What have you done today in the Garden?

BTW @Dirtmechanic , what is are celebrities?

Despite the unusually cold and rainy weather,

spring plants continue to grow, albeit slowly:

 

Celebrity is a hybrid tomato that is grown in very hot areas. It is a slow but steady producer with nice sized and tasty tomatoes. It is resistant to a number of problems we have here in Alabama, nematode and fungi wise. You can always count on a celebrity to produce around here. It will be past 90F in the area this middle week of May. That is hot enough to stop pollination of most tomatoes.

 

Good yo know Dirtmechanic, but clearly not the variety for my neck of the woods!

 

I'd like to add to Dirtmechanic's post that Celebrities are semi-determinate. We have luck cutting them back by 1/3 to 1/2 after the first fruit bearing is done, keeping them alive with water through the heat of summer, and then in late September they start to set fruit again. The fall crop is smaller, but it is a crop!

 

Do you trim back down to a certain point? A certain number of leaves or ??

 

Dirtmechanic, we aren't that exact! I just look at the plant, whack it at a half-way or less point, depending on the size of the plant, and make sure it stays upright and attached to the trellis.

 

I think I am too lazy to do all that in the heat.

 

Once somebody said they cut back their okra and it was bushy-er so I tried it. Timing, temperature, plant conditions are all a part of failure or success. Its alive, growing and in my garden area so I will let it roll as it sees fit to do so, while hoping for the best!

Today put out antifungal and dried chicken manure on the fescue.

 

I have been rehabbing our sorry excuse for a lawn: raked it, scarified the surface, applied gypsum, seeded, watered, reseeded, watered, reseeded yet again! The dang birds kept gobbling up the seed.

Anyway, here are the results so far:

We dont use chemicals on the lawn so it is definitely challenged!

 

I have also been rehabbing what I call my meadow garden. The default had been "throw a bunch of plants together & let them fight it out".

Problem is, the bed became terribly overgrown & I did not want to go near it because of the tick problem here in New England. This year ticks are rampant & they spread lyme disease, babiosis, etc. Very off putting!

SO, my plan is to thin the area out, widen the paths, lay down an area of wood chips between the garden & the woods.

Here is a photo, before:



Do you see how wide this area is? I can't weed it, maintain it without walking IN it & risking picking up a tick.

So here are the start of wide-ish paths:



It may be hard to tell, but those paths have flat rocks on them ( it has been raining here a lot, so the rocks are a bit muddy!)

I may not finish the project this year; although the sun has not shown in the NE US this spring, it will eventually & it will become too late to move all those perennials. But at least I have started & now feel encouraged!

 

today... busy day. My customer who ordered almost 100 flats picked up about 1/2 of the order.
moved hanging baskets out of the greenhouse and high tunnel to the basket racks and shed hook. customers and cleaned up a couple areas that needed finished up.

 

I just spread some wood chips on an area I had weed wacked ( or is it weed whacked? )
yesterday. Then I potted up some perennial divisions.
I will take them to a perennial plant swap on Saturday. I have never been before. It'll be interesting to see how they do it.

 

Oh joy, I just spent a happy hour in the vegetable garden! I picked sugar peas, pulled some baby turnips, picked our first green beans of the season, and picked lettuce. Tonight's dinner may be a vegetable feast!

 

Harvested a few bok choy plants of medium size, now I can repurpose the containers. Will do my best to get the remainder of the seedlings in the ground this evening.

 

Catdaddy, I just started seeds of bok choi!