May 15, 2010: The Garden, Mid-May

Would you believe I now have 39 tomatoes planted, with four more to go? I have two more spots in the garden, and two more pots, then I'm out of space for any more.

Two pots left to plant with dwarf tomatoes.

I'll be planting two of these into the garden, and I'll have to find homes for the rest of them.

My neighbor, Pat, bought a juicer. She says we're going to make lots of tomato juice this year. I'll be wanting quite a bit of salsa, too. If all these plants live, I'm sure there will be more than enough tomatoes for the two of us!

Mr. Granny's Gartenperle (top), and another of the same variety (bottom), have quite a few blossoms. Other early bloomers are three Sibirskij Stambovyj and two Minigolds. It looks as though we may have early tomatoes this year. Last year I harvested my first tomato on July 16.

The cold weather didn't hurt the tomato plants at all. I've often read that one shouldn't plant them until the nights are consistently in the 50s or higher, but these went through nightly temperatures ranging from the mid thirties to low forties, and they not only survived, but they grew at least 3" and thrived! Some of them had a bed sheet thrown over them at night, a few of the smaller ones got milk jugs covering them, but the majority just braved the cold, stark naked. Those in the 5-gallon buckets and large containers fared better than the ones planted directly in the ground.

It never ceases to amaze me when I look at the garden photos I take at least weekly. It seems like everything grows so slowly, until I compare pictures and see how far it's come in just two months.


I'm getting some nice lettuces, now that I've protected them all from the birds. I have plants in several stages of growth, from those sown inside in March, to those sown outside in April, and new seedlings started in soil blocks about every two weeks. As I harvest or thin the plants, I replace them with more seedlings. The remaining radishes will be harvested this week, and a tray of Drunken Woman lettuces will be on hand to take their place in the garden. Those ugly, squiggly, light colored things in the center photo are alfalfa pellets. They work great as a non burning fertilizer for the greens, but they aren't very photogenic!

It's difficult to tell the actual size of the lettuces by looking at a photo, but the larger ones have leaves about the same size as my hand.


The Gonzales cabbages are growing well. Silver curly ribbon helps keep the birds away. Notice the one on the right, with no silver ribbon, has ragged, bird eaten outer leaves.


The broccoli and cabbages elsewhere in the garden have been royally munched on by birds.


Strawberries

Raspberries


Potatoes


Peas


Hot Peppers


Corn. I have three of these half barrels of corn. Each is supposed to have seven plants, but I accidentally thinned out an extra one from this barrel. Not to worry, I transplanted a few of the thinnings into the squash patch, where they are growing very well. I guess that makes my squash patch a "two sisters" garden!


The cilantro has bolted. I'm hoping the blossoms bring in more bees to this side of the garden.

Last fall, Cheryl sent me some bulbs from her gorgeous yellow lilies. I planted them next to the garden shed, and protected them from curious pups by surrounding them with folding wire fences. Annie managed to go over the fence, dig up all the bulbs, and scatter them out in the grass. I gathered up all I could find and, since we were getting ready to leave for AZ for the winter, I just plopped the bulbs into a big pot and covered them with potting soil. When we got back home this spring, I removed them from the pot and planted them by the back fence, with a taller wire fence barrier to keep Annie out. They are surviving, thriving and getting ready to bloom! Notice the birds have nipped off the tips of the leaves. I'm beginning to hate birds :-(

I hope this new flower garden grows well. I have blue morning glories to climb the fence as a background for pink Sweet Williams, light yellow lilies, scattered seeds of snap dragons and zinnias in mixed colors (that may or may not grow, I'm only seeing a few seedlings popping up), hollyhocks in pink and white and Shasta daisies. Nearby I've planted blue bachelor button seeds in a container, and have tall cosmos that will be shades of pink in another container. There are marigolds and white alyssum scattered here and there through the garden, as well as several volunteer borage plants. I also scattered seeds of forget-me-nots, but I'm not seeing anything there yet. This will be the most flowers I've ever planted in with my vegetables, so I hope the birds and the butterflies will feel welcome here.

The prettiest flower in Granny's garden.