The Tomatoes

May 7, 2010
At the Clackamas Chapter's OSU Master Gardener Spring Fair last week end, I bought four great tomatoes from Red Pot, where they gave me a discount because I am a Master Gardener. Great folks! I bought a Green Zebra, Brandywine (Sudduth), San Marzano (Nano) and a Stupice. It has been so cold and rainy that I have put them in a south facing window. Today, for the first day in almost a week, I put them in the sun outside, but have had to bring them back in to spend the night. The roots are filling their four inch pots already so I am going to transplant them into half gallon containers tomorrow. I'll pot up one more time before I put them in the garden. Bill and I are going to a work party at the garden tomorrow. We have to give at least four hours a year towards upkeep there, which isn't a lot.

Year Two: 2010 Spring

April 24, 2010 Well, here is another growing year. I had such a productive garden last year that we haven't even finished eating all the tomato sauce and vegetables that have been frozen. We are still eating out of the garden from the plantings last year. The purple sprouting broccoli is half gone and delicious. Even so, I have already planted several things: broccoli rabe and swiss chard (4/10) and two kinds of potatoes, Austrian fingerling and Kennebec. To keep the potatoes covered with dirt, i bought some wire mesh, cut it, wired it into two cylinders and planted them around the eyes. I hope I didn't plant them too close together. I will be disappointed if they are. I still want to plant some onions, but time is running out.
I still need to go downtown to pick up a load of coffee bags. I will place them in the walkways to prevent weeds from coming through the pasture. I need to buy some more compost, too, from Concentrates.
Next week-end I will be going to the Master Gardener Spring Garden Fair to pick up the tomatoes. I will look out for tomatillos and peppers, but they're going to be at the Oregon City Farmer's Market in a few weeks. Not to worry.

June 3, 2009

The corn is not germinating well. One complete row has not come up. I dug down into where I expected the seeds to be. Some were not there. Others had germinated but were not ready to break through the dirt. I had to put nearly twenty new seeds in the four rows. Now, all we can do is wait.

I planted three eggplant starts yesterday. I uncovered the black plastic and watered well the day before yesterday. My starts, which had been transferred from 2 inch pots to quart pots, were almost pot-bound. It's obvious when looking at the yellowed bottom leaves.

The tomatoes are about a foot tall. I decided to keep the Remay on them because there is a constant breeze that cools the whole plot. It seems to be working. I water them once a week.

The broccoli are also growing fast. I haven't watered them at all for a week and they seem to be tolerating the heat from the black plastic. I keep expecting them to bolt, but so far, they're not.

I planted the two melons today. Their roots filled the 2 inch pots. I had watered under the plastic yesterday and made wells on the top. I didn't water them after putting them in their spot so that the roots will move toward the wetter mounds.

Monday, May 25, 2009

On Thursday, we sowed corn in four rows nine feet wide. On Friday, I went to check out the plants and added Remay to the corn section to warm up the soil there which was a good suggestion given by my plot neighbor. I noticed that the squash has germinated, just barely showing its first leaves. The view from my plot is of the CSA farm below. I took pictures of the previously developed plots and one of our new addition plots. There is a chicken coop nearby, a gorgeous barn and a huge compost pile.

May 21

I am starting this blog a few months into the season. So far to date, I have designed and marked off the 400 square feet into four equal squares using a French potager-type model. I have planted broccoli starts, squash seeds, corn seeds four tomatoes, and six peppers . I am waiting for June 10 to plant six Japanese eggplants and four melons. Sometime in June, I'll plant a winter squash. Right now, I have some areas covered in black plastic mulch: the winter squash triangle and the broccoli. The tomatoes have red plastic mulch. I made a cloche for the peppers with baling wire and Remay. So far, everything is living. I'm in the process of wrapping Remay around the tomato cages to protect them until mid-June. I'm hoping to take pictures today and upload them to my blog.