Showing posts with label tomatoes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tomatoes. Show all posts

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Fruits of the season in the small garden

Within two months of starting the little garden I created for home use and canning, seems to be flourishing and
struggling.  With lots of erratic periods of rain and then hot weather, it needs a little maintenance, water and weeding.  See the beginning of the the plot for the garden started in May, around the 12th or so.  It's now, almost 2 months. 

I had to repot the cherry tomato plant into a larger vessel and it is growing still out of control. I've picked about a dozen of the little tomatoes that I'm using to eat right off the vine and in salads.

The other tomato plants in the bed are doing great, with some cucumbers behind them that you cannot see.  I'm starting to train them up the fence and have a cucumber if you can see it in the photo.  These are the pickling cucumbers, so I hope to make a batch of dill and bread and butter pickles. 

I added a potted plant of rudbeckias that I put at the end of the driveway.  Behind the plant is a small pot of yellow and green bush beans.  There are actually a few beans starting.  I'll take a picture of those when I get a few more visible beans!  Also added a few more basil plants that are amongst the weeds in a container beside the actual garden, along with some rosemary.  I lost a lavender plant and the dill is doing okay, but not great.  During the spell of heavy rains, some plants unfortunately were not saved.  Learning all the time, it is fun and a great way to de-stress after a day's work.


I hope in August I can actually put some up as they say. 




Sunday, May 27, 2012

Planting a small garden for fall harvest In New England short summer

If I want to do some serious canning and preserving, I first need a garden.

I started two weeks ago, the top picture is the beginning. The bottom picture in the first strip is two weeks later. It's such a short season, so I'm hoping some quality vegetables can be derived from my little garden.


I started with tomato plants, cucumbers and mint. Then, I added three more tomato plants in buckets. The cherry tomato plant moved to the end of the driveway and is growing so fast. Then, today I added basil and rosemary to the raised bed and some lavender to one of the pots near the bush tomato plant.
I added Coast of Maine quoddy lobster compost which is organic. From their website description.
"Quoddy Blend is made from composted crab, lobster and aspen bark. The crab and lobster shells are a rich source of calcium and chitin, the aspen bark a source of tannins and lignins. It's a blend that's perfect for your vegetable garden, especially for your tomatoes! The calcium content is beneficial for lilacs and roses too."

The first part of the garden beginning is on this blog.