We spent much of one day hiking around the New River State Park and the summit trails of Mt. Jefferson, and much of another biking the Railroad Grade road that runs from Todd to Fleetwood. There are some pictures below.
Well, we needed that! Home, sweet home - back from a far-too-quick escape to the NC Mountains. We stayed at a great B&B - Buffalo Tavern Bed and Breakfast, in West Jefferson, with "Doc" Adams as a most wonderful, welcoming host. We can't wait to return! We spent much of one day hiking around the New River State Park and the summit trails of Mt. Jefferson, and much of another biking the Railroad Grade road that runs from Todd to Fleetwood. There are some pictures below. Tomorrow, it's back to the garden - over the next few days, I hope to finish planting all tomatoes, peppers and eggplant, stake the indeterminate tomatoes, and donate loads of veggie plants to a few non-profit organizations.
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My plans of getting things in well in advance of last year seems to be working well. Got lots of weeding, additional bleaching/transplanting, and staking to do....I continue to just adore this spring! No 90s in sight, which is great - note to tomato plants - start blossoming and setting fruit!
This upcoming Sunday I am back on the Nova Scotia radio gardening show to talk tomatoes - details/link to follow. Catch you later this week! Another good day for spring crops....our seed grown pansies are in full bloom, snapdragons have buds....and our sweet peas are blooming as well - great lettuce and greens.
Happy gardening, everyone! What a productive morning! Now in addition to the 23 indeterminate tomatoes in big pots and 23 dwarf tomatoes in grow bags, the driveway holds an additional 28 indeterminate tomatoes in 3-5 gallon pots (cherry types in the 3s, larger fruit in the 5s).
The pruning plan for the year is as follows: dwarf varieties - no pruning, short stake and tie; large container indeterminates - prune to a number of main stems to be determined (thinking 2-3) and tie to 7 foot poles - perhaps top; driveway 3-5 gallon indeterminates - tie to a short stake (4 feet or so), prune severely to 1-2 main stems, top once 1-2 clusters set fruit. The point of the latter plants is for evaluation and saving seed. So, what's left? More grow bag bleaching and planting of additional dwarf varieties today. In a week or so, I will move into planting the eggplant, sweet and hot peppers in pots. Then there is the garden weeding....and mulching.....it is going to be a busy gardening season (it already is!) This remarkable weather seems to be making all growing things happy - may it continue for some time (let's delay the muggy 90s for as long as possible! That way we may get a good tomato crop, unlike last year).
So - it's been a very busy past few days in the garden. In the main plot, everything except a front row of dwarf tomatoes is planted. Earlier this week, I finished the bush beans (four varieties - half rows of each), squash (three varieties, 2 hills of each), and cukes (three varieties, one hill of each). Sue and I also weeded the lettuce and greens/beets rows (much more fun and quicker to do together). We noticed a few of our lettuce varieties are bolting - the European leaf types (Dalgali, Australian Yellow Leaf) - no worries, we just pulled the plants and replaced them with beets! Radishes are now done (they were growing in big pots in our driveway). As for the driveway garden....there are now 23 large (10 gal minimum) pots with indeterminate tomatoes - and in between, as of an hour ago, 23 Dwarf tomatoes in 5 gallon grow bags. I am pleased to have gotten so many tomatoes in nearly a month earlier than last year. Next tasks: stake the indeterminate tomatoes, bleach more pots (5 gallon) and plant more indeterminate tomatoes in the center of the driveway for severe pruning (will grow on a short take and prune to one stem, two blossom clusters, then top). After that, bleach more grow bags and plant the rest of the Dwarfs. Then will come the sweet peppers, then eggplant, then hot peppers. Once all of that is done I will switch in to maintenance, care and data monitoring mode. Expect lots of pictorial and video updates throughout the season. As for the seedlings: there are still PLENTY left. Since I am NOT going to the Farmer's Market any more, please email me to set up a time to come and get some - we are talking 2.00 per plant at this point. I expect we will have seedlings for two more weeks - then that will be that. Someone has already taken me up on my offer to grow a few of the dwarf project plants - essentially joining the project! - which lends us a big hand in working through the interesting possibilities toward the next new named varieties.
To whet your appetite and hopefully persuade more of you to give this a try, here are some interesting options for you to ponder: Boronia - F6 generation, so we are close - original cross was New Big Dwarf X Paul Robeson (which we named Happy). With Boronia we are hoping for a medium sized, delicious purple. Dwarf Blazing Beauty - F5 generation - original cross was Golden Dwarf Champion X Elbe (which we named Tipsy). Goal here is medium to large, delicious orange fruit on a potato leaf dwarf plant. Dwarf Sweet Scarlet - F4 generation - also from Tipsy (see just above). Goal is a medium delicious red tomato on a potato leaf dwarf plant. Sarandipity - F5 generation - original cross was pink fruited selection from Cheeky (which was Golden Dwarf Champion X Cherokee Chocolate) X Black Zebra, which was named Streaky. I named this one for my daughter - goal is medium small round distinctly striped fruit - bronzy red and green, with good productivity and flavor - this will likely be the first of the striped dwarfs. Lucky Swirl - F3 generation, so anything is possible at this point! Original cross is Dwarf Russian Swirl (itself a new dwarf in development) X Lucky Cross, which was named Jaunty. Goal is a delicious medium to large yellow with red streak bicolor. Pesty pink - F3 generation - again, very early so will be highly variable. Original cross is New Big Dwarf X Mortgage Lifter, Pesta Strain (a large yellow/red bicolor), which was named Pesty. Goal is a very large sweet pink tomato...but anything else interesting will be worthwhile pursuing! Fred Tie Dye - F4 generation - Original cross is Dwarf Wild Fred X Pink Berkeley Tie Dye (which we named Messy). Goal is a medium to large purple tomato with distinct stripes and excellent flavor. Green striped dwarf from Beauty (unnamed) - F4 generation. Original Cross was Dwarf Wild Fred X Beauty King (which we named Beauty). Goal is a good flavored medium to large green flesh when ripe tomato with distinct stripes - lots of possibilities here. There are plenty of others, but the above descriptions will give you an idea of the types of things we are after! So, once I get my grow bags and pots full of dwarf tomatoes from the project (see the tab for info on the right menu bar - Dwarf Tomato Project Intro and Info), I will still be awash in seedlings. And that's a shame!
So.....to anyone who has a spare pot or garden space or two (or more), you can go through my germination list (see the 2011 Germination Info tab on the right) and check out the various project seeds I've started. I can email you info, or you can read about it if you join Tomatoville.com and read through the Dwarf Project threads. The sky is the limit - I've got seedlings from so many interesting new leads. The catch - I would love some info via email throughout the season - and if possible, one ripe fruit from the plant to see, taste and save seeds from. If you are so inclined, are curious, like research - or just want to grow a mystery in your garden, send me an email to [email protected] - we will arrange a time for you to come and get your seedling(s). Of course, they will not be for distribution - they will be very early generation work where there will still be great variation - in some cases, we may not even exactly know what we are aiming for yet! Hoping to hear from some of you soon! Our Kayaks were sitting turned over on our side yard for so long (to make room for seedlings in the garage!) that a nice batch of slugs moved in...yuck! But, once they were cleared out (as well as a few more than tiny spiders), into the truck they went, into Falls Lake we went. It was perfect weather, and below are a few pictures, as well as a video clip. The surprise will be easy to spot! |
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