Things Learned

Pease need to be planted much earlier around here. We’ll have a bigger garden, so we’ll plant more and plant them much earlier. Hopefully that will net us  much bigger crop. I am also hoping that we won’t lose half the crop to rabbit invasion!

I lost my entire squash and cucumber crop to vine borers last year, so you’ll excuse me if I show no mercy this go ’round!

Information on organic control can be read here.

• The onions are flowering. I think this means that maybe we can get some seeds? I hope so. Mom says that root veggies flower and then the root parts grow. This was evidenced in her classroom by Potayto and Potahto. She hasn’t blogged about them, but she should (hint, hint).
• The first planting of beans are starting to flower. The second planting is up and looking good.
• My yellow pear tomato plant has already set two little tomatoes! I was shocked when I saw that. It’s very early!
• The okra just poked out looking good and healthy.
• The squash and zucchini have flower buds that have not opened yet. They look to be male and I don’t see any females yet.
• The cucumbers still look tiny. I am hoping that this is normal?
• The peas are still producing, but from the looks of the vines may be just about done. I’ll let them finish up and then pull them out to be replaced with runner beans. Got 2.9 ounces off of them this morning. It’s hard when I see other gardens post in pounds, but I have to remember that we are small-scale and also lost 2/3 of our plants to the rabbit.

Here’s the plants I bought and transplanted today.

Yellow Pear Tomato

Long, indeterminate vines produce a seemingly endless supply of delightfully sweet, pear-shaped tomatoes all summer. The tiny tomatoes are borne in clusters. This is one of the prettiest tomatoes in the garden. Very prolific. Bears dependably through summer weather. Vines can grow 8 feet or longer, so give them a tall support or place to ramble. Space 24 to 36 inches apart. 78 Days.

Homestead F

An old favorite dating from 1954. Developed by the University of Florida especially for hot climates and known for its reliability to set fruit at high temperatures. Produces firm, meaty tomatoes. Large vines help shade fruit to protect from sunburn. Space transplants 24 to 36 inches apart. Resistant to fusarium wilt (F). 80 Days.

Porter’s Dark Cherry VF

Heavy yields of dark pink, small egg-shaped cherry tomatoes, about 1 inch long, appear all season on indeterminate vines in spite of heat and low humidity. This hybrid has a complex, rich taste valued for canning, juicing, and eating fresh. Space 24 to 36 inches apart. Resistant to verticillium (V) and fusarium wilt (F). 74-78 Days.

Early Girls 50 VFF

When gardeners talk about the “first” tomatoes, Early Girl is always there. This may be the most all-round popular hybrid to satisfy that itch for the first fresh tomato of the season. Use them for slicing on a place, into a salad, or on a sandwich. This a proven all-round early hybrid. Use it to jump start your harvest. Early Girl bears lots of fruit for early harvest, but because the vines are indeterminate, they continue producing through summer. Many gardeners plant it again late in the summer so that it will produce a huge fresh crop of “fall tomatoes” quickly before frost. Space 24 to 36 inches apart. 50 Days.

Resistant to verticillium wilt (V) and fusarium wilt races 1 and 2 (F).

Roma VF

Prized for its use in tomato paste and sauces since its introduction in 1955, Roma produces a large harvest of thick-walled, meaty, bright red, egg-shaped tomatoes about 3 inches long and with few seeds. This tomato is not juicy. This is not a slicing tomato. Instead, the flesh is thick and drier so that it will cook down into a thick sauce. Cooking intensifies flavor, too. If you can tomatoes, make your own spaghetti sauce, or like to chop a tomato into an omelet, this is a great choice. It’s not too juicy in the pan compared to slicing tomatoes. The fruit freezes well for later cooking, too. Space plants 24 inches apart. 74-80 Days.

The compact, determinate vines are resistant to verticillium wilt (V) and fusarium wilt (F) and widely adapted throughout the US.

Lemon Boy VFNASt

Lemon Boy hybrid is an eye-catching tomato with wonderful color and flavor. The deep globe fruit is slightly tangy, but also sweet and mild, meaty, and smooth–perfect for slicing. Space 24 to 36 inches apart. 72 Days.

The highly adaptable indeterminate vines are resistant to verticillium wilt (V), fusarium wilt (F), nematodes (N), alternaria stem canker (A), and gray leaf spot (St).

Tomatoes

I spent some time earlier this morning make a last ditch effort to transplant the tomatoes into the garden. I have 3 surviving plants that are making a serious effort at growing in the garden. I transplanted the last of the seedlings. I don’t have really high hopes for them, but we shall see. I may end up buying some store plants just so I can have tomatoes this year. It wouldn’t be terrible, but I am disappointed that the stupid plants that I have babied and coddled for the last several months didn’t do better. As with all garden issues, we will wait and see.

Onions

Onions are good. Still growing. A couple look to have put up flowers? I am confused by that development. When the kids accidentally washed the dirt away from one of the onion bulbs I noticed that it wasn’t very big. I know that the onions won’t be harvest ready until later this summer. Do the bulbs get bigger last?

Beans & Cowpeas

These are growing okay. I can’t, for the life of me, remember when they started producing last year, so I can’t say whether they are growing slower or not. It seems like they are, but maybe I planted later? Or maybe the lack of a late freeze has me confused.

Squash & Zucchini

Both of these appear to be doing well. Lots of leaves and shoots. There appears to be some damage to the seed leaves on some, but the true leaves are unscathed and they have been completely ignored by the rabbit.

Cucumbers

Are these the slowest growing plants ever?

Peas

We have a ton of little pea pods on the vines. Now we just have to wait for them to fatten up! I am so excited for this garden success!

Okra

I planted the okara today. I had meant to plant it earlier and to soak it before planting. I don’t think it matters much though since it produced well into the summer last year with little problem.

The surviving tomato sticks are coming back. They have leaves and everything. The bunny seems preoccupied with gras and clover for now so I hope the tomatoes have a chance to get big again.

This has been a drier spring than I remember. While there have been storms and rain in the area they have managed to miss us altogether for the most part. We get lots of wind and some thunder, but very little in the way of actual moisture.

Bunny Foo-foo hopped out underneath the gate into the driveway. He looked at everyone, turned around and hopped back into the backyard.

Wonder what he would have done if it hadn’t been us? Probably shrugged and gone to finish off the garden.

The rabbit is now a permanent fixture in our backyard. Since he seems to prefer tender young plants he has moved away from most of the garden plants – except the peas. A few have been eaten almost back to the ground. A few are still standing and have even started flowering. I may get some peas yet. During the day the rabbit stays in the yard, eating grass, which is fine with me. Just wish he’d stay out the garden altogether. After a trip to the store on Monday we’re going to whip up some anti-rabbit spray and give that a shot. Maybe if the plants taste bad?

Like I said, the peas are flowering, which is exciting. Hopefully they will continue to survive the nightly salad incursions.

The cucumbers are doing better than they did last year, meaning that they sprouted and have some true leaves. Last year they got so overrun by the squash that they just died away. The squash don’t seem to be growing as fast as last year, but they are growing, as is the zucchini. The rabbit doesn’t seem to like them at all and hasn’t bothered any of them.

The tomato plots are bare. Well, except for one lonely Break o’ Day that won’t die. The rabbit ate all of its leaves off and I though for sure it would be a goner, but lo and behold it grew some new leaves. I may have to actually cage that one. The rest of the remaining seedlings are still in their flat outside being hardened off. On Monday when we get our anti-rabbit spray ready we;ll replant what’s left. If those die or get eaten I’ll just have to buy some store plants. Not terrible, but I really wanted to try some new varieties this year.

Some of the beans didn’t sprout or were eaten as soon as they emerged. Those got replanted. Beans grow so fast that I don’t mind succession planting them anyway. Extends the harvest! The only problem? I used up all of my Blue Lake and Royalty Purple seed. So I won’t have any to replant with later in the season if I need to. I do have plenty of cowpea seeds. I guess if I need to replant those plots I’ll just put in cowpea.

The spinach was a miserable failure. What did grow sprouted a few small leaves and were promptly eaten back to the ground by the Evil Bunny Foo-foo, bringer of death and destruction. So I pulled up the tiny, straggling remainders of the spinach and planted over those squares with beans. Hopefully we’ll have lots of beans this year!

The onions are completely undisturbed by Bunny Foo-foo. I think he may have laid on them once or twice, though I can’t be sure it wasn’t our dog either. I find myself weeding the onion patch more often than anything else. I don’t know why the monkeygrass type weed only grows at that end of the bed, but it does. It comes up almost overnight anytime it rains or I water. Weird.

So, in short, the garden is limping along towards harvest. Hopefully the anti-rabbit spray will help.