Garden Update 2015 3

When I wasn't doing an extended dance of joy that the painting was done and the painters were finally gone and I had my house back, I put the garden in.

But first I had to get my veggies, to to decide which varieties to get. I stood there in the stands at the Farmers Market going from one to another checking out the plants and deciding what I needed (a few of each) and how many of each ( some of these and some of those and a few of them) this sauce variety verses that sauce variety and aren't all sauce varieties pretty much the same? I had been getting a super sized sauce variety from Burpee that grows a very large fruit, and I liked it and the tomatoes it produced, but it was expensive and took a looonnng time to reach maturity - which left it open to all kinds of harvest lightening predators.  Faster  to the freezer is better in a world full of things that steal my vegetables.

So now I a lot of small  sauce tomatoes. And I got them in the ground. And I saw I needed more. I changed the lay out this year and  that opened up a lot of new land for tomatoes. I had to go back to the Farmers Market to get more.

and I said "Hmmm. I like those for my uses, but I have people who like the other, bigger varieties. I found three different large, sandwich tomatoes and I got those in the ground. I have a lot of tomatoes now. A lot, a lot. More than I need. But, I use what I have and the more I have to put up, and if I end up with a lot to share, that's good too. I had to get more cages too, now I have all the cages.

And I did it all in the rain. It rained the whole time. It was a joy! The ground was nice and soft and my baby plants got a lovely, gentle start  (not too warm and overcast) and though all the digging, and there was a lot, because you need to bury tomato plants deeper than other vegetables- I only found one grub! This was fantastic news, one year I planted winter cover because I heard it was good for the soil and fed it over the winter, so I did it because lets hear it for healthy soil! What I got in the spring was a jammed tiller and a garden full of grubs and a terrible harvest. Now instead of winter cover, I amend, amend, amend. I feed the garden compost, bags of new dirt and as many alfalfa pellets as it can swallow.And I get no grubs and decent harvests.


I didn't  find  grubs but I did find worms by the handful! I decided  that this  spoke to happy, healthy, well airated soul that will produce bountiful happy vegetables. I found more  with the peppers than with  the tomatoes.


And then it was time for my peppers! I love peppers! I changed the lay out so that my peppers could have a better life away from the faster growing, taller, shade causing, sun hogging tomato plants. I also had to buy more of those than in years past. Darn.

I don't cage then because they don't get as big as the tomatoes and they seem to do better without their assistance.  Also note, still raining.

I also picked up some corn plants, I wasn't going to do corn but there it was and I saw it as a sign. While I was getting corn I wasn't planning on, I got some leaks. I'e never grown leeks so it will be a learning experience. They are not planted yet because the corn is going in a container and it needs to be filled with lots of dirt ( genuine store bought dirt, thank you very much) and very amended because corn is a big eater. I don't want to do all that in the rain. The onions I just haven't decided where they are going to go. Yay for learning!