Gardening

joeboo_sl said:

We've been getting roma tomatos and other smaller varieties for several weeks now, but our Beefsteak tomatos are a goddamn mess. Tons of like cracks and fissures in them, they look horrid. A neighbor told me that happens when the weather(heat) fluctuates wildly during the summer, which we have had here so far. A few days here and there in the 90s, but most days in the high 70s and low 80s, with nights dipping down into the 50s occasionally. Stark contrast to last summer when we had something like 12 straight days over 100 degrees by this point in the summer, and almost no rain to speak of. This year everything is still lush and green as cool and as wet as it has been.

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Gravy_sl said:

I'm no expert, but I've heard cracking comes from variance in watering. Dry to really wet, the insides of the tomato grow faster than the outside. Could be an old wives tale. We mulch with old newspapers, and it helps keep the ground moist. Looks pretty hillbilly though if your garden is in a view-able area.

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Yeah, I've read the splitting is from over watering, I'm sure the variance of really dry to really wet makes it even worse.

This was our 2nd year doing a vegetable garden and we're going to continue making improvements this year. It rained hard for like 10 days straight here pretty much killing our garden due to over watering. Next year we'll be sure to take preventative measures.

See, I read somewhere that tomatoes liked a good deep watering every few days. I water mine probably about every three days on average and it has been unseasonably hot and dry here. No splitting for me whatsoever, they are looking beautiful. Used the same technique last year to great success. Maybe variety specific or what I consider a "deep" watering isn't "over-watering" or something I dunno, but that is my anecdotal experience.

Get some of the pruning paint. It's like tar, and it will stop the tree from "bleeding out" at the cut spot.

Window ripening the last of the tomatoes. Had one last night, and they are still pretty tasty.

What to do with 1/2 bushel of green tomatoes? Fried green tomatoes are good, but not for that many.

Lots to do with green tomatoes, I made green tomato salsa with what I had left on my plants. Try a few things out:

Green Tomato Recipes - Allrecipes.com

Gravy_sl said:

Window ripening the last of the tomatoes. Had one last night, and they are still pretty tasty.

What to do with 1/2 bushel of green tomatoes? Fried green tomatoes are good, but not for that many.

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Buy one of those shitty tomatoes from the store and put the green ones in a bag with it. The gas from the ripe one will ripen your green ones pretty quick.

So happy to see a gardening thread here. I have an 1100 sq. ft. plot in my backyard that is new this year, so our first work in it will be spring of 2015. It is currently packed with 13 cubic yards of aged horse manure.

I'm new to Pacific Northwest gardening, so if there are any other PNW gardeners I'd love to hear your advice. I am enrolled in WSU's Master Gardener program starting in Jan 2015.

I've been gardening organically in the midwest for years and am worried I won't be able to grow some of the heat lovers that excel in the midwest like corn, tomatoes, eggplant, etc. Although this year being our first summer here was decently warm compared to what I had heard, mostly 70-80's although that really didn't start until June. I only had about 400 sq. ft. of space back in Ohio but grew a surprising amount of vegetables (sweet corn, tomatoes, beans, peas, lettuce, spinach, squash, etc).

For this upcoming year I am going to try using Territorial seeds:
- field corn, pumpkins, butternut squash, and beans in a 3 sisters plot
- 3 tomato varieties (amish paste, beefsteak, san marzano)
- peas (snow, sugar snap, sweet)
- eggplant
- flax (I'd like to try for both seeds and fiber)
- herbs (culinary and medicinal)
- potatoes (white & sweet)
- much more

I don't see any issues with you growing any of the stuff you listed up here in the PNW. Some of those things really excel up here. I don't know when you would plant in Ohio but for up here generally it is a couple weeks later than what the packages recommend. Can't really be guaranteed to be frost free until May. This summer was unseasonably warm but you can pretty much bet on good stretches of sunshine from July 5th on and summer has been known to linger into early October more often than not (but can also easily disappear Sept. 1st).

Elsebet_sl said:

aged horse manure.

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Like a fine wine.

You'll probably get more information from that class than we can give you. I can't remember how much off-season snow drops around your area. That would be what I would worry about most.

We might be a bit late planting, but since this is our first year I'm being overly cautious. Per the guides the last frost date here (east of Seattle, WA) is April 22. We started our tomatoes (San Marzano & cherry), brussels sprouts, and eggplant indoors last weekend, planning to have them in the ground sometime after Mother's Day. They are already mostly sprouted and under artificial light 18 hours a day. This is the first time I've used artificial light for seedlings, in our Ohio house we had a huge south facing window that was plenty for starting seedlings due to having many more sunny (if not cold) days.

This week we put our German Butterball potatoes, carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, and 3 types of peas (shell, snow, and snap) in the ground. I'm excited to see how it works out. We need to install deer/rabbit proof fencing before they start coming up.

In another two weeks or so I'll start the pumpkins and squash indoors for a mid-May transplant. Around the same time I plan to pre-sprout the corn and put it in the ground if the soil is warm enough.

Jeff Renner always said don't plant before May 2nd here in the PNW. That is (was) basically the guaranteed frost-free date around here, so I have always waited till then and have always had bountiful harvests. This year, I'm planting within the next week on most of my stuff. Every long term forecast I've seen shows our overall warming trend to continue. Even if we do get a slight frost here or there in the next couple of weeks I can't imagine it being severe enough to majorly affect anything.

Generally our summer will run into mid-to-late October.

I'm ready to get tomatoes (HAHA) in the ground soon, we got them in way too late last year. It's been in the 80's this week, but we are still at least probable for another frost.

Gravy_sl said:

I'm ready to get tomatoes (HAHA) in the ground soon, we got them in way too late last year. It's been in the 80's this week, but we are still at least probable for another frost.

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Gotta love Midwest weather. Dropped down into the high 30s last night, and will be in the 70s today. 40+ degree temp swings each day make planning anything difficult. My wife is itching to get her garden going, but I think we're going to wait a couple more weeks, probably shoot for the 1st weekend of May

Nah man, you gots ta grow that 'dro in the attic in case the 5-0 comes sniffin' around na'mean?

I covered my entire garden with cardboard last year, and then put 2 inches of compost on top of it. Turned a bit of it up earlier this week, it's good to go. Now, if I could just get the bloody weather to cooperate!

Anyone have experience/advice for asparagus crowns?

We ordered 25 from Territorial Seed and followed their instructions. We dug 3 trenches, 1 foot deep. In the trenches we made 8 mounds of compost and set the crowns on them, then covered with about 2 inches of soil and watered them. I'm wondering if they need floating row covers while they are in this rather vulnerable state? I am worried I will return home tonight and something will have dug them all up!

mures_sl said:

Next year we'll be sure to take preventative measures.

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So the plan initially was to set some hooks on our fence and grill patio to hang a tarp so we could put it up and remove it as needed, but I came up with the brilliant idea of making a screen, so I stapled two large pieces of patio screen to a stick on each side and placed brackets on the fence and grill patio to rest the sticks on and it works perfectly. It lets in a much smaller amount of water and still lets in plenty of sunlight, can leave it up as long as we like.

Getting more knowledgeable each year, hope this one turns out well. A good friend of mine makes killer home made salsa and we're growing almost all the ingredients needed, looking forward to some fresh ass salsa.

Does lawn care count as gardening? We bought this place a couple years ago and the previous owners were an elderly couple. The yard hadn't been raked in years, forget any real care, from what I've been told by neighbors. When I raked up all the leaves after we moved in some of the grass was in such bad shape it was like a bad toupee. Pulled up giant clumps of grass and now there are massive bald spots all over the place. The "grass" that is still there is all ratty and nasty/weedy looking. Is there a relatively cheap way to help rejuvenate our lawn or do I need to scorched earth it and start from scratch?