to conserve space, because what would we do without 100 tomato plants?!

The next phase of planting began with my dad giving the little guys a prep talk (pictured above), then involved separating the plants into groups by number.  (I think we both got a good enough workout sorting and carrying the tomatoes over to the prepared soil to call it for a day, but that's for the weak gardener :P).  My dad brilliantly numbered each type of tomato so while were staging planting and transplanting the seeds, we would be able to tell what type was what.  This year we planted 8 different tomato varieties, so having a system of knowing the type each tomato was essential!  I highly recommend labeling your plants, regardless of the size of your garden because sometimes you just forget.  Not to say there is anything bad about eating a mysterious tomato, however it makes good conversation to know the variety.  It also helps to know if you want to make sauce, salsa, sun-dried tomatoes, etc.

When we went to actually plant the tomatoes:

1. We dug holes about 1' deep and 1' wide, and about every 18-20".  Next, we sprinkled some good-quality garden soil on the bottom and then placed the tomato plant on top.  It wasn't necessary to add too much additional soil because we have been working our front garden patch for many years now, and the soil is very nutrient rich.  Sadly, the same can't be said about our back patch.
2. We filled in the sides around with the soil we dug up, then mounded the soil on top.  You want to cover the bottom few leaves of the tomato plant because they will sprout roots from the bottom stem, and it makes for a heartier plant.  If you want to know exactly why this happens, drop a comment and my dad will get back to you.  I'm no tomato connoisseur like him:) 
3. It was then time to stake the tomatoes.  This is super important, as tomato plants are vine plants, and like to climb. If you don't properly stake them the wind can easily blow them over and snap the stem.  For the past few years we have been using tomato cages to support the plants, but this year we branched out (and we had about 80 more plants than we did last year!), so we attached most to wooden stakes, and are going to train them to climb.  Using plant ties (more like double sided velcro), we loosely attached each plant to it's stake.

What's the difference between tomato cages and wooden stakes?

Tomato cages are so last year when it comes to growing tomatoes.  At least, every gardening magazine I have read says this, however I still think that cages do the job.  This might be because we have never staked our tomatoes, instead our caged plants have always grown well over 5' tall, and nobody can complain about that!

However, there are good points that point to staking tomatoes for maximum tomato production.  One reason to stake this year is the tomatoes will not grow bushy, as they do when they are caged, and less leaves will allow the plants to push more fruits and well as ripen faster because there will have more access to the sun without all the leaves.  Staking is also a convent solution to harvesting.  Instead of having to reach inside the cage, and dodge leaves to pick ripe tomatoes, they will be easily hanging next to the stake, free of tomato leaf jungle!  Overall, staking seems to be a better solution for both the plant and gardener, so I hope to successfully confirm this statement mid-summer.

If you go the cage route, make sure to drive a small wooden stake in next to the cage to support it, it's so sad when a big bushy full of tomato plant falls over because the cage couldn't support it (experience talking). Unless, of course, the plant is on your deck.  If you have deck tomatoes, your house/apartment will probably sufficiently block the wind and you won't have to worry about the wind knocking down the plant.

I hope I leave you today with a new-found excitement for planting tomatoes.  If you love pizza, pasta, salsa, bruschetta (the list could to on and on), then you love planting tomatoes.  Just plant one, even if it's on your deck, or heck, inside your house by the window!  You'll thank me in a month or two trust me.

PS.  While we spent a casual nine hour day in the garden, my dad had the smoker on with a delicious organic pork shoulder in it.  Just living the dream: gardening, drinking (water, obviously ;), and feasting on some smoked pulled pork!

Growing Up Kale

Everyone knows about Kale.  It has blown up as the super-vegetable, power green, and overall champion of the edible plant kingdom.  Grocery stores now stock multiple kinds, from red to curly kale. While kale is slightly bitter as most dark leafy greens are, it can easily be made sweet and quite delicious in a salad or simply sautéed with some garlic and olive oil.  So, you know about kale.  But do you how to grow it?  Follow my kale growing journey, from seed to your mouth.

I only recently started growing kale, and two years ago I had an abundance of kale!  At the time, my kale patch was about 2'x4' and I never thinned out the kale seedlings when they popped so they were overcrowded.  It didn't stop them from producing all summer long.  That was the summer I really fell in love with kale, and from then on I put it in just about everything!  You can imagine how excited I was last year, when spring rolled around and it was time to get my kale patch up and running.  I doubled the size of the patch, and eagerly planted the seeds.  To my dismay, my kale plants never grew over 3-4 inches no matter what I tried!  My fellow gardening friends in my area all had the same problem.  Apparently last year was not the year of the kale.  But this year it is, I'm calling it.  I got a kale patch that's about 15'x8', and I expect to have four foot tall plants with enough kale to feed a small army!

Kale is a cold hardy plant so you can plant it in the fall and early spring, giving it a longer growing season which is good news for kale lovers like myself!  This year, my dad and I planted two types of kale: lacinato kale (which I usually call dino kale), and curly kale.  We started the large kale seedlings indoors in early March, then dropped them in the ground two weeks ago.  They are doing surprisingly well after the giant flood and being surrounded by clay.  The seeds started indoors were nowhere near enough to fill the large kale plot, so I dropped the rest of the seeds in the ground.  To plant the seeds, I dug a small hole, about 3-4 inches deep and 3-4 inches wide, and watered the bottom to saturate the soil.  I put about 15 inches in between each circle.  Next, I filled the hole with garden soil and mixed the two different types of soil together.  After gently patting down the top to make it flat, I placed 4-5 seeds spaced out in each hole and covered them with 1/2 inch of more garden soil.  Then, I watered them, and that was that.  Nice and easy.

Once the seeds are planted, there is not much left to do but water and wait.  Water the seeds (and seedlings) once a day unless you get rain.  Eventually, you will start to water the kale less and less to force the root system to grow deep and strong, however I like to keep the seedlings moist to ensure they make it out of the baby stage.  Another thing to remember is that kale grows fairly large, so once your seedlings pop, you eventually need to prune them out so only one or two are left per circle.  Don't have a backyard garden?  Not a problem.  Kale is a great plant to grow in a pot on a deck or even inside by a window.  Plant, prune, and water the same way to enjoy kale within an arm's length of your kitchen!  This year I plan on doing a second kale planting late in summer so I have kale well into fall.  For now, I'll worry about getting my spring kale up and running!

I can't talk about growing kale without sharing one or two amazing kale recipes, found at my other blog, Margaret's Dish.  Two of my favorite kale recipes are garlic and ginger kale and kale and walnut pesto.  Both showcase kale and can easily be paired with many dishes to complete a healthy and tasty meal.

Kale is high in the minerals iron and calcium, as well as the vitamins A, C, and K.  It is also packed with antioxidants, omega-3's, and is a great anti-inflammatory.  To top it all off, kale is low in calories and high in fiber, meaning it's filling without filling out your jeans.  So eat up!  Get those seeds in the ground, and while you are waiting for them to grow, make some delicious recipes from Margaret's Dish!

Tomato Hardening

After weeks of pampering our little seedlings in the warmth and comfort of the basement, it was time to bring them out into the real world. Ok, so the basement isn't heated, the walls are plain cinder block, there is no pretty ceiling, essentially a simple unfinished space. It's no four star hotel, but that doesn't bother our little friends one bit.

Typically the temperature stays around 65 degrees and while a little chilly, the tomato seedlings are fine with it. Of course this winter was a bit colder than most which left the temperature in the mid-50’s. The only way they survived through the chilly temperatures were the lights.  You need keep the little guys well lit (they need the food), which also results in measurable heat.  I decided to turn a corner of the basement into a grow room by walling it off with plastic drop cloths. Using a few cheap 4 foot shop fluorescent lights, which you wouldn't think generate a lot of heat, actually made quite a difference with the plastic drop cloths up. Within a few hours of putting the plastic “walls” up, the temperature in the grow room went from 55 degrees to 62. Ok, so there are more than a few light fixtures. Ten to be exact.

Another benefit of the “walls” was a nice rise in humidity. It quickly went from off the scale low to about 50% in a couple hours.  Plants like that. 

So for the past few months all the seedlings have been warm and cozy in their own room. Now it’s getting close to the time to move them out into the clay garden (that’s an on going story for us). We try to follow seedling hardening practices, putting them out for a couple hours a day, gradually increasing their time in the sun (not direct at first), and eventually leaving them out overnight. The sun, temperature changes, wind - basically nature - all work to get the seedlings ready for the long haul in the garden in a gradual manner. This year we have far too many plants to bring them in and out so a new strategy was needed.

Our deck has two levels (wait, this is not some fancy multi-level deck with a Jacuzzi and fluff - it’s a hard working deck with three Weber charcoal grills and a big Weber smoker), which lead to the idea of making a temporary greenhouse. A few 2"x4"s, some plastic sheeting, and one old screen door seemed like a good mix of supplies. Before putting all the plants out into the blazing sun a quick test was run, putting the pieces together into an amusing looking greenhouse, seen below.

Why the plastic? Here are some reasons:

1. Sunburn protection (not a great idea bringing plants into direct sun for an extended period of time, they really need to work up to full time sun).
2. Provide a little protection from the cold night (indoors they are used to a constant temperature all the time)
3. Keep our cat from playing with the plants while nobody is watching (if you think I'm joking, you don't own a cat)

Funny thing about #2: we've been on a nice pattern of increasing night time temperatures which gave us the false sense of security that things would be fine. The day we brought the first batch (80 plants) up to the deck, the forecast went to down to the upper 30's at night for a few days.

Now that we knew a simple outside home would be available, we brought up more plants and gave them their first outside experience.

After about an hour, it was time to add the sun protection. So we put the scrap 2"x4"s in place, along with a good watering.

Once the plastic "roof" was on, I had to peek inside.

Today we left the cover off until around 2:00.  They did require watering (and a little misting) during the day as our deck gets scorching hot. All in all, the plants have been doing fine inside their temporary home.  We are planning on moving them to the garden this weekend.

Tonight it's going down to 40, and 39 tomorrow (so say the weather forecasters), but I'm not too worried. The plants we've brought up are big and strong enough, plus the protection afforded by the make shift enclosure is sure to be sufficient.

A few trays of flowers were brought up a couple days ago, they were not given time to harden, and the sun has really rocked their world. They were looking tall and stately, now they're mostly laying down looking a bit pale. It also doesn't help that the neighborhood squirrels have taken to burying their nuts in the boxes.  Despite all the hardship, they are bouncing back and we expect them to do fine.

~Dennis