Bought my first eight plants at the local farmers’ market yesterday. Four each of San Marzano and German Johnson. Hoping that less does equal more…
Got mine in the ground last weekend. Variety of reds, yellow and cherry; but only 7 total. I’ve had such bad luck with heirlooms that I finally defaulted to plain old hybrids from Home Depot. Not as good tasting, but willing to trade a little taste for higher quantity and dependability. Though last year was a general bust all around despite plant type. Here’s hoping for the best.
I’m with you 100% on this… Heirlooms have just been really bad luck for me. I can’t keep the bugs out of them, ripen weird. Not worth the work. Not that Hybrids are the perfect answer, but I have better luck there and even though they’re not quite as good as some heirlooms, still beats the heck out of store bought any day of the week.
Transplanted everything into the ground last week.
I rented a tiller from Home Depot week before last when I was off and tilled the soil. Laid down landscape fabric and 12 bags of wood chips on top. Reset the irrigation tubes and timers. Also, my grapes are growing like crazy… can’t see in the picture but the boysenberries are flowering up nicely too.
Planted:
4 Big Boy Hybrid Tomato
4 Jalapeño
4 mounds - Boston Pickling Cucumber (See: Farmer’s Spicy Pickle Thread)
tons of Dill
1 Tomatillo
1 Habenero
1 Green Bell Pepper (they never come out right but I thought I’d try again)
Some Sweet corn
Also, planted some Marigolds. I’m hoping this helps to keep the bugs out of my Tomatoes. Always a big problem. (Ants especially)
This year I skipped Green Beans & Yellow Crookneck Squash. Last year I pickled all my green beans and I still have a ton left. I wore out my family, friends and customers with Yellow Squash. For 3 summers, 1 plant was generating sometimes a dozen a day. Always at least 4-6 EVERY DAY and people can only eat so much. Yellow Squash loves my garden.
All the cages are already up just to keep the stray cats in the neighborhood out of my stuff. I’ve seen those lil f@#kers laying all over my young plants in the past, ruining them
5 plants here.
That reminds me! Last year my in-laws had the greatest crop out of their 6x4 raised bed. They were enjoying the heck out of their tomatoes, until they realized their 3 cats had claimed the bed as their personal litter box.
Chad and Joel, I understand the frustration about the heirloom tomatoes. Maybe I am more stubborn but I want to try one more time.
I have better luck with the open pollinated / heirlooms than I do with the hybrids but then I dont grow as many hybrids either.
Oh, and here…still snow on the ground
Here are the first of the SunGolds. I have had really good luck with them the last couple of years. These are about 3 weeks from harvest.
Here is a view of the tomatoes. I harvested more lettuce, swiss chard and will be thinning seedlings shortly.
The last of the Fava Beans. The plants are starting to get sunburned so I harvested them.
We’ve limited ourselves to… 18 vines. 2 vines each of 9 varieties (need to post the list later, don’t have it in front of me). We’re going to do one in a cage and one in on a trellis for each variety. We picked them up at Tomatomania in Sonoma last Sunday, but it was so cold and very windy we decided to not plant yet. They’re probably going in the ground tonight.
Started from seed: Brandywine, Japanese black trifele, black prince, lemon boy.
They are still in paper cups indoors until they get bigger and the weather isn’t as cold at night.
Very ambitious to grow the plants from seeds, Marc. Let us know how that goes. What geographic part of the country do you call home?
Nancy, last year I grew 1 from seed and 3 I bought plants. I live in Mountain View near San Jose.
I started my seedings a bit late, so the plants are only like 4" tall…
Crap, I forgot about your tomato sale thing last weekend!
I don’t deserve tomatoes.
I am late getting started this year, as I just finally removed a lot of my kale yesterday, yet still have spinach and beets going, favas. I need to get my garden season changed soon like y’all.
FWIW: Got an email from Wild Boar Farms and they are selling plants at Merryvale Winery today and tomorrow.
http://www.wildboarfarms.com/
This was at the one week mark. The plants are doing well so far. Hope we get a good crop!
Great looking planter Nancy, did you build that?
DH built it, Tom. He put in one using a different type of wood about 15 years ago but it has so many herbs in it, we needed more room for tomatoes. This one is about two years old. With the heavy clay soil and lots of critters, it is best to have a raised bed with good topsoil.
First ripe tomato of the season, off the vine in my mouth.
Yum! We have the first fruit emerging on a German Johnson heirloom plant. It is tiny but growing daily!