It was supposed to rain last night. My weathermen are really letting me down. It hasn't rained appreciable in about a week and a half. I had to water the garden the other day. I'm thinking I'm going to have to water it again before I have to leave just because I don't know if it will really rain when I'm gone. Watering it is a long laborious chore right now. I haven't hooked up the hose yet, so I have to drag the watering can half way around the house to fill it up then do it again, and again. I should be happy it is sunny and beautiful today, but I keep thinking that the weathermen (all 5 of them) told me it would be cloudy all day.
Of course with the sun everything is growing like gangbusters. It is cool enough for the cool weather crops, but still warm enough for the tomatoes and peppers under their covering. Above is the setup I used for my container tomatoes. I put the filled soda bottles in the pails to hold up the remay and to keep in the heat. After just two days this is what they look like.
I had taken off all of their large leaves and buried the stem deep. In two days they are even bigger than before I ripped off their leaves. At this rate they will out grow their little setup before I get home. Some of the plants have almost outgrown it already.
Yup I'm sitting here complaining that the weather is too nice and the plants are growing too well. The truth is that I'm just worried about them. I hate leaving my plants to fend for themselves.
On a more positive note I did my first complete weeding of the gardens today. The plants shouldn't be inundated with weeds before I get home. I noticed the volunteer clover from last year was growing a bit too big. It grows along the edges of some of my beds. I harvested the leaves and put them out to dry. I'll use them as mulch later.
I thinned out the spinach for the third and final time. Now they are all about 6" apart and have plenty of room to grow. The spinach is fabulous (no complaints this time). In the past I've had trouble with it. The first issue is that it never germinated. Chitting the seed for two days solved that problem. I had almost 100% germination this year. The next issue I had was that the few plants that germinated didn't grow well at all. The remay cover solved that issue. I had a batch that wasn't under the row cover. It is less than half the size. Its growth is even worse than the row that wasn't thinned out. So in the future I'll know how to grow this well. I had the same problems with my brassicas that weren't under remay. I wonder if they have some of the same pests (pests never found I might add) that the remay keeps out. Or if it works just because it is good protection from the wind. I have a very windy site.
I also took care of the compost. I'm slowly building up the pile from the coffee grounds I get. My husband's work also sent home a pail of vegetable trimmings one day. Yippee! I've been told I'm low on the totem pole for those. There is someone with rabbits that gets first pickings from the kitchen scraps. At least they are being useful somewhere and not being thrown out.
What a busy day. I think since it is such a nice day I'll go for a walk while the sun is still shining.
You're lucky it isn't raining. Here in TN we've had rain for five days straight. My garden is underwater right now! Your transplants are huge! Much further along than I am. I hope the weather cooperates for the plants while your on vacation. What is you secret to getting such huge healthy transplants?
ReplyDeleteYour tomato plant looks so healthy. I won't even take a photo of my poor babies...the ones that looked so healthy a couple of weeks ago. At least the ones I've planted in the garden seem to be perking up. We had one lovely day of warm sunshine yesterday, now it's raining and forecast says it will be a wet week (or at least four days).
ReplyDeleteI wish all of my tomato plants looked like yours! Very healthy!
ReplyDeleteThe tomatoes look very healthy, Daphne! I'm glad to hear that you've been getting some great weather- even though you're going to be gone a bit! So nice that the spinach worked out- do you love eating baby spinach from the thinning, or what? I've often thought about getting some remay, it's nice to hear you've had such great experience with it. I think it would be better than my chenilles because it lets water in. Happy gardening to you!
ReplyDeletewormsandflowers, well hmm not sure what made them grow like crazy. I started them on April 3rd, on a heat mat. I planted them in soil blocks in Fort V potting mix (Vermont compost company). As soon as they germinated they were removed from the heat mat. When they were seedlings I sprayed them with chamomile tea every day. They grew under cool white fluorescent T8 lights 1-2 inches from the bulbs. I let the blocks almost dry out before watering them, but never let them wilt. They were potted up on April 23rd into newspaper pots. They were hardened off starting 8 days ago for three days. They had 1, 3 and 5 hours outside the first three days. After that it was all day long. What was the magic this year for the peppers and tomatoes? Not really sure. If I had to guess I would say always give their roots room to grow. As soon as they needed potting up (seeing several roots from the bottom of the soil blocks) I potted up. My tithonia seedlings look terrible, but I think because they couldn't take the heat in their little soil blocks. They got burned. All the others are doing great.
ReplyDeleteAnnie's Granny, We could use a couple days of rain here. I'm hoping tomorrow rains. I'm glad your little babies are perking up. Tomatoes really are the queens of the garden.
EG thanks. Your tomatoes seem to be getting strong since you planted them out. Hopefully they will all get better.
Tessa, I do love eating the baby spinach it is so good. Tonight for dinner I had steamed spinach with vinegar. I had too much spinach to eat any other way before I left. I would have been chewing for hours. Luckily it cooks down pretty well. The remay is nice. It isn't perfect however. The rain can slide off of it to a certain extent. I think it prevents at least a third of the rain from getting in. I should put a bowl out inside and outside the remay and find out really how much. However it also keeps the humidity up under the cover, so if you get no rain, it is wetter under the remay and needs watering less often.
ReplyDeleteOK, I was wondering about the coffee grounds collection and now veggie scraps from work?! I'm guessing your hubby's in the restaurant biz... I was picturing an office dumping out their stuff into a bin. Well, that would be cool too! How come you haven't hooked up your hose yet, still afraid it might freeze? I just put on a new hose, it's still too curly to be manageable to haul around, so I'm doing the watering can tote too. Good exercise, at least!
ReplyDeleteKaren, nope not a restaurant biz thing. He is in software. So it is just an office dumping things into bins. They have lunch for the employees everyday and the chef separates out the veggie waste. As to my hose, I just haven't done it yet. I should. I figured I'd do it when I got back. Spring is usually wet.
ReplyDeleteHope you get some rain soon so you won't have to worry about your babies while you're gone. We finally got a nice downpour today. It's been awhile & I just planted some new things so the timing was perfect. Your tomatoes look quite healthy.
ReplyDeleteI love your vegetables. Good for our health.
ReplyDeleteHi, I just found your blog and I love it! Very useful for a beginning gardener like me.
ReplyDeleteperennialgardener, I hope so too. Sadly though we are forecast for rain, we are just on the northern border of where it will hit, so it might be like the rain we were supposed to get last weekend and never show up. We could get lucky this time too.
ReplyDeleteBradpetehoops, thanks.
May, welcome. I don't always describe everything in detail. If you need to know more sometime just ask.
Your spinach looks great. Is it still cold up in MA or has the weather warmed up yet? In the South, we've a mix of cold and hot, depending on the day.
ReplyDelete