Planted Two More Seedlings in Containers

I finally got around to checking out the planted tomatoes and did some minor training. Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(1) and Black and Brown Boar had multiple tomatoes and looked strong. Interestingly, the plants in the south section of the "koi pond" looked better than the plants in the north end. The southern plants were planted earlier than the ones in the northern end but I don't think that would explain all of it. Last year the southern plants struggled while the northern plants flourished.

The last two tomato seedlings planted in the ground were caged by my wife a few days ago. Also, she has been watering the seedlings.

Yesterday evening we moved the two Husky Red containers behind the wire fence that contains all the raised beds. We planted SuperSweet 100 and Isis Candy in the remaining two containers and put those behind the fence as well. All four containers were propped on bricks and put into an unused cinder block raised bed.

That'll probably be it for our 2013 planting. 

Three More Seedlings Planted During Cutworm Paradise

Tomato-wise, it was a quiet work week. On Friday my wife watered the front yard tomato plants and the plants in the "south garden". Also, she put cages on the plants on the "koi pond".

On Sunday she watered the rest of the back yard tomato plants. We should be watering more often but what can I say? We're busy with life. It's all good. The tomato plants are doing quite well, thank you.

We did plant three containers Sunday evening. The seedlings planted were Juliet, Sweet 100 and Rosella Purple.

My wife insisted that the soil preparation be done on the patio. That was different. I probably asked four times to make sure that's what she wanted.

"Yes, dump the soil on the patio."

"You realize that's on concrete. That'll be harder to clean up."

"Yes, of course. We're going to redo the pots using the same dirt, We'll add a lot of potting soil and planter mix. What we won't do is mix it with other garden dirt. That way we won't bring in any diseases and other unwanted items from our soil into the containers."

Ah, the light goes on.

The first two pots were handled as expected. The dirt in the third pot, however, was noticeably drier than the first two. That in and of itself didn't mean anything. When I dumped the dirt onto the patio I noticed moist soil at the bottom and adult cutworms. I found more just by turning the dirt with the added amendments.

So my wife used a hand shovel to go through the soil before placing it into the container. I'd scoop a pile, place in front of her and she'd sift it. Laborious, but effective. And yes, we found more cutworms. We found 26 adult sized cutworms in the dirt before we had filled the container. There was more dirt remaining on the patio but we had no more light. But that's not a misprint. 26 adult cutworms (and probably more) were in one container. Bleah!

I suspect this container doesn't drain as well as the other two. Maybe that's why the other two containers just had soil while the this container was a cutworm paradise. 

Planted Four More Seedlings Tonight

Tonight I dug two more holes in the back yard. My wife planted Green Grape and Kellogg's Breakfast in these holes.

The rest of the planting will be done in containers and perhaps the redwood raised bed.

But before I dug, my wife had planted two Husky Red tomatoes in said containers. I'll need to check the tags but these appear to be different than Husky Cherry Red. 

I Got Some Camera Time At Descanso Gardens...

Here's a YouTube link to Kaye Kittrell's "Late Bloomer at TomatoMania!" where I get some camera time at Descanso Gardens.

Enjoy! 

4/20 Iris Show was a success; Planted 3 More Seedlings

I dug two holes in the backyard on Monday night. By Thursday morning, however, we hadn't put seedlings into these holes.

Catching up on other items...my wife watered the front yard tomatoes on Sunday and the "south garden" tomatoes on Monday.

The planted seedlings are doing just fine. However the "south garden" tomatoes are particularly thriving. My wife planted all grafted tomatoes in this area. They are doing really, really well so far.

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And as you've noticed, I've posted this on Sunday night. Some things happened between now and then...

All the seedlings got watered on Friday. And on Friday evening I turned the dirt in the redwood raised bed. Also, we planted two more seedlings, Indigo Rose and Japanese Black Trifele.

But my wife had been prepping for the San Fernando Valley Iris Society tour of our house on 4/20. She had been prepping feverishly for days on end, dead heading roses, clearing out the area just east of the south gate, planting strawberries, you name it. It's been a frenzy for several days.

Finally, the big day, Saturday. My wife surprised me by planting Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red(2) in the redwood raised bed. We moved some pots in the morning but a vast majority of the work was already done.

The first person showed up around noon, the last around 4PM, about 25 people in all. We suspect there would have been more if it wasn't so hot that day. But nonetheless it was a rousing success. Everyone was impressed with the garden in both the front and back yards. My wife thinks people talked about tomato seedlings more than irises, but I disagree. To a person, everyone was impressed.

Sunday was mostly a rest day for both of us. My wife was decompressing from Saturday's event and I've been battling something for several weeks. My wife thinks it's allergies. That's as good an explanation as anything out there. 

Lots of Backyard Tomatoes Planted This Weekend

On Friday we got two more seedlings planted in the back yard -- Nyagous and Aunt Ruby's German Green.

We hoped to do a lot of back yard planting over the weekend and we were successful in that endeavor. But for those whom are reading the blog for the first time, the back yard is a lot harder to plant than the front yard. It is night and day. In the front yard there are two areas to plant, the "koi pond" (a long, thin strip of land surrounded by a gravel and brick pathway on three sides) and the "corner office" (essentially an area of dirt at the southwest corner of the front yard). The dirt in the "koi pond" was completely replaced in 2007 as well as most of the "corner office", I believe. The dirt from the "koi pond" was transported via wheelbarrow to the northeast corner of the back yard. In this spot is a raised bed supported by treated lumber. The "koi pond" got the nickname from the hole in the front yard. It looked like we were putting in a "koi pond". We replaced the dirt with compost from the city, if I remember. And that's why 2007 was a fabulous year for us, tomato-wise.

The back yard, however, is a different story. Asphalt, rocks, fill and other assorted debris litter the soil just underneath the surface. We found whole bricks underneath the soil when we planted a raised bed last year. It is clear that there was a paved surface and perhaps a structure before the property was subdivided into tract homes. And a lot of that structure was simply buried. Digging in the back yard can be quite difficult when we run into broken asphalt and fill. For the past three or so years we've pulled out hundreds pounds of rock and asphalt. And it can take quite a while to maneuver around to dislodge these pieces. Just trust me that planting in the back yard is more than a chore.

But...with each passing year it gets ever so slightly better to dig than the previous year. We may start digging a hole in an area that had been partially dug before. That becomes more and more frequent as time goes on. But we can plant in new areas such as last years’ raised bed that hasn't been dug before and brings new surprises.

On Saturday we planted Speckled Roman(2), Amos Coli, Crnkovic, Garden Peach, Ananas Noire, Cour de Bue and a mystery tomato that may be Orange Paruche. My wife actually did the planting and caging while I dug these holes. Having noted my hole struggles earlier, the planting and caging is no small task. We fill the hole while my wife plants the tomato. She builds the "moat" around the tomato plant. Around this time I start on another hole, but the caging takes some time as well. My wife will wrap a soft wire around the top two "holes" around our concrete reinforcing wire cages. Then she will pound in a stake, turn the cage upside down so the wire is along the bottom and tie the cage to the stake. The purpose of the soft wire is to keep our new dog from digging up the seedlings.

But in one spot I hit what I'll call a "knot" -- an area that had so much packed asphalt and rock that it was nearly impossible to wedge out. I had left about a six inch hole in the ground after about 45 minutes of digging and gave up in frustration.

On Sunday we planted Green Zebra, Pineapple Pig, German Orange Strawberry, Prement (a French tomato someone gave us), Blue Beauty, Jaune Flamme and Snow White.

I had time for to dig a couple more holes Sunday evening but my shoulders told me not to. I did spend about an hour on the "knot" to get the hole down to about 18 inches. One of the above plants is in that hole. What was slightly odd was that I dug a hole about 10 feet from that "knot" spot, a spot that had even more asphalt and rocks. But it was easy to remove the fill from this location, not packed in at all.

It appears that we have room for four more tomatoes in this back yard area. However, the raised bed isn't planted and neither are any containers.

But all in all it was quite a productive weekend. But last night I was feeling my age...I'm better this morning. 

I Couldn't Remove The Rock. Planted Kentucky Beefsteak

This morning I only spent a few minutes on the rock left by last night's digging. No luck.

My wife was too busy to plant or prepare any tomatoes. So when I got home from work I continued working trying to get the rock out.

As you'll see I was unsuccessful.

You can see the shovel next to the rock or concrete structure that I simply could not remove. To the right is a one gallon container filled with rocks and asphalt. Laid out in front of the one gallon container are several asphalt pieces that couldn't fit into the container. On one hand it's good to get the rocks and asphalt out of the ground. But it's a pyrrhic victory. The area where this dreck was removed isn't much of a plantable area.

Here's a closeup of the rock:

We planted Kentucky Beefsteak just west of the rock and called it a night. 

Finished Planting the Front Yard

Yesterday afternoon my wife planted Paul Robeson, Black Seaman, Berkeley Tie Dye, Brad's Black Heart, Dr. Wyche's Yellow and Speckled Roman in the front yard "koi pond". I assisted with the last couple of holes but my wife did a vast majority of the work.

In theory our front yard is now finished, though we may add one more in a shaded area of the "corner office".

Tonight I started my first hole in the back yard. I pulled out enough rocks and stuff (there was at least one shard of glass) to fill a one gallon container. But there was a huge rock to the east of the hole that I simply could not get out of the hole. I'll try again in the morning before I head out to work. I hope the soil around the rock dries out and I can dislodge it. If I can't get it out my wife will plant something just to the west of this rock. 

Descanso Gardens TomatoMania was a Success!

On Friday my wife planted four more grafted tomatoes in the south garden -- Missouri Pink Love Apple, Michael Pollan, Gold Medal and Black & Brown Boar. She caged all the grafts with our homemade cages from last year. Also she added two layers of green ribbon twine across the bottom two holes of the cages to keep our dogs away from the seedlings.

In the evening I planted Vorlon, Black Krim, Black Cherry and Pineapple in the front yard "koi pond". My wife did help out toward the end of that planting, making sure we finished before the sun set.

On Saturday I helped out with the Descanso Gardens TomatoMania event. The Descanso Gardens location gets more popular and this year kept to that tradition. It was extremely busy in the early morning followed by a pretty steady pace throughout the day.

The tomato seedlings are kept on foldaway tables as opposed to being placed on the ground. I seem to be the designated person moving the stock forward and let me tell you, it's much easier on tables. I interacted with the customers a lot more than I did at the Encino location because I was (somewhat) less fatigured and there was simply less stock to manage. Keeping up at the main event in Encino this year was hopeless, but I did catch up with things at Descanso Gardens just before closing time.

We met some friends for dinner in the area and that was a lot of fun. I didn't get home until around 8:30 PM.

On Sunday I was back at Descanso Gardens. Our original plans were to have my wife working on Sunday but she changed her mind. So I worked it. It was a slower pace but by no means slow. Again, I got to talk with the customers more.

When I left for the day there were approximately 80 tomatoes remaining. From what I'm told, the Descanso Gardens event started with 370 flats (usually there's 16 seedlings per flat but a few had 25 per flat), or roughly 6000 seedlings. A successful event!

During the day my wife watered the planted tomatoes in the "corner office".

I check the planted tomatoes this morning and the plants were doing just fine! 

Planted Two Tomato Seedings In South Garden

No tomatoes planted Wednesday.

On Thursday my wife planted two tomatoes and prepared holes for three others in the "south garden" in the backyard. This area is a small strip of dirt running along the back yard fence to the south. The two planted tomatoes are Shah/Mikado and Jersey Giant. Both planted tomatoes are grafts. My wife plans to plant grafted tomatoes along the south wall.

I watered the planted front yard tomatoes this morning.