This year I decided to pick up a "mini" greenhouse and get the seedlings started with ample time to attempt to not need to purchase any starter plants this year. I started everything from pollinators to an easter egg plant with a handful of tomato and pepper varieties. While trying to get the lighting dialed in I had a few "leggy" starters and ended up increasing the light as well adding more dirt and looping their stems down into the soil for (hopefully) stronger roots. I highly recommend using decomposable containers as it makes transplanting a breeze.
The tomatillos have taken off the quickest, and to date (4/2) I've had to pull off around two dozen flowers already. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how these yield with the fast start. I also did start mostly everything fairly early Inside, and we have a few that are getting close to solid "starter" states. The other early season update is I ended up adding a garden bed to the north side of the yard. We had a "dead spot" in the yard and after failing miserably at re-seeding with grass we just switched the purpose. 16 planter blocks and 10 2"x6"x8's later we had a beautiful start to a second garden bed.
I transplanted most of the veggies between 4/27 and 5/3. Of course Ohio cooled off a couple nights and it was necessary to cover those that had already been transplanted. In addition to the cooler temps there were oddly high winds at times which snapped off a main branch of the tomatillo but didn't seem to impact much else. After realizing I confused tomato varieties (lush queen and green zebra) I had to order a few more sets of seeds including green zebra, orange hat (dwarf variety), purple bumble bee (cherry), and large barred boar tomatoes. Those are still inside but will be going out once they are large enough. I also have a mini compost experiment going where I'm trying to mix enough brown and green material to begin that process (with sufficient nutrients for compost as opposed to just occupying space as fill dirt). Poppa powers was also kind enough to turn some filament into beautiful 3D printed labels for the garden. Thanks pops!
As of 5/11 its looking like we'll have one more evening of frost potential. The shanty town is up and protecting the maters but will hopefully be coming inside tomorrow. In addition to going bonkers with tomatoes, I had grabbed a strawberry starter, and we had our first two strawberries on the 8th. Holy cow strawberries right off the plant are amazing.... so I picked up another half dozen starters. I'll be putting those into a long container here once the frost has passed. Our basil also hadn't taken off well inside, so I ended up grabbing 4 basil starters when I bought the strawberries.
5/21 - The plants survived the frost and the tomatillo has continued to surprise me. I took a little less care of that one after a few branches had broken off between rough days of hardening off, but this dude has bounced back. With the frost scares being in the past we can start to update the bed. We threw a splitter on the B-Hyve and ran a hose with a soaker attached to the new bed so automated watering is in place for whenever we're out of town (or if I'm feeling lazy). A few pavers and some river rocks were added to clean the space up a little bit as well.
Regarding actual plant progress, the sweet 100 has had the first bulbs start to show, the lemon boy and blue golds also have had their first flowers show up. Speaking of the blue golds, these tomatoes mature with dark blue and black sections and it has been fascinating watching the stems and leaves begin to darken already. Yes. Fascinating.
The everbearing strawberries are continuing to produce a few at a time and I'm looking forward to a bumper crop of junebearing fruit when those 6 plants begin to produce. The green zebras have been transplanted since last time, and we still have a few more plants chilling in the greenhouse until they are strong enough to either transplant or pot. These include the large barred boar, purple bumble bee, Turkish egg plant, Easter egg plant, aloha bell, and the ornamental peppers. The other cool (yes, cool) thing I'm testing as well is pulling a sucker off the yellow radiance and "planting" it in water in the greenhouse until roots develop and then ideally planting that. We'll see how that goes. The only other update really at this point is the dwarf hat cherry tomatoes are looking super healthy and are spending more and more time outside. I intend to leave these in pots and I've been bringing them in at night since the Chadwick cherries were "topped" by some hungry birds. I still transplanted them to see what happens, but without main stems this early I'm not sure how they'll progress. I also managed to get a rain barrel installed for rain fueled free 55 gallons of water!
The final new thing I have been playing with is bolstering the pollinators that we have in the garden. I picked up a few starters and a couple seed packets to get that section going, but I have also been harvesting seeds from the marigolds and then putting those immediately back into the garden. I'm hoping for a wild flower-esque presentation but with marigolds surrounding the pansies and carnations we already have.
6/6 - We have been getting some great rain as of late, and the garden is thriving because of it. Memorial Day made for our first 3 day weekend away from the garden, and with that rain the B-Hyve only had to run once, but its nice knowing the automated watering is functioning well. Today was also a milestone date for the lemon boys, blue golds, and yellow pear tomatoes as they all showed off their first bulb. The snowbird peas have also starting to form pods (that I'm tracking as "bulbs" - this may lead to some database configuration but we'll see) and have been looking pretty healthy. My tomato clips have arrived so I have been using those to support both last years jalapeños as well as the tomatoes. The clips snug in around the plant as well as a piece of twine tied off to larger stakes for that additional support.
6/18 - We've harvested 3 cherry tomatoes and our green beans have started to come in! The bulbs across the board for tomatoes have been looking quite healthy, with the sweet 100 and yellow pear coming in most prominently to this point. The rain barrel is also feast or famine, and we go thru 55 gallons quicker than I would have thought. Next year or in the off season I think we'll have to start daisy chaining them because of how quickly they fill up when it does rain and it makes it painfully obvious where we're missing out on storage.
7/26 - We were out of town and the garden managed to thrive while we were gone. Automated watering has been great for everything that has the drip hose running. While on vacation, I happened to stumble across Ruth Stout's No-Work Garden Book: Secrets of the Famous Year Round Mulch Method and have since covered all of our beds. It would have been nice doing so before time away, but I'll settle with what we've got. The orange hat dwarfs did struggle a little, but they've bounced back and begun producing as well. So far we've pulled 6, and these yellow/orange tomatoes pack a great flavor in a tiny package. They aren't quite as good as the Sweet 100s, but they're up there. The pink berkeleys have been coming in the strongest as far as the slicers are concerned. They have been hearty, healthy, and abundant, and I'm thrilled with those attributes. We have pulled two lush queens that have both been huge in comparison to even the largest of any other variety. The dark galaxy and blue golds sit in a little more moderately sized than a cherry, but not quite a slicer. I've been impressed with the couple lemon boys we've had so far, they give a similar appearance to a beefsteak, just with a deep yellow hue.
The peppers are slowly coming in as well. We've had a single big daddy and 63 jalapeños so far (still the plant from last year). The aloha bell and ornamentals have yet to produce but are looking healthy and I'll plan to keep potted in case we want to bring them in during the winter. We also did pull our first two turkish eggplants and san marzanos. We're still letting them ripen up inside a little before we try them, but the optimism is high.
8/17 - At this point I am sold on the mulching and will continue to do so. Our harvests have also been coming in strong (leading up to the inaugural Tomato Fest this weekend) and have been the most enjoyable looking at our harvests by month from this season compared to last. Last July we had pulled 293 vegetables and this year we harvested 1,109. That growth is awesome in my mind and is making me plan for what next year will hold.
In preparation for Tomato Fest we have been trying to share some of each type of tomato so those who are coming can have an idea of what flavors will be present (and so they can fill out the survey). I also ended up doing our first trade of tomatoes for an amazing country loaf from an old friend's new bread company: Good Hands Bread Company. My enthusiasm for the garden continues to remain high, especially as it brings smiles from all around. It's funny how tomatoes are able to facilitate that.
9/5 - First of all, tomato fest was a hit! We captured some pretty great data from everyone who cooperated with my requests for data points. If you have an interest, the results can be found here: Tomato Fest Results. Tomato based snacks ranged from classic bruschetta to tomato pie and everywhere in between.
Our Corno di Toro peppers have started to come in and look beautiful while tasting as expected (sweet). The ornamental peppers ended up being pretty hot which was a surprise popping one in my mouth expecting something sweet. We currently have 2 of the orange hat dwarfs producing well and outside all the time, with another half dozen plants in the greenhouse waiting to move out before the season starts to turn. I've been keeping on top of turning the compost when adding new materials and it's progressing quite well. We have some that is near soil, but I'll continue to turn and add to it until next year.
Harvest wise we pulled nearly 3,000 vegetables in August alone, which was more than our entire last year of veggies. The sweet 100 and yellow pear continue to be way out ahead of everything else and each of those were from a single plant. We had planted two yellow pears, but it wasn't until recently I noticed one was grown over and died by everything else that was crowded into the U shaped bed.
When November rolls around we know it's time to move on from the garden for the year. We ended this year with 6,289 vegetables harvested with the majority of those being cherry tomato varieties. I think the past two years have given me a decent enough base to probably ease up on data gathering going forward and just enjoy gardening for gardening itself.
