Posts Tagged ‘tomatoes’
9 Steps To A Successful Garden
A quick list of how to have a successful garden.
- Location – all gardens need as much sun as possible. Gardens need a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight per day. 12 hours of sunshine is better.
- Tools – you will need tools to prepare the soil and plant your vegetables. Standard items are hoe, garden rake, shovel, hand trowel. If you are more power tool oriented a tiller works well in preparing the soil, but there is not a lot you can’t accomplish in the garden with a hoe and a shovel.
- Compost or other organic soil amendments – adding these elements to your garden can help your plants be healthier, resist diseases better and produce larger yields.
- Add any fertilizer recommended on the How To Grow pages.
- Plants – the top vegetable garden plants are: Tomatoes, Peppers, Cucumbers, Squash and Okra. Watermelons and Cantaloupe are almost tied with Okra.
- Water your plants in well after you have planted them then water them as needed until they get established and start growing. After they are established, water them good once a week with a deep slow soaking.
- Be sure to follow up with additional fertilizing as recommended on the How To Grow pages and prune and stake your tomatoes.
- Pull weeds or hoe early and often.
- Harvest as recommended so that your plants will keep producing.
- Bonus: stagger your plantings so that you have ripe vegetables all season long.
Posted in updates | 
Tags: cantaloupe, cucumbers, garden, gardening, okra, peppers, planting, squash, tomatoes, vegetables, watermelons | 
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It’s Sunflower Time
This is my absolute favorite time of year…when it is well and truly summer. Time for swimsuits and running through the sprinklers and for me, time for the sunflowers to bloom. I watch expectantly every June for the first sign of color on my sunflowers. For when they bloom, I know summer is really here and the squash and tomatoes will ripen very soon.
Today has been a rainy summery day. A nice summer rain is so purifying. It cleans everything, and even though, it is blah and gray today, I know that tomorrow everything will be shiny green and so crisp and clean looking after the washing the rain gives.
I have pictures of my first sunflowers and a few other things from my garden. Hope you enjoy seeing my garden as much as I enjoy sharing it with you. Happy gardening!
Posted in garden, Lacey's Garden, Raised Beds | Tags: cabbages, rain, Raised Beds, sunflowers, tomatoes | No Comments »
Garden in the Ground
I finally got everything planted and it is all looking pretty good. I even have little tomatoes and little squash already. I planted garlic for the first time last fall and it is all looking great! I am very excited about harvesting it. The flowers are blooming and the bees are buzzing. It has been a perfect spring around here – not too hot, not too cold, not too much rain – I am so grateful! I keep having nightmares of the floods last year about this time. The worse thing in my garden this year is my new lab puppy, Luke! He stays out of the garden until I am out there and then he starts running in circles around me smooshing everything in his path. He also starts eating the strawberries when I start picking them. Despite Luke, everything is taking off. Enjoy the photos and happy gardening in your own garden.
Posted in garden, Lacey's Garden, Raised Beds | Tags: cabbage, clematis, clover, garden, garlic, squash, tomatoes | 1 Comment »
Charley Is Going Fishing
Charley is thinking about going fishing this afternoon. Since it rained yesterday, the ground is too wet to plow. As soon as the ground dries out enough for long enough, we are going to get some veggies planted. In the mean time, here are some pictures of Charley’s Veggies that we might get to plant.
Lacey’s Garden – Pictures
Here some pictures of my very lush and verdant garden….it has really liked the rain!
Posted in updates | Tags: artichoke, cantaloupe, cosmos, garden, gardening, gourd, tomatoes, vegetables | No Comments »
Lacey’s Garden – Gourds, Tomatoes, Herbs and Fall Vegetables
It’s been a while since the last post – so sorry!
Things here are very wet. I think this must be how folks in Seattle feel. It is not flooding; it just rains a little every day and stays gray and cloudy. Yuck!
What is left in the garden is thriving! I have three gourd vines that have taken over the whole back half of the garden completely. They grow so quickly that I have to trim them back in some places so I can pick tomatoes, but then they grow even more vigorously where they were trimmed! I think there are about 20 gourds out there so far and more coming on each day! Gourds anyone?
The tomatoes still have never ripened on the vine. I have been picking them when they first start to change from a darker to a lighter green, and letting them ripen on the window sill. This seems to be working but it just isn’t the same as seeing lovely red tomatoes on the vine. Oh well!
I have been harvesting herbs to dry for the winter and seeds to plant next spring. I have all sorts of sunflower seeds and zinnias. I have saved a few squash and will try to save some of the black cherry tomato seeds too. I have some moon and stars watermelon seeds and cantaloupe. Oh and I am pretty sure I will have plenty of gourd seeds to share too!
I planted some radishes and lettuce and will be planting turnips, beets, and cabbage as soon as I clear out the okra and melons. I want to see how these things do over the winter. I really want to plant garlic, too, if I can find some.
Well even though it is the end of season there is still plenty to do – keep at it and happy gardening!
Posted in updates | Tags: garden, gardening, gourds, herbs, seeds, tomatoes, vegetables | No Comments »
A Rainy Week In The Garden
It has been a rainy week! It started raining the day after I posted about not getting any rain! And, it has not stopped. It has rained or stormed for about a week a little each day. I have not been in the garden very much what with the rain and school starting for the kids. One would think that with the girls out of the house for most of the time, I would be able to work in the garden! The few times I have been out there I pulled up overgrown marigolds and checked for ripe tomatoes. Still no ripe tomatoes! Oh well! My fall tomatoes look great and I think they will ripen before the ones that have been in the garden all summer will.
The community garden is coming along. We have a meeting with the city to request a donation of a water meter; after that meeting we will start entering grant proposals. Then we wait….
So long and good gardening in your neck of the woods!
Lacey’s Garden – Heirloom Tomatoes, Beans and Gourds
Well. It has been sweltering couple of weeks here! No rain to be had in Claremore anyway. We have had thunder storms all around but none that come over us. The garden is still looking good, but it sure has not produced very much. I do not know why…maybe I do. Heirlooms do not produce as prolifically as hybrids; all of my plants are heirlooms. They sure are tasty and I like to think that I am contributing to posterity, but they would not be very helpful in feeding the family. All I can say…thank goodness for the Red White and Blue. We live in a land of plenty and for that I am grateful.
I have picked beans this week. Some finally came up and took off. I thought they had drowned in the flood. I also have a lot of gourds coming on. Those things grow really fast!! The black cherry tomatoes have just taken off…they are about 6 feet tall and bushy all around. I have a couple of other tomatoes that are about 6 ½ feet tall too! The pictures show the garden from the back fence. There is a whole other garden back there!! I will be pulling up some of the vegetables and planting more lettuce and other fall crops like broccoli and cauliflower by the end of August. Happy gardening to you.
Posted in updates | Tags: beans, garden, gardening, gourds, heirloom, tomatoes, vegetables | No Comments »
Lacey’s Garden – Tomatoes, Squash, Butterflies and Hummingbirds
Howdy folks. It has been a while. Not too much to report…my garden is growing lush and green. I think some of the tomato plants are as tall as I am! I planted fall tomatoes for the first time ever. So far so good. I tilled up an area of the yard that had been covered by a brush pile. I added compost from my compost pile and manure to the soil so they should be happy there.
I am getting one squash about every four days; though they are starting to produce a little more now. Still no big ripe tomatoes; the black cherry has been giving one or two ripe ones every week. Today there were five ripe ones on it for the first time. Those do not even make it to the table…they are so tasty we eat them immediately! The girls found the watermelons that are coming on; Clara is very excited about them.
We have had some of the most beautiful butterflies visiting- swallowtails of all colors. Whenever I run out there with the camera, they fly off, so no pics yet. I do have a photo of a swallowtail caterpillar that ate up all my dill (which is one of the reasons I planted dill). Hummingbirds have been showing up, too, after the bee balm. Yesterday, one hummingbird flew within 3 feet of my oldest daughter while she stood quietly in delight watching it. It was not afraid of her at all. It was a marvelous thing to see and share with her. And all because of our garden!
I have a few different volunteers coming up and I am going to leave them to see what’s what. One is a pumpkin and the other is either a squash or a cucumber.
I hope all of you are receiving a bounty of goodness from your gardens.
Posted in Lacey's Garden | Tags: garden, gardening, gourds, growing, squash, tomatoes, vegetables, watermelons | 1 Comment »
Lacey’s Garden – Video Tour
Here is the video Lacey mentioned last week that I forgot to post. Be ye warned! The video is about 10 minutes long.
-JP
Posted in Lacey's Garden | Tags: cucumbers, garden, gardening, peas, squash, tomatoes, vegetables, watermelons | No Comments »