Well I wrote this title down a long time ago now to do a blog about my seeds and in the meantime they grew into plants that I planted out on Monday. Watch the TV cooking version of starting seeds...
So long story short, I started my own tomato plants again this year. I got a couple of tried and true varieties of romas (Cordova and Heinz 2653) and a few new varieties (Super Sauce, Oroma and San Marzano). I usually go all determinant on the tomatoes, but the Super Sauce are supposed to be huge and are indeterminant, meaning I will have to keep on top of them to keep them from vining out of control. I also started some Sungold cherry tomatoes that will be going in pots next to the porch and some Fresh Salsa roma tomatoes that should stand up to being diced for salsa without the flesh falling apart. In fact there will be a whole salsa garden this year with jalapeno peppers and cilantro too! Instead of starting peppers myself I bought the started plants from Burpee. They had a variety pack of 6 plants that were all sweet peppers, which is what we usually eat. Since I had room for 12 plants I got two packs that arrived in this nifty packaging that kept them from getting destroyed in transit...which I didn't take any pictures of.
Mom and I had taken a few extra days off to get all the plants and seed planted into the garden because there just isn't enough hours in the day when you are working. Before we planted anything we turned in multiple bags of manure into the garden beds to bulk up the amount of soil in them and make sure they were well fertilized. Monday saw us planting out the tomaotes and peppers and also all the seeds for the watermelons and cantaloupes (which got covered with plastic to warm them up, now on my nice PVC homemade frame), the pumpkins, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, corn and bush beans. Tuesday Mom planted the drying beans (we've got 8 different varieties!) and we set up the trellises for the cucumbers and beans to grow up. Mom also cleaned up an area in the back to plant some blackberry bushes and I cleaned out pots that had started to grow weeds and got out our little fountain that goes next to the front deck. Wednesday I finished planting the tomatoes in the pots by the porch and put the herbs we'd started in the herb garden and Mom planted the blackberries. And Thursday we prepared to leave for the cabin and the dogs went to the spa to have their hair cut. Friday we drove up to the cabin...more to follow on that.
Earlier this spring I had decided I wanted to put in a more permanent watering system for my garden. I had been using the DIG drip irrigation systems with some major modifications. When we started we were using house water and the system worked pretty well. Once we got the irrigation water extended we had trouble keeping the tiny drip line free from algae and dirt that is typical in the irrigation water. I had moved up to full size drip hoses and filters, but the tubing all laid on top of the ground and after three winters of freezing and thawing the elbow were splitting. Since being on Pinterest I had seen a pin that showed this irrigation system for raised beds.
So that's what I did! We spent many nights digging trenches and then two whole days cutting the PVC and gluing it together and wrapping the pipe thread ends with plumbers tape to screw on the knobs to regulate the flow for each bed. I was going to use the PVC valves just like in the picture but a co-worker said that her dad used those and within 2 summers the sunlight had broken down the plastic and the flippers on the sides broke off. Now they had to turn the valve with a pair of pliers. I was going for longevity with this system so I spent a bit more and got brass faucet knobs for my valves. We got all the trenches filled back in slowly and hooked up the irrigation to the new drip line. That was harder than we thought because I got all male ends to hook hoses onto and no female ends for the start of the lines where they'd be receiving the starting hose. So we had to cut up hose and attach female ends to both ends and we had trouble with them popping off and the hose kinking (which I had to rig something to hold the hose up). But it's done and it works and it was so hot the week before (in the 90's in May!) that I was working fast to get the water on my plants. So then of course the next week we had almost 2 inches of rain (in a place that only gets about 8 inches in a year!). Before we left for the cabin, however, I did go out and turn on and check the watering to all the beds and set them off on their timers for when we were gone.
And that's what we do for fun around here folks!
