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.

Ten In The Ground

My wife planted ten tomato seedlings in the back yard yesterday.We're so busy with things that I don't even know their names. I hope to fill in these details later. When I got home last night I opened up a 50 pound bag of gypsum and spread the gypsum over part of our unplanted growing area in the back yard. I shoveled it in as fast as I could, then raked the ground and watered it in to the soil.

TomatoMania was both fun and exhausting as usual. Do a Google search on TomatoMania 2011 and see what's returned.

One of the TomatoMania customers I helped had some mild notoriety about 15 years ago. I recognized him immediately. In the course of asking general questions, I asked him where he resided. I do this to all customers, as the tomato choices will vary if one resides in Venice versus, say Woodland Hills. He told me that he was off of Mulholland and another cross street (I won't say and it doesn't matter) so that verified that I knew the identity of this person. I said "I know who you are." but spoken to convey "I recognize you" and no more. We walked around and I picked out about 20 tomatoes of all shapes, colors and sizes and left him to pick several more. I believe he picked up a few strawberry plants as well but I could be wrong about that. At the counter he held out his hand and said "I'm Bob". Later on I put his seedlings in the back of his car.

He came back to his car and actually tipped me. What a nice thing to do! I immediately put it in my left back pocket...catching my shirt, putting both the end of my shirt and whatever money he tipped into my pocket. The moment I moved, the end of the shirt came out along with the tip. I never saw it again! That's okay, I'm smiling as I write this. He didn't need to do that...not that I wouldn't mind if he came back next year!

Over the last two weeks we pulled out most of the rest of the grass in our new planting area. I pulled up a lot of asphalt with a lot of it in large chunks.

My wife has also planted new tomato seeds recently.

I just got a message from my wife. The ten in the back yard are Snow White, Brandywine (Red or Yellow, we're not sure), Green Zebra, Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe, Black and Brown Boar, Negro Azteca, Berkeley Tie Dye, Oaxacan Jewel, Coyote and Black Krim.