Finally Rain And Tomatoes....

Whoooo hoooo It finally rained. It's amazing how much difference an inch of rain can make. If you look at the top left photo in the collage you will see a stalk of corn that has grown a foot taller then it's siblings.. LOL   amazing. We may still get enough corn for a family dinner. 
   The cucumbers are at death's door, but this morning they were putting on new vines and a few blooms. Maybe just maybe I'll get a few to make our favorite refrigerator pickles. Hubby picked squash yesterday, so you can add about 10 more to the one in the pic. The peppers are small, but the plants just didn't grow much. I'm still hoping for enough tomatoes for Salsa, and spaghetti sauce. Two things we adore. Our friend Abby's mom is hoping for a bumper crop of tomatoes so that she can make spaghetti sauce to can also. 
   This is my first time growing Rutgers tomatoes. I put the ones in the bed in cages. They are doing much better in the raised beds except that they are crowding. so many on the same vine, and the cage is forcing them to remain tightly gathered together. They aren't a huge tomato like Beef Steak, but they can't grow very well when they are so smooshed up together. 
   They are forecasting rain for later tonight and maybe even tomorrow. Those rains have gone all around us this whole summer. I'm really hoping they hit us. Before last Friday night's rain, we'd only had a little less then an inch since June 1st.  Watering is great, but pretty much keeps it alive. Even watering never helped the cucumbers or the pumpkins. We have beautiful pumpkin vines with lots of beautiful flowers.. Not a pumpkin one. My baking friend Abby will be disappointed. 
   Finally a supper from our garden tonight. Some fried summer squash, white beans, cornbread, green beans, and tomatoes. We have a few we picked the other day that are good and ripe. They taste wonderful. You just can't beat a home grown mater... 

Wednesday Wrap Up....

Well after much watering and hard work, more for hubby then myself, the garden is producing a bit. Sadly we are experiencing drought here. We've only had 5 rains here since June 1st and that only amounted to about an inch and a half. The funniest part of it is that you can literally go a mile or so out from our house in just about any direction and they've had more and longer rains. It's just crazy. 

My dear husband has carried water out to the garden every evening. Yes, every evening after the sun goes low. It's unusually hot too. the double wammy. I can honestly say that in the last 36 yrs. I've lived here this has been the worst garden we've had. (not counting the 3 yrs. we didn't have one). 

The raised beds of wood are holding their own. The cement block bed is mostly dead, or shriveling. The intense sun and heat of the day has made those blocks hot, I'm sure it's also heated up the soil. We'll be taking that bed out unless we can find something that loves to live in heated soil. A few hardy bean plants are hanging on and giving us a few beans each day. The squash are doing the best with 3 or 4 a day including the ones planted in the ground. The tomatoes are ok. some have blossom end rot, I think, and are not salvageable. I have checked others and they seem ok for now. The ones in the ground are ok, but are way behind where they should be this time of year. 

The local bunnies have munched on a few beans in their search for water and food. I've kept a pan of water out near the garden for beast and fowl. They use it. Even the birds have resorted to eating the tops of the corn tassels. it's crazy. The trees have been dropping leaves all summer, and the walnuts only grew to the size of a quarter and dropped off the trees. I've already decided to lay in some extra feed for the squirrels this winter. 

I love growing things and even though this garden may pull through on some tomatoes, I'm ok with it being poor. Hubby, not so much. I've included a few photos I took today. it's 10am and everything is shriveling up due to the heat already. It's sad, but that's the life of a gardener. 

The tomatoes have outgrown their cages, the green peppers are on stand by, and the cabbage are giving it the old college try. Cucumbers have surrendered to the heat and drought. 

The corn is only a few inches taller then the squash. The pumpkins made lots of blooms and were pollinated, but not pumpkin one. 

The poor wilted squash in the raised bed is giving it everything she has even though she is shriveling up. 

This is what our poor tomatoes in one of the raised beds is doing. I'm hoping some can be saved. 

Our Pinwheel Party Garden

After a week or so we found that due to the lack of rain our bird and animal friends decided to pull up every seed as it popped it's little head up. Our Chipmunk friends dug up all the bulbs; onion sets included. Rabbits chowed down on our cabbage. Birds also ate our cabbage. Something ate every sweet potato slip. 

After speaking to the neighbor we decided to try the pinwheels. We got the foil ones that reflect in the sun. Our Neighbor has a big Security light out back in his barn. It shines on our Pinwheels. Night lights.. hopefully they won't call the critters to the buffet but will instead send them running in fear.  

I'll add a few photos of the pinwheels. They were .97 cents each at our local Walmart. We found them back in the toy section. after using them for a few weeks we can say as long as there is enough breeze to make them spin Nothing goes into the garden. Nothing is being pulled up or dug up. When they are not moving, the birds are back in the garden looking for food. 

I believe a lot of the bird issues are due to a lack of rain. We have had only one rain for about 15 minutes in the past 4 weeks. We water daily. We are not holding out much hope for the crops we planted in the ground. 

I Just Couldn't Resist The Tomatoes...

I found two of these beauties at our local Wal-mart on one of my shopping trips this weekend. I was amazed at how large they were already. They are Beefsteak type tomato plants. If you are not familiar with them, they make really big slicing tomatoes. The kind that will cover a slice of bread, or the side of your plate. The kind you slice for the dinner table and wonder how you will eat it all. They are not for canning, or salsa, salads, or tacos. They are for slicing and eating.. huge, big, juicy slices. See how I am so easily wooed by their power and charm. I just couldn't resist these tomatoes.

I fretted about getting them for a bit. I walked around the garden center considering them for a good 15 minutes. The main reason, "how could I keep them alive to plant in the garden". It's still in the 30's here at night. We still have frost and can have a freeze for another 4 weeks. That and I am not positive we will have a garden. So another question to consider is what do I do with these beauties if I don't have a garden patch for them.

I decided to look for pots, and potting soil. That took another 15 minutes. I needed a pot that was big enough to hold them if I couldn't transplant, and one that I could move myself in and out each day. I want them out in the real sun as often as we have sunny days. That will require myself or hubby toting them in and out. So the pot had to be lightweight.

Another problem with me is watering. I tend to over-water stuff. I don't know why, I just do. The pots had to have drainage holes and I needed to remember to Steal some of the gravel we had put on our drive this spring. That would require some secret agent tactics, cause hubby is very proud of his pretty gravel and would not give up a pebble of it for a pot.

(I didn't think he would, but he did.. Way to go Dearest)

Drainage holes were a must just in case I decided to go crazy with the watering. I hope that we will have some warm rain. Rain water is much better for growing garden stuff then the well water. Another mystery to me.

Another thing was to make sure I had good potting soil just in case.. I had no trouble with that one. I have used Miracle grow potting soil in the past, and it's great. There is Miracle grow time released fertilizer right in the dirt, so no need to fertilize.

(doing the "don't have to fertilize" dance)

This is the Pot I chose. It's just perfect. Lightweight, there are holes in the bottom.

(the bottom is off this one) and it has a small reservoir to hold excess water. The bottom was in the house on the table where it will stay when taking the pots in and out of the house.

The plants look larger to me today. They are so much happier in the new dirt where their zillions of tiny roots can stretch and grow.

I am really hoping I can keep them alive until the end of May. Memorial Day Weekend is usually the weekend we plant our garden if the weather is right, and the earth is warm. I'm so excited for summer and these tomatoes. I'll take more pictures as time goes on. Hopefully I will have a couple of those giant juicy wonders to show you in a few months.

Time To Start Thinking About The Garden

The first of the garden magazines came in the mail last week. I'm excited... Husband had me get on-line and order about 10 more seed catalogs. I ordered a few extra.. LOL So we have a wide variety to peruse through..

This is a little early for us to start dreaming about the garden. I think it's because we've had a warm up for the past few days. Some of the snow has started to melt, and thinking about being warmer means garden planning..

I have planned some gardens ! I mean, I have P L A N N E D some gardens now.. I have planned rock gardens, herb gardens, rose gardens, flower gardens, butterfly gardens, hummingbird gardens, and vegetable gardens.. I have planned huge gardens, small gardens, window box gardens, and Truck farms.. (giggle) I have planned many an orchard and nut tree farm.. I can PLAN a garden.. It's the getting it all together, working up the ground, planting, weeding, fertilizing, picking, and canning that I'm not in to so much.. I guess I should take back the word canning.. and planting.. I love to can and I love to plant.. I love to watch it all grow.. I do NOT like weeding or picking..

Dear husband has always had a garden. He worked with his mama in their garden every summer as soon as he was old enough to walk. He worked with his brothers in their gardens. (he was the baby in the family) When he had his own home, he immediately fixed a garden spot.. planted fruit trees and grapes. He put a garden in for the neighbor lady. She owns the field behind our house. He put in a garden for her and She let him put in 2 acres of garden for himself as his pay for planting and caring for hers.

Our garden is much smaller now. Just a section of the back yard. Our rototiller needs work, and husbands back won't take much in the way of hoeing, planting, or picking. We have a nephew who came and worked up the garden for us a couple of summers ago. We were so thankful.. It just wasn't a good year. So we didn't get much out of it. Last summer another nephew offered to give us his garden excess (as have other family members) But last year was a really bad year. Cold and wet for most of the summer. We didn't even buy much from the roadside markets.

I'm not sure we will be able to have a garden this year. Husband has mentioned just working up a small area and sticking out a few tomato plants. His back just won't take running the tiller anymore.. He wants those garden catalogs so he can order some plants. He was really excited to see that he could get plants..

I don't know if we'll have a garden this year. I hope we do. Maybe our nephew can come over and work up a little space in the garden for us. Maybe I'll talk our friend into coming over and looking at the tiller. I'll bet between husband (whose eyes are bad) and him, they could get it running again.. For now I'm going to say YES, WE WILL HAVE A GARDEN.. It will take me a little longer to weed it, and I may have to water it. I may even have to pick most of it.. But man will it be great to watch it grow, taste it's goodness.. and share it with friends and family.

Yep, it's time to start thinking about the garden. Time for me to PLAN...