Visiting with the Flowers

Behold my favorite camera button:

I enjoy taking photographs, but I love taking photographs when it's a bit overcast and our garden is in bloom. Then I'd go outside and hit the macro button, a.k.a. the flower button thingie.

When that little flower icon shows up on the little screen, it's like a little 'Open' sign that invites the eye to come in and see flora in a more soulful way. It's both elating and humbling to discover how much escapes the naked eye.

If You Like Topsy Turvy...

With 29 tomato plants in the ground, I have four more tomato varieties to go. 

I saved several special plants for this experiment: Dr. Carolyn, Lime Green Salad, OSU Blueberry and Pink Thai Egg. They're going in the homemade versions of the (in)famous Topsy Turvy upside-down tomato bags.

Like most As Seen on TV gizmos, the Topsy Turvy leaves me both intrigued and deeply skeptical. Curiosity won when I saw them on sale at Home Depot for under $10 apiece. I bought a couple--not to keep, but to dissect and see what the fuss is all about. First of all, these things are huge! I can see them easily weighing over 50 pounds apiece with wet soil and a fruit-laden (optimist that I am) tomato plant. Nothing that currently exists in our garden can hold something this heavy or is tall enough. I decided they'd make cool presents for Dad, so I carefully planted an heirloom tomato plant in each one. This leads me to my second gripe: they are a b*tch to set up. The small hole at the bottom where the plant sticks out, the foam that holds the stem in place, and the soft sides of this contraption(basically a reinforced rice sack)--these are just three features that make planting anything bigger than a tiny seedling a veritable one-woman Twister game. 

So here's my cheaper and easier version: Take four 99-cent trash cans, chains, hooks, dish sponges, four tin pie plates, and some wire. Grab a creme brulee torch and soften the plastic at bottom of each trash can. Cut out 3" diameter holes. Attach hanging chains to top of trash cans using wires. Work seedling through molten hole, holding it in place using a piece of dish sponge with a nickel-sized hole cut out of the middle (ala Topsy Turvy foam). Fill pot with dirt. Cap with pie plate with a 3-inch hole cut out of its center. Hang. Hope for the best.

Voilà!

I have all the varieties set up and planted, but had one more little plant. It's a second Aunt Molly's Husk...I guess it's not a tomato, but it's still part of the project. It's a really sweet little plant and it deserves to be more than just an afterthought. 

Maybe it can hang out with some basil and a few flowers?

Like so.

Hanging Tomatoes Planted on May 3, 2009:

Dr. Carolyn

 Lime Green Salad

OSU Blueberry

Pink Thai Egg

Solo Tomato Plant Planted on May 3, 2009:

Aunt Molly' Husk

 

I Can Haz Potager?

I've always wanted raised garden boxes. What better excuse to build a couple than knowing you're planting six times the number of tomato plants you raised last year? Figuring out that one can build decent raised boxes for less than $30 for two 2' x 6' frames helped, too.

If I had any reservations about wanting raised garden beds, this made me realize I must have them. A kitchen garden? Neat! What, it's called potager, you say? How charming! Oui, je voudrais un potager, s'il vous plaît! Or something.

So, next stop is building raised boxes and hoping it's not a tragically bad idea to set them on our concrete patio.

Chewiee does final inspection before installation.

Lining raised beds with black plastic to shield wood from soil moisture. Black supposedly keeps the soil warmer,so maybe that will help me extend my growing season.

Hauling in compost, sandy soil from the big side yard

(dug up when soil for other tomato plants was amended),

manure blend and topsoil.

Tossing the dirt salad!

If you look closely, you'll see five more tomato plants
growing to the left of the box. That's the 'small side yard' tomatoes,
planted the week before.

Filled raised bed.

Not a day too soon...The plants were quickly outgrowing their pots.

The tomatoes will be joined by several herbs and even flowers--

per potager protocols ;)

Box 1 done, with micro-irrigation lines, even.

(Bonus: another look at the Small Side Yard Gang)

Box 2, finis! Total time spent assembling two raised boxes

was about six hours (definitely seemed way longer than that).

'Potager' Tomatoes Planted on May 3, 2009:

Black Prince

Yellow Jubilee

Golden Egg

Bloody Butcher

Brad’s Black Heart

Tigerella/Mr. Stripey

Aunt Molly's Husk

Black Cherry

Plum

Blonde Fig

Red Streak

Vjerino Paradajiz Sjeme

'Small Side Yard' Tomatoes Planted on April 25th, 2009:

Pineapple

Green Zebra

Purple Russian

Yellow Pear

Speckled Roman

And so it begins...

This is on a sort of time warp because I am posting stuff that happened last April. I'll catch up soon, I promise.

So how does one plant 32 tomato plants without having their modest backyard look like a demented Del Monte test garden? I'm not really sure.

I know we want to keep the lawn so Chewiee can run around--sometimes with one or both of his humans in playful (and futile) pursuit. The yard is also essential for when his cousin Vinnie comes over. They look cute together and everything, but we'd rather they take their Tasmanian Devil roughhousing outside.

Vinnie, Chewiee and Chewiee's yard.

So, lawn stays tomato free.


That leaves me with the two south-facing side yard areas I used last year, and maybe the concrete slabs that we one day hope to turn into a proper patio--this space gets nearly full sun.

The side yard's giant tomato plants, summer 2008

First stop was the longer part of the side yard, which will hold 12 plants (Brad's Black Heart, German Red Strawberry, Wisconsin 55 Gold, Yasha Heart, Jersey Devil, Japanese Black Trifele, White Queen, Spudtula, Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye, Tsar-Kolokol (Tsar of Bells), OSU Blueberry Tomato, San Marzano).

Amending soil with compost on April 19th, a ridiculously hot day.

It was dark by the time I finished, so I had to wait until the next day to take photos.

Howdy, little tomato plant!

'Big Side Yard' Tomatoes Planted on April 19th, 2009:

Brad's Black Heart

German Red Strawberry

Wisconsin 55 Gold

Yasha Heart

Jersey Devil

Japanese Black Trifele

White Queen

Spudtula

Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye

Tsar-Kolokol (Tsar of Bells)

OSU Blueberry Tomato

San Marzano

200+ Baby Tomatoes

Between seeds that I saved from last year's harvest, and those from a seed exchange and a massive round robin, I ended up with over 40 tomato varieties in my greedy little hands. So for this year, I decided to plant 30 varieties and save the remaining ten or so for next year (or so). Such admirable restraint, no?

But then, I wanted to play safe. To guarantee that I have at least one thriving plant of each variety, I started six or nine seeds of each kind. I ended up with over 200 healthy seedlings.

TOMATO EMPIRE!

Okay, just kidding...But starting some kind of gardening venture did cross my mind as I scanned craigslist and saw seedlings going for $5 each. Why not? Two craigslists posts later, I was able to sell enough to cover the cost of starting the seedlings, the two raised beds I built in anticipation of more plants. Some of the proceeds also went towards the vertical shed where my gardening stuff now reside. So I did make a small profit, but, more importantly, I made a few friends. Nice people, those tomato grower types.

The raised boxes temping as tomato seedling nurseries.

Tomato seedlings surrounded by their future companion plants,

borage, marigold and basil.

One last group shot before they go off to their new homes ...Such healthy plants! At the front, left side, are three natural fatalities (two other seedlings were eaten by hookworms)--they didn't grow beyond their cotyledons and the stems got impressively big, but still no leaves.