Videos from the garden

The first video is of my squash plants, the 2nd illustrates how I strung my tomato plants. Enjoy!

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More seedlings and green bean babies

For the few years I've been cultivating my home garden, I've struggled with starting my plants from seeds. I think the main problem is I don't get enough sun on my garden. The seeds will sprout, but not flourish, for want of sunlight.

Today I stopped by the nursery and got a few plants to add to the garden, now that it looks like the seeds just aren't cutting it. Next year, with the select few exceptions, I'm going straight to seedlings.

Joining my garden: three kinds of peppers, eggplant, cucumber, yellow crook-necked squash, musk melon, watermelon, and 12 new baby lettuces. The lettuces I added because I've been eating so many salads this year, and the six plants I have are having a hard time keeping up. Now I think I'll have enough lettuce that I'll be giving it away in bulk. Fun!

Meanwhile, back in the wine barrel, the plants are doing really well, getting all the sun they need. And we have baby green beans. They're so adorable. Look for the tiny bean in the above picture. Cute, right?

High-Strung Tomatoes

Watching the video on how to string and sucker tomatoes (see my previous post, "Suckers...") inspired me to string up my tomatoes in the same fashion.

My tomatoes are indeterminate varieties (Boxcar Willie and Stupice) which means they will keep growing taller and taller, and they need to be suckered. I used some handy-dandy string to gently wrap the tomato plants up their stakes, and tied the string off on the lattice behind them in the planter. I'll have to add more string next time I tie them up, but they should be all set for a while.

AND... I'm such a proud mama... I have 12 baby tomatoes coming in. 10 of them are on the Stupice plant. The word "bounty" comes to mind, but I'll have to be watchful and take good care of them until they ripen. I also added some Jobe's tomato stake plant food today. I can hardly wait for the tomatoes to be ready!

Suckers.....

I was talking with my friend Alyss about a week or so ago about suckers. Namely, the extra growth on a tomato plant that needs to be pruned away so it doesn't draw on the nutrients needed to create delicious tomatoes.

I did a little research and found the following excellent video. In a nutshell, you only break off the suckers on indeterminate plants (climbing variety), and only below the new blossoms, never above. On determinate (bush) variety, the "suckers" are the new growth that will eventually blossom and give you more fruit.

Here's the video: How to string and sucker tomato plants.



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Tomatoes, can't waitoes!

Yeah, that's a pretty bad name for this blog post, but my tomatoes are really looking good. Here's a picture:



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More edible plantings at Dland!

Great edible plantings at Disneyland!


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