My peppers went in today. I decided to not replace the hail damaged tomatoes even though I have spares. A couple will be set back having lost their crown but they all look strong.
The hail damaged the early strawberries then the slugs moved in with the long damp spell. All junk so far.
Tomatoes and Peppers
With all the rain I got, my tomatoes are growing fast! Everything else is doing well too.
I just read an article about hairy vetch as a living mulch for tomatoes. Apparently it even causes increases in important nutrients in the tomato. I sent for some seeds. I was planning a winter cover crop, but now I think I'll plant come vetch around the tomatoes and see what happenes.
Then I discovered that tomatoes and cucumbers don't get along and mine are planted pretty close together. Does gardening ever get any easier?
S-Lady, the spares are still in the yogurt cups. They look fine but even the most beat up ones that have been planted for 2 weeks look better and already sprouting side shoots.
I think 4 of my 15 cantaloupe seeds in pots are sprouting. I have 5 spare seeds from the pack that will get planted tomorrow. That should give me enough, string beans will fill the extra space. The veggie garden is just for what I can use with a little extra, a few hundred square feet. I used to grow corn in the back yard but that's for berries now.
Candy, one neighbor has been planting only 2 crops for years, tomatoes and cukes. He doesn't rotate and has fine results, go figure.
Sarahskeeper, I hope you're right. It seems to me that I used to get a lot of vegetables, now that I'm trying to be an informed gardener, I'm getting a lot of failures. That being said, learning is like that. No mistakes, no learning. I'll just keep trying.
LOL true true! I plant in pots and you can always line those up how you want.
sherrie toughen up - wear gloves
What you need is a ball of twine, a few stakes, a couple of budlights and off you go!
nice neighbors!
those rows look close enought sherrie:) now go get some salt marsh hay, it will keep the weeds down and then have it tilled into to ground at the end of the year to improve the soil.
Looks like a lovely garden to me!
Very nice gift!
Don't get hung up in the details. The garden looks great and the plants wont tell.
My dad used to plant a stake at each end of a row and tie a string to get a straight line. My rows are short so I don't use the string.
I gave a friend some tomato plants last week. 2 feet apart I told him. "I'll need a tape measure." he said. I suggested he use his feet, one, two. lol. Details, poo.
Andy P
i go three feet apart and they still grow into each other
Veggie garden with herbal sage blooming.
Was lurking and enjoying your discussion on colored plastic.
I believe I read that red plastic being used for tomatoes has something to do with the red portion of the light spectrum helping tomatoes grow and ripen. It's supposed to help strawberries, also. At least that's what the language in the catalog said.
And silver...it's supposed to confuse the bugs so they'll GO AWAY!! I had read (I do more reading than practicing) in a gardening book that you can put down aluminum foil around the base of a zucchini plant to deter the moth from laying eggs that hatch into the dreaded vine borer.
Actually, any plastic that will stop weeds is fine with me.
I tried the red plastic for a few years - never saw any noticeable difference.