The plants have been in the ground for about a week and they are all still alive! Even the cilantro. I need to cook something that calls for cilantro soon because it is only a matter of time before it croaks on me. All five of my tomato plants have blooms! Even the pink brandywine that drew the short straw and got the pot with the least amount of sun.
I haven’t made it to the store to buy a new hose and have been watering with two gallon jugs. Right now with the mild weather, two gallons a day is enough for all the plants. It will probably take at least four once it gets hotter and the plants mature. I am also thinking that measured water will help with consistent watering which will make it less likely that the fruit will crack.
My cheat plant is doing the worst of all of them. In fact it is the only one having a problem. The other day I notices that the leaves on the bottom branches had turned white in places. So I picked them off. That is usually the beginning of fatal problem. The more fragile heirloom plants are thriving. It’s so weird that the cheat plant is being difficult since it is in the best pot and the best dirt and in the best location.
Banjo gets a raw egg in his dogfood most nights and I have been rinsing out the shells and sprinkling them in a circle around the plants. I’m also spreading coffee grounds in a ring around the base of the plant too to keep the hornworms at bay.
Even with this great weather we have been having, I am still struggling to make myself water. Somehow I always manage to get it done. I’m climbing out of the hole, but it is deeper than I realized and taking more time than I expected. But I’m still clawing my way out.
Oh and I think I found an almond tree. The houses on my street don’t have houses behind us. There is I two foot wide strip of land where the power lines are for the street behind us. That strip of land also has a ditch for rain water. All kinds of things grow there. The other day I saw this spindly little tree with fruit that looks like a fuzzy green almond. I’m pretty sure it’s an almond tree. I should know by August. I have a chestnut tree and a pecan tree but the three dozen or so squirrels that own my backyard never let me have any. Perhaps they don’t know about the almond tree. We shall see.
Oh and one of my two fairly unreliable yard boys showed up at 9 am yesterday to work in the yard. Nine am! He is supposed to come back and paint my porch and do some pruning soon. Hopefully at a more reasonable hour.
How is your planting going? Tell me some good news.
That photo of all the tomatoes is a work of art. Beautiful. You’ve inspired a lot of us to get out in our gardens and get some work done. Despite almost being eaten alive by the Cherry Tomato Plant That Ate the World a couple of years ago, I’m going to Lowe’s today to see what they have. Nothing like the taste of home-grown tomatoes. so I hope they do well. I really love to fry tomatoes when I cook a proper breakfast – hash browns, bacon, eggs, chile verde (which I’m going to make tomorrow – yummy) and lovely fried tomato slices. Oh, and big, soft tortillas. Heaven.
By the way, Tamara, I love your new * Like feature. It’s going to be very popular.
Oh, just noticed that like option. I’ve had woes, so I will wait to comment when appropriate.
Hope everyone’s tomatoes are doing well.
I don’t plant them, but this is year 4 or 5 of reading about you guys planting. Fun just reading about the ones who have planted. I really need to give it a try.
Me too! Just got off work, in my jammies, saw the stars (perfect choice in a happy image if I may add!)
Thank you Tamara!
Um, how do you use the like feature?
The photo disappeared. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
What the heck happened to the photo? IT WAS JUST THERE? Jetpack has been doing weird things lately.
Oh! I set it as the featured photo but didn’t use it in the post. That means it is only seen on the front page and on Twitter/Facebook.
I have nothing to add except the caption on the north korea photo cracks me up. I can’t wait to drink wine and look at it once more whilst chuckling to myself.
I love that picture and caption too. The man in the back wearing the uniform and holding his hand over his mouth while he laughs is the best part.
My fav is a good tomato pie!!!
Seconded. And although I’ve never made one, I think I may try a tomato pudding if I get some tomatoes before the animals do. I’ve also been making fried green tomatoes at summer’s end.
I’ve tried to grow tomatoes several times, failed miserably…. Colorado ground just doesn’t like tomatoes (or at least the ground in my backyard). I am going to continue to xeriscape my backyard this summer. I want a nice backyard to read in the summer
Hey Ginger! I live in Colorado too and I have never been able to get a nice tomato, I even tried them in containers. I just love home grown tomatoes, so year after year I end up going to the farmers market….and I go way over board with all the fabulous produce! I like all samples, the smells, wonderful colors and varieties of goodies, also great tips from the professionals on how to make the freshness and deliciousness last longer 😉 I do seem to do really well growing flowers! I have a boxer that just loves the smell of flowers, he will fall asleep with his face in a flower pot!
So TT thank you for getting me off my Ass this weekend and get my flowers planted! So after it was all done this evening, we celebrated with steak fajitas, carnitas tacos with freash made salsa, oh yea, lets not forget the Coronas with lime! Great way to spend Cinco De Mayo weekend!
Cheers to you TT for just being you
Moved last year to a new place. We cut down 30+ trees so we have been tilling, pulling up roots, putting out compost, grass seed, covering with straw, watering and doing the “omg PLEASE grow” dance. I am happy to report, the right and left sides of the house have grass! Did the same on part of the front and the big (1/3) of the back yard this weekend. Dog supervised aka rolled around in crap and had to get a bath last night. Now both the hubs and the dog are on the couch getting some zzzzz’s. Good weekend with plenty of green stuff to show.
Good luck with the landscaping. It’s such a huge job when you have to pretty much start from scratch. Your remark about your dog made me laugh because it reminded me of this gorgeous black Standard Poodle my parent had in the early 60’s – my family has always had a thing for them. We lived in the English countryside and they would let her off her leash in the fields, at least, until they discovered that she would always find the ripest, grossest poop within a 2 mile radius and roll in it until she looked like a huge, furry clump of disgustingness. My poor mum spent hours bathing her. Beautiful dog, but she had a dark side LOL.
Been busy planting and cleaning up the girls home. This year I am planting herbs with my tomatoes, eggplants and peppers to see if it will help with the insects. I am really excited for my garden this year it finally will have full sunlight. Oh and I got blackberries i planted in some troughs. I miss the wild ones from home. They grow like crazy around the creeks and we would go pick buckets of them to make cobbler. Well it is wine time for me.
Just getting tomato plants from seed into the ground. Made two new beds and eyeing another spot for the rest of the topsoil I had delivered.
Fleshed out herb garden with sage, bee balm, thyme, lavender and lemon balm.
Spinach and mixed greens popped up, and am getting blueberry bushes in tomorrow.
I always learn so much from you and the master gardeners on this site! Thx for hint about coffee grounds. Am loving gardening therapt so far!
I was happy to hear about your nut trees and ambitions for yet another. I have started two this year, an American Hazelnut and a Chinese Chestnut. I went on hiatus after the voles destroyed the sour pie cherry root system, but I think I’ll add a pecan tree to the list. I think, like yours, the squirrels will get them all.
The year before last we volunteered to pick up nuts for elderly neighbors on a third person’s property where they’d been granted permission but had become too infirm. A woman from yet another house kept watching us and finally came out and ran us off, saying they were her nuts. We were of course embarrassed, and so were our elderly friends who’d thought it was all kosher, but we still laugh about what the woman said as she shooed us away. “Unh-unh, hon.”
I have decided that I will not grow tomatoes this year. I have done some evil deed in a former life and the punishment is always reeked upon my tomatoes. They start out good and then things go bad. I will put it behind me and go on to other things. I have radishes and lettuce in the pots and parsley and cilantro in another. Will get a couple of other veggies next week to finish out.
TT I understand how hard it is to get outside and get things done. I am still recovering from some health issues and most days I don’t want to get out of my comfy chair. Hopefully we will keep each other motivated! Good luck.
Still planting annuals. Today is pansy frizzle sizzle raspberry, calendula neon (loud orange), impatients lipstic (hot rose pink), and aster starlight pink. Probably astronauts will be able to see my flower pots from space.
My tomato plants had nice blooms but then I let my 5 chickens out to free range for awhile and of course they ate them. Can’t get too mad because they give us 5 HUGE brown eggs a day
Ha mine do the same. I have my tomatoes now in fenced bed and I had to put a fence around my garden to keep the girls out of the berries but they are cute and give us breakfast.
Went to the local farmers market on Saturday and the favorite old man farmer was giving away cherry tomato plants – 1 per customer- what an awesome promotion! My daughter and I each picked up one. She doesn’t have sun in her yard, so she gave hers to me. I have a canopy of oak trees over my property, but at the edge of my yard, around my mailbox- there is sunshine and hope. I am planting both with cages in the hopes that it will be enough to have them flourish. Been told to put in the bottoms of the holes fish heads and around the base of the plants eggshells.. keeping my fingers crossed! I have a family of bumble bees who come up every year around the mailbox so hoping they will pollenate the blossoms and I will have tomatoes by July 4th!
Hello Tamara, I just wanted to congratulate you on your gardening. You have inspired me to work on my own which got ravaged by hurricane Irma last year. I am now seeing the rewards and it is so gratifying. I was in a hole myself and the garden is what kept me from losing my mind at times. If you can’t find a good recipe with cilantro you can always make a homemade pico de gallo salsa. Chop your tomatoes, onions, cilantro, a little jalapeño and lime juice. I love it with chips or as a side relish that gives a touch of freshness. It keeps for up to 3 days in the fridge. It is also delicious added to scrambled eggs. Have a great Sunday. Off to read the recaps!
I planted my geraniums in pots today. They are my substitutes for tomatoes. I bought my begonias but haven’t planted them yet. I am having trouble finding ferns this year, and usually everyone has them. Is there a national fern shortage or something?
I have been wishing for a “like” feature! Thanks!
I always do my planting here in NY the day before Mother’s day. It is my present to myself to get new plants. I also make up baskets for my mom and my sister for Mother’s day. So I have another week but I cheated a little and picked up some flowers for my perennial garden yesterday.
I have a big two sided rolling compost bin way in the back of my yard, have had it for about 2 years, and it is so satisfying! I fill up one side by Thanksgiving, top it off with dried leaves and it will be ready soon if we get warm weather. The other side I have been filling all winter. All of the old tea bags, vegetable scraps, egg shells, dead flowers, corn husks, all go into the bin. I then have sweet, sweet earth! Amazing how nature works.
I have ‘t done this in a while but Starbucks would give me grounds for the soil when I asked. It really helped the soil.
I have 1 bud, I started late I guess
Yesterday I planted an early girl, big boy, 6 mortgage lenders and 2 Cherokee purples. Also planted garlic jalapeno, Tabasco and pepperocini, and shallots and green onions. There’s already an itsy bitsy tomato on the early girl. I’ll be able to provide the neighborhood with tomatoes this summer, if all goes well.
My biggest hurdlebwill be my cats. They think that big box of dirt is the pooper. Found a “present” in there this morning. Pooh!
Take some coursely ground pepper and put it in the dirt… or even red peppers… either one will do… the kitties will dig and lick their paws… one time of burning their tongue from the spice will stop them from using that area twice.. I promise you this works..
Soft carnitas tacos are even better with a bit of cilantro.
I’m a Southerner in exile in the Arizona desert and boy do I miss my ‘maters and Dukes! If you have a lot of cilantro, look up chimichurri recipes. The one I use has a little Italian parsley along with the cilantro but it’s kind of a free for all on the green stuff. Don’t use the recipes with vinegar, use lime juice, agave, cumin, garlic, olive oil. Easy peasy.
My yard is all rocks, I don’t grow anything anymore.
You guys are KILLING me. I always thought it was our nice sandy loam that made our Jersey tomatoes the best in the world, but now I think I know the real reason. We never put, coffee, eggshells, kitchen scraps, or FISHEADS???!!!! near our plants. We water them and maybe a little bit of Miracle Grow. THAT’S IT!
MIRACLE GROW? I may have to send you to WLS for that comment, young lady!
MIRACLE GROW?
That is eleventy billion times worse than a hybrid cheat plant.
You mean coriander, I’m sure.
🤗
Thanks for the tips! I didn’t know about coffee grinds keeping the worms away! I love cilantro! I had a bunch I needed to use up and made a chimichurri with it. It’s so good I’m only eating things that I can add it to. Seems every thing goes with it!
Actually, the regular earthworms LOVE coffee grounds and that is good because you want all the earthworms you can get. It’s the big green sluglike worm with horns that eats your entire plant that the coffee grounds will kill because apparently they can’t handle the caffiene.
There will be no garden in my yard this year. Sadly there is no “man” here and I’m just now trying to de-“man” my house and yard. The “man” was my now 24 year old son, my youngest son moved out in December and had my 3rd grand daughter with his fiance’ in February. So now that it is finally Spring in NJ he is getting his yard stuff out of the yard, shed and man cave in my house!!! I am planning for the Mom garden for next year. Got to un-man all his places first!!! That’s going to take a while! Just been him and I since he was 7.
Did anyone catch that JayZ is being questioned by the SEC around possible violations re the sale of Rocawear to Iconix Brand Group, owned in part by a few Lauritas?
Hey TT. Being from New Mexico we use lots of cilantro. One thing some people do is freeze cilantro for those dishes not requiring fresh…sopas, caldos, etc. Just wash the herb and dry. When completely dry, wrap various amounts in a paper towel and put in zip lock bag. Freezes for months. It’s great in homemade chicken and rice soup!
I looovveeeeee cilantro!!!!!
TT
I always love to read your “weekend” catch ups on life in general! As for here, My big thing has been trimming and preparing the roses for Summer. I managed to make my way to an old car shop where they save the metal shavings from rotor break turning. When I spread the shavings throughout the dirt around the bottom of the roses, it creates a seasonal round of daily rust/iron being fed into them. Let me tellya – they are Beeeee utitful once they start blooming!
Oh And one more thing I got these weird long string of bulb lights that are meant to be outside (picture a fifth wheel type setup!). I kept looking at them for two week in their original box, and FINALLY I figured out what to do. I took them out back and wrapped them around the big old tree in the backyard like a striped candy cane. I am happy.
So – thats like here…. I may not be growing tomato’s but I DID manage to pick up some beautiful perfectly ripe ones today fro mother Fatmers market across town!
All in all things are smooth sailing in these parts of the woods….. OOOO ANd I’m catching up on the new season o BH housewives so I can get to the reunion…. Kyle sure is thin these season, and where did Dorit find those boobs any way??? Lol!
Omg TT you are so far ahead of us. We went to veggies 101 class and they gave us two plants. The pic reminds me of my bounty last year from the pic in the blue bowl but they are BOTH languishing on the kitchen counter, not potted yet after two weeks!! We did remove all the growth from last year and need to plant and fertilize. I had those tomatoes going strong, taller than me up until December!!! Bay Area weather!!
I had to go buy empty squirt bottles to spray my leaves with soapy water and marigolds to plant with my tomato plants. I have some things going on I need to catch quick I also bought some little fertilizer spikes in case that will help.
I’m hovering over these plants like a damn helicopter mom. I was too tired to do any of it today though.
I just saw a commercial for Miracle-Gro with tomatoes. Had to laugh because of the the heresy.