Sunday, April 10, 2011

Lots of Rocks and Asphalt and Planted Tomatoes In The Backyard

On Friday my wife replaced Cherokee Green with Dr. Wyche's Yellow. She also planted Michael Pollan (the tomato ;)) in a pot.

In the evening I turned an area east of the tomatoes planted near the lemon tree.

Saturday was a big planting day for both of us. Well, I dug and my wife planted.

I didn't realize how cold it had gotten over the past few nights. Friday morning it got down to 34.4 degrees and the high was only 53.5 degrees. The low on Saturday morning was 33.0 degrees and the high was only 58.1 degrees.

A couple of the tomatoes in the back yard cut out looked like they were struggling. The struggling ones were ones grown from seed. My wife replaced Black Krim with Brandywine and swapped the Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe with another of our seedlings grown from seed.

I had left a hole for a tomato a few days ago. My wife planted Sweet Carneros Pink in this hole either yesterday or the day before.

Saturday morning I dug holes in the area I had prepared the night before. I dug holes for and my wife planted Black Seaman, Cassidy's Folly and Black Krim. This area had rocks and asphalt and digging the holes was a long, tiring and laborious process.

I turned over the dirt in the south garden in the back yard. I was exhausted from digging holes in the morning and pulling out bits of rock and asphalt. But I did get it turned and in the afternoon my wife planted Big Zebra, Husky Gold and Lime Green Salad tomatoes along with squash and zucchini.

After a shower and lunch I relaxed for a few hours, then got back to it in the afternoon. The remaining area to dig is in the eastern portion of our back yard, an area rich with rocks and pieces of asphalt. Digging holes was slower and harder than before. 
 
I made four more holes, going deeper than I ever had. The last hole probably took 45 minutes to prepare and it wasn't ready – I was still hitting rocks and asphalt that I couldn't dig out about two feet down.

In the other three holes my wife planted Large Pink Anna, Chocolate Stripes(1) and Crimson Cushion(1). 
 
In the patio area in large black pots we have Aunt Ruby's German Green(1), Aunt Ruby's German Green(2), Chocolate Stripes(2), Crimson Cushion(2), Large Pink Anna, Michael Pollan (as mentioned previously), Green Doctor's Kiwi(2), Green Grape and Patio.

Aunt Ruby's German Green, Chocolate Stripes and Crimson Cushion were grown from seed. Multiple seedlings were planted in to these large black pots. Many of them flourished in this environment. My wife separated out these seedlings and we planted three of them into the ground as noted. 
 
This morning I spent an additional 45 minutes working on the large chunks of asphalt and rock that I couldn't get out the night before. I could pulverize some of the asphalt with a hammer but I really couldn't get it out. I planted Australian Giant Oxheart in this hole.

In the evening I planted a grafted SunSugar in a large pot (called the “Mighty Mato”) and Hungarian Heart in another rock and asphalt filled hole.

2 comments:

Laura, from the Garden said...

It turned out to be a perfect weekend for planting tomatoes! It looks like we have several of the same varieties planted. I look forward to seeing your results as the summer progresses - we'll have to compare notes.
Laura

Socaltomatoes said...

Time permitting my notes will be here!!