Garden fairies here.
We are garden fairies and we have decided enough is enough, it is time to provide an update on The Vegetable Garden Cathedral because apparently if we don’t do it, no one (Carol) will do it.
Well, the first thing we have to report… let’s get this bad news over with first… Granny ‘Gus’ McGarden is just beside herself with worry. The ‘German Johnson’ tomatoes, which traditionally are supposed to be, have to be, must be, the first ripe tomatoes each summer, have blooms but no tomatoes.
And there are a bunch of Roma-type tomatoes with tomatoes coming on and some ‘Rutgers’ tomatoes with tomatoes coming on and of course cherry tomatoes, too, all threatening to ripen first.
Carol is going to have to disqualify every single one of them as they ripen and come up with plausible–yes we said plausible– reasons as to why they are not, cannot be, and will not be the official first ripe tomato of the season.
Because the first ripe tomato of the season has to be the ‘German Johnson’ tomato.
That’s the tradition, and that’s just how it has to be.
In other vegetable garden news, the pepper plants look terrible. Carol fertilized them last night and then watered them. Which she had to do by hand, the watering, because her sprinkler broke. She didn’t really get mad though because by her recollection, she’d had that sprinkler for 25 years. For a sprinkler, that’s a pretty good run.
Anyway, we are garden fairies and we remain hopeful that the pepper plants will snap out of whatever funk they are in and start doing better. Soon.
And we are grateful that when Carol came out last evening to fertilize the garden and water it, she realized the tomato plants have grown at least a foot since she last looked, and so she took the time to sucker them and tie them up.
Yes, sucker them and tie them up because she stakes her tomatoes which as regular long-term readers of this blog know, and as she wrote in her book, Homegrown and Handpicked: A Year in a Gardening Life, staking is the proper, correct, and best way to grow tomatoes.
We are just going to put it out there. Only slackers cage their tomatoes.
What else? Oh, one of the squash plants has powdery mildew of some kind on it, but thankfully, most don’t. Carol was almost happy about it because pretty soon she’s going to write an article about squash troubles and that will be one of the troubles she writes about, we think.
We are garden fairies and there is more to say about the goings on in The Vegetable Garden Cathedral and here at May Dreams Gardens, but we just don’t have the time to write it all down so we are going to end with a plea to Carol to please come out here and weed again. She should know by now that weeding isn’t a “once and done” activity, but a constant necessity in a vegetable garden.
The pumpkin plants, especially, have made noises about moving on if she doesn’t weed their bed soon.
And that’s all we care to report. Granny ‘Gus’ McGarden says “hi” to all and she hopes that she can still produce a good harvest from the garden, in spite of Carol getting such a late start planting everything. Or maybe just to spite Carol.
But we are garden fairies, not miracle workers.
Submitted by: Violet Greenpea Maydreams, Chief Scribe and Head of Flowers at May Dreams Gardens
Hey, Granny Gus McG, good luck on that harvest! By the way, if you don't recognize a couple of the garden fairies, it's possible some of those from my corner of Katy hitched a ride to Indiana with Carol when she visited here in May. They'll be the ones that talk funny!
Guess I am a slacker. Cages are needed here since we also don't sucker tomatoes. Stakes are just not sufficient. But I am glad they work for you!
Hello Garden Fairies!
I cage my tomatoes, but not with those flimsy store-bought cages. I bought a roll of hog-wire type fencing about 5 feet tall. Cut it into lengths, form it into a circle, and secure the ends together. Set one around each young tomato plant. I bury the lowest row of wire in the ground so it doesn't fall over. Bricks placed here and there will help stabilize it, too. Just be sure the gaps between the wires are large enough for your hand and the biggest tomatoes!
It looks like 'Summer Set' (a determinate type) will be my first tomato to get ripe.
Happy Gardening!
We've grown the same tomatoes in the past and yes you're right about cages. I said we but really mean husband, that's his side of the back yard and his garden. I'll have to post some pics of his crop soon and you'll see why cages would never work for farmer John.
I stake my tomatoes. I do remove the suckers!
I grow my tomatoes, beans, squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, melons, raspberries, and blackberries on a walk-through trellis. Using galvanized plumbing, it is four foot wide, 6 1/2' high (8' length total, pounded into the ground, then quickmix concrete or even crushed stone), about four feet apart. Fencing wire (four inch square gaps are best for getting your hands through) is then draped over and tied onto the plumbing with wire. You can make it as long as you like. If you'd like photos, please let me know.
I use fencing row like Rob above does but mine is in a straight line. The fence was left by the previous homeowner, along with truckloads of other junk, so we put it to use every year.
Jeannie@GetMetoTheCountry