Saturday, May 2, 2009

May 2nd

My Siberian tomatoes are coming along. I am very impressed with the Amateur's Dream plant. If the tomatoes from this plant are any good, it will surely become one of my standards. This plant is at least twice as big as the biggest of the rest:


It has blooms already. All I need now is for some pollinators to do their thing.

The potatoes in the bags are doing ok. If you grow potatoes in a bag, make sure you give the bag some structure, like chicken wire, otherwise, the bag is hard to work with. Also, wherever you put the bag at first, that's where it stays because if you try to move it once the potatoes have rooted, you risk disturbing the plants. The potato plants in the bag that I did move, are smaller than the others. Here is my best bag of the three:

I am also growing potatoes in tubs. Here's what one of the tubs looks like now:


My pepper plants are not growing much but they are not dying either. In this tub, California Wonder, Red Bell Pepper, Pasilla, and Padron:

My purple onions from sets and my garlic are doing great. I bought both at a hardware store (Sutherland's). The bags they came in did not say what variety they were:

Tin Tin lettuce. I failed to thin when they were young and now it has been a mess trying to get them to a single head. I will be planting a new set tomorrow morning and this time I will do a better job. I may make a home-made seed strip using flour and water as a binder and newspaper strips. I think my local newspaper is printed with soy ink, at least the black and white sections.

I planted corn, squash, giant kale, and more peas (Mr. Big).

I got some coffee grounds from Starbucks on Thursday and so I am ready to plant the new blueberry bush but I did not have time today due to my wife's friend coming to town and the subsequent visiting and merry-making. I hope I get to put the bush in the ground tomorrow.

3 comments:

  1. I can't believe your tomatoes are flowering. My plants are so little but our spring was really cold. I made the same mistake with my lettuce, how do you make a home-made seed strip using flour and water as a binder?

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  2. Margaret,
    My plants are older than they look!

    To make a seed strip, just mix some ordinary wheat flour with some water to make a paste. Cut some newspaper strips (better if your newspaper is printed with soy ink) and dab a little of the flour paste and put a seed in with the dab. Let it dry; usually a couple of hours will do it. Put in the garden and cover with a thin layer of soil. The paper strip will keep the seed from wondering.

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  3. That's a great tip..I didn't get into the veggie garden this weekend but I'll have to deal with the lettuce soon and thin it out.

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