The Year of the Tomato

Have you ever noticed that when all the right variables come together at just the right time, under just the right conditions, incredible things can happen? Well I believe that this is going to be one of those times.

Here are the variables as I see them:

1. After a really dry year last year, I learned my lesson and put in a drip system.
2. We started trying to be more conscientiousness and sustainable and started composting and amending the soil.
3. We put up the greenhouse which allowed us to start our tomatoes before the last frost of the winter.
4. The Atlanta summer has come in like a roaring lion!
5. At just the right times, we've gotten nice thunderstorms to add that little extra "umph" to our garden.

With all these lining up just right, I'm believing that we're going to have bumper crop of veggies, especially tomatoes. Just a feeling? I don't think so.

We're still a week away from summer and the plants are loaded down with green, pinkish, green and red striped, and full out red tomatoes.

The Mr. Stripy heirloom (pic at left) is making some very interesting and delicious looking striped tomatoes.

Our Big Boy tomato plant is so tall now that it has grown out of the top of the greenhouse and I'm resorting to tying the cage down so that the wind and rain doesn't topple the whole thing.

When we were on vacation last week in Seattle, I have to admit that I had black "dirt" envy. My son's garden looks like what mine would if I were to just use compost in my raised beds. But I must say that the blazing heat of the south surely makes good tomatoes.

The one Cherokee Purple plant is definitely in the running for the largest and darkest green tomatoes in the garden.

But the prize so far goes to the smallest of the lot. In less than a week of harvesting, we've already taken around 30 small but wonderfully flavored cherry red's off of a single bush and it is loaded with clumps of green fruit from top to bottom that have already proven to be great additions to salads.

I think my granddaughters tried these out before I did and were impressed.

I even have a couple of plants that have popped up in a flower pot in the front of the house. I thing they hitch-hiked from some of the dirt that I brought from the woods at the back of our lot.

I truly think this will be the Year of the Tomato!

All I can say is "bring it on".

Chris

3GT

Compost Is Ready

I hope you found my first post on my DIY tumbler composting helpful.

Today, I took the PVC door of my greenhouse apart (so that no more PVC's were killed in the process) and by adding a bit of vinyl hardware cloth, built a sifter to sift the smaller particles of compost from my compost tumbler.

I used the PVC clips that I'd made to hold the hardware cloth on the PVC. I was amazed at how well they work and the whole sifter took me less than 30 minutes to assemble. It fits nicely on the top of my wheel barrow and by turning it so the mesh on the bottom, the PVC forms a nice edge that keeps the compost from escaping off the sides.

I was truly amazed at easily my 55 gallon compost tumbler turned out some really nice compost. If ever I had any doubts, they are totally gone now.

I sifted out the smaller pieces and set aside the larger ones for continued composting.

Tomorrow, I may try to run them through my chipper/shredder (that I got a deal on at a yard sale) before I put them back into the tumbler with a whole new batch of green and brown material to kick start the process.

I took a shovel full or so of the compost and wrapped it up in an old tee-shirt and put it in a 5 gallon bucket of water to start a batch of compost tea (pics to come with my next compost post).

Large material that didn't make the sifting.

After all sifting was done, about 1/2 of my LARGE wheel barrow was filled with nice compost. I had enough to fill two empty manure bags that I'd held on to for just such an occasion.

I'd have to say that it was definitely worth the wait.

Going to use some of this nice stuff to fortify some soil for two white grape vines that I'm ready to plant and to side dress some tomatoes.

Don't think I've ever seen soil this black in Georgia!

Planting The Generations

I guess when you get right down to it, I'd say that my wife and I have both come from a long history of farmers; not that I've ever put much though into it.

I recall my grandfather planting large fields of strawberries, corn, peanuts and the like. I wish that he was still around so I could really "learn" from him instead of just being a carefree child visiting their farm.

With a smile on her face, my wife has often told me stories of riding on the tractor with her grandfather to the his corn fields and of the farm and animals that were always there.

Planting tree seeds with grand-dad.

Both my father and father-in-law have always had "gardens" that would rival some of the small sustainable living farms that you read about these days.

And as for us, the first time my wife and I planted a garden, in North Alabama, we had someone with at tractor come over and plow up about 1/4 of our backyard. Then we used a tiller to break up the larger "clods". I don't even want to think about the blisters and of how many times I almost buried that tiller in a foot of dirt because it was plowed so deep! We planted and grew so much in that first garden that we gave away 3/4 of the food. Our kids were right there helping.

Who could imagine that soil and planting could become the bedrock of such fond generational memories? And now, my son and daughter are carrying on the agrarian traditions of their heritage in their own ways, with new purpose and meaning.

My daughter and their family use raised beds for veggies, herbs and the like and teach their own kids to plant, harvest and care for the earth (Simple Gifts),

My son and his wife have become involved in an inner-city "pea patch" garden in Seattle to grow some really nice veggies in the incredibly rich northwestern soil. He's gotten actively involved with helping with research studies on their city's rooftop gardening program and how rooftop gardens can assist in soaking up some of the seemingly constant rain.

And now, they are breaking ground on a new community garden on a vacant lot in the heart of West Seattle (Grow Charlestown) and teaching others the benefits and joys of gardening and eating locally grown food.

Even more than sports, music, crafts, or almost any other "activity" that I can think of right now, planting and gardening can draw the generations together in a way that leave the other things seeming sort of hollow. Maybe it's just me, but I long for a more family-based community where we are more a part of each others' lives, planting the values we cherish in the soil of generations to come.

Chris

3GT

DIY Greenhouse Over Raised Bed Garden

At the end of last year's growing season, October 2010, I decided to put together a greenhouse or hoop house (depending on your definition) over our two raised garden beds. I was hoping for an extension of our growing season a bit. The tomatoes held on a bit longer than they would have if the full effect of the Atlanta frost had have gotten to them, but the PingTung eggplant still wilted away just from the cold.

What we didn't expect was just how much our various types of lettuce would grow throughout the winter. We planted red sails, deer tongue and arugula near the end of the fall season not knowing whether or not they'd even come up, they thrived! In fact, during the worst snow storm that we'd had since the early 1990's, we actually picked our greens and made salads from the garden. The broccoli got a very nice head start in the greenhouse as well!

I'd see several examples of small greenhouses online and being the do-it-yourselfer that I am, I put together a parts list and made a run to the hardware store.

A few things about our raised beds to start with. As with many people, we started with a single raised bed. I used untreated 2x10's with 2 stacked on top of each other. The second one, I wasn't quite as cautious and used 1x8's that I had left over from some work I'd done on the house.

I had enough sense to make these parallel to each other, but because of the slope of my yard I didn't make the ends line up with the other bed. Consequently, during the construction, I ended up taking one end off the first bed, the heaviest one of course, and moving it about 2 feet to line up with the other one. You really don't want to move one of these things!

I built it with a door and with sides that could be raised (as in the picture) on those warm spring days.

I wonder if anyone is interested in seeing some details about how I put it together, construction costs, passive heating and the like?

Let me know if you are and I'll put up a part 2 with some nifty ideas on how to keep the plastic on and what kinds of materials to use.

Oh... did I mention that it held up under 4 + inches of snow!

2014 Edit -
      Living in the south, we don't often get all that much snow but this year we had a crazy ice storm.  When I was able to get outside, the ice, which weighed several hundred pounds had cracked three of the ribs of our greenhouse!  I ended up taking everything down and we now just have two raised beds with lots and lots of lettuce.  I love the spring!

If you're interested in how to construct one using my design, see my post on DIY Greenhouse Construction.

Eating Okra Leaves

I was reading through one of the gardening books that we've picked up over the last year. The book was something like "Burpee's Total Gardening". Anyway, I was looking at plants that were cold resistant for things to winter in my unheated greenhouse and was reading through various other ones as well about some of the ways to prepare them when I read something I'd never heard of before.

In the section on Okra, it said that the plant was a perennial that is planted as an annual and because of its Hibiscus-like blooms, and that it was more at home in the flower bed than the garden. But that's not the strangest thing... Under the section on preparation it said that the leaves were also edible! So, me being bold as I am, I went out and tore off one of the leaves and chomped down.

I was amazed! The leaves are actually very nice tasting. So, put that in your memory bank and freak someone out sometime when you start eating the leaves off their Okra plant.

Chris

3GT

Spaghetti Sauce Recycling

Last week my wife left me... it was a very sad time for me. But before you jump to any inaccurate conclusions, our marriage is as good as it has ever been over the past 31 years. She travels home every month or so to take care of her mom and dad, helping out with doctor's appointment, clothes shopping for her mom (who has Alzheimer's disease), etc.

Before she takes the trip, she stocks up things for me to eat at for dinner while she's away. This shopping trip I was with her and we decided that spaghetti would be good with a huge salad with the abundant greens we have in our garden, this time of year. So, I picked out a sauce that looked like it would be a good base (I'm near obsessive with adding extra herbs to things... drives her nuts sometimes).

Fast forward to the night of the bachelor spaghetti dinner... I opened the jar and tasted it to add to the meat that I'd prepared for it. Mmmm ... pretty good... added a few things to placate my herb-adding urges.

Then, I noticed something about the jar, besides the label, there was something different about the jar. There were designs of some kind in the glass. No... it was writing. I rinsed out the jar (distracted from my dinner) and noticed that there were measurement lines and other writing under the label.

Then I had a though... hey, since we do some canning of our garden veggies, I wonder if a canning jar lid will fit this thing?

I opened the drawer, rummaged around and found a small lid ring and true to form the thing fit PERFECTLY!

After soaking in some warm water, the label came right off revealing the label: ATLAS MASON.

You have to understand that we're really not brand loyalists in our home, but I decided then and there that the next spaghetti sauce that we buy will be Classico in their recyclable Atlas Mason canning jars.

Wonder if their marketing department knew how people would react to this decision and how directly it would effect someone's buying habits?

Who knew that saving the planet's resources could be so yummy? :)

Chris

3GT

My first Deciduous Azalea !

Living in the Atlanta area, I've fallen into the rat race trap of always being in a hurry. I rarely take the time to stop and really look at other homes' landscaping. I really long for a slower paced life!

For years, as I've hurried along in my rush to get to wherever I'm going. I leave our subdivision, turn left, go down the hill and around the curve to the right. At the point of the bend in the road, where it's almost too dangerous to stop, there's a drive on right with a home that sets back about 200 yards. There's nothing really special about the small, single story home, but there is one feature on the edge of their drive that has caught my eyes year after year.

As I zoom past this driveway I catch a beautiful flash of orange from around a six foot tall "tree" and I've always wondered what kind of tree has orange foliage. I've always wondered, but have never stopped to ask the owner, what kind of tree this isroad that goes into our subdivision, I have always seen and admired (if not envied) the beautiful orange "tree"

This year, while watching an online video on how to trim azalea, the instructor had the common evergreen azalea and was showing how that by trimming it correctly after the blooms drop, you can product a much fuller nicer plant.

Then, to my amazement, he brought out the "other kind" of azalea; a deciduous azalea that was in bloom and it was orange! I'd finally found that orange tree that I'd been wondering about for years.

Just to confirm my suspicions, with my wife in the car with me, we pull into the driveway of the and sure enough, it was an azalea.

With this knowledge, I'm on a quest to find an orange deciduous azalea for my yard. My first stop? A little place down the road a bit that has some of the best prices and largest variety of plants in the area: Grower's Outlet in Snellville.

So on Saturday, we go down and finally squeeze into the parking lot, grab a cart and begin to get sick at the inflated prices that we'd paid for things at the local nursery as compared to their prices. These prices were unbeatable. We ended up getting several ground covers to work into some spots that we needed finishing out, but no deciduous azalea. We stop at some other places when we're out during the next week or so with no luck.

Finally, Sunday afternoon on the way to meet some friends for lunch, we drive by a local nursery called Randy' Perennials & Water Gardens because they are known for having specialty items.

My wife sets in the car because she knows what I'm looking for. I ask one of the workers and she points me to a group of 6 foot tall trees and there it is... one of only two orange ones.

The thing I didn't realize is that deciduous azaleas smell incredible, very sweet, reminding me of the fragrance of honeysuckles.

Finally, on the trip back home, we return to Randy's and snag the nicest one of the bunch. The incredible aroma of the freshly opened blooms filled our SUV; it was almost intoxicating!

After planting, it bloomed for a few more days and seems to be doing well in the shade of a birch and redbud tree. I so look forward t next spring's blooming of my first deciduous azalea.

It's Gonna' Be Dirt

Some time back, my dear wife and I went into an Whole Foods store and out front was one of those really nice Compost Tumblers all ready for me to take home and get started on my compost adventure. They say that confession is good for the soul (or something like that). So, here goes... I admit it, I was really coveting that compost tumbler envy.

The problem is, I don't have that kind of money to spend (nor do I want to) in order to turn our kitchen scraps into nice black compost. But there it was and I stood there drooling (not literally of course) over a silly compost tumbler. I find it amazing that people will pay over $150.00 for one of these things (even the cheap ones). My apologies to you if you did... I just couldn't do it.

So, like a good husband, I fought back the urge and was delivered from the green-eyed monster (oh wait, that's another one of the seven deadly sins). I think my wife was quite proud of me in that instant!

Nevertheless, that singular event set my insatiable mind abuzz wondering how I could put my creative juices into action and make my very own compost tumbler.

The it happened... my compost tumbler epiphany! One afternoon while driving home from work, I passed a salvage store in a nearby town and they had several 55 gallon drums out front for sale for a meager $14.95... more fuel to the fire.

Once home, I did a few quick internet searches and came up with several designs as well as videos of how to build a compost tumbler using 55 gallon drums. After processing the various methods, I came up with my own design that would allow me to have my tumbler near the ground, be able to turn it with my hands and use the existing banded lid as the doorway.

I constructed a stand and let it rest on a set of wheels I got for less than $10. So, for around 25 bucks I put together my first compost tumbler and started filling it with brown and green goodies from the table and garden.

The only supplemental thing I did to the barrel (since it was already painted) was to drill some holes in it for air to penetrate.

Putting the stand together with some existing wood I had laying around, I was off and running. It's just now getting warm enough for something to really be going on, but we're definitely making dirt! And for me, that's like pocketing the difference in what I'd have spent buying the fancy schmancy one.

The casters that I used as the base for rotation were mounted on some existing 1 x 4 material that I had and the base sits directly on the ground. The problem that I've run into with my design is that because of the weight of the barrel, the material to be composted and water to

keep everything moist, results in a bit more weight than I'd anticipated. Thus, my base incurred a structural failure (it broke one day when I was turning the thing).

In reviewing some of the videos (see link above), I'm going to rework it with a more substantial base. But for now, allowing it to rest on the ground and just roll it around the yard to do the mixing (at least until my wife gets fed up with it being all over the place).

As you can see, it's starting to make some nice dirt. Even though I add everything from veggie peals/parts, shredded wood, leaves and coffee grounds, it doesn't stink.

In fact, it smells like dirt! My son Daniel gave me a hint about adding soils of various kinds to introduce various colonies of needed bacteria for decomposition. In doing so, I introduced some worms into the mix. Because it doesn't heat up like your normal 3 ft. X 3 ft X 3 ft compost pile, the worms can survive and actually thrive in that environment.

I'm getting ready to build a sifter that will fit over my wheelbarrow to sift out the material that is ready to be added to my plant mix. Mmmm... it's gonna' be dirt soon!

More articles on composting: http://bit.ly/g6ve5U

Chris

3GT

Go to --> Part Two on Tumbler Composting

Gardening For Geeks Like Me!

For those of you who know me understand that I'm a geek at heart. Working with computers every weekday for 30+ years, it just sort of happens. Most of the time I try and distance myself from my geekiness, but that rascally persona invades reality some of the time. Now is just one of those times.

In the summer we plan to go over to the "left" coast to visit my favorite son and favorite daughter-in-law (I hate that term... but I love her). Anyway... one of the

adventures we've planned involves a day at a symposium type dealio on all things green. In the process, I got on the mailing list of "Mother Earth News" (another term I'm not so fond of), who sends out a newsletter and various informational ezine type info.

Today's really is a good one. On their site they have an online Vegetable Garden Planner. You may have seen them before, but this one really rocks and is truly built for geeks like me (and probably you too if you're still with me).

This online tool allow you to set up the layout of your garden, pick your plants, automatically sizes the plant distribution according to space needs (there's nothing worse than planting cucumbers too close together!) and even has various color backgrounds for family type if you want to do crop rotation. Yep... it really rocks.

Not only that, but once you have your garden (or gardens) saved, you can go to the planner section; which truly becomes geeky with a gantt chart that tells you when to plant and when to harvest your delectable goodies. It also tells you how many you can plant in the space that you have so that you don't have overcrowding.

What could satisfy the geek in me any more than having my very own garden project plan!

This thing will even send you twice month reminders of what to sow when. Can gardening get more geeky than that?

Alas, as with everything, there is a catch... you can get this for 30 days free; but, hey... 30 days free is better than nothing. So, go ahead, get your geek on and design that garden and do some efficient square foot gardening in whatever space you have.

And now you have a tool that will help you lay it out efficiently, just for geeks like me... errr.. US!

3GT

The Smell of Summer

I love the sounds, sights, and smells of warm weather! The incredible sight of flowers bursting forth in such an array of color is candy to the eyes. Going out in the morning and hearing the various sounds of the birds as they begin their day.

But let me tell you, there's nothing that reminds me of summer than the smell of tomato plants. Today I went out to the garden in the back where I'm growing my tomato plants in large "smart pots". One of my tomato cages had taken a tumble because of one of the early Georgia storms.

When I lifted it up I noticed some suckers (those little branches that start between the main branches) and decided to pinch it off. I pinched off several suckers and that's when I noticed it... the aroma of the tomato vine.

I don't know what it is about the aroma of some things triggering memories, but that aroma made me remember the things of summer. The humidity of the deep south, the sound of the mourning dove's cry, the feel of sweat running down my back and the smell of compost.

Funny how the smell of a simple tomato plant will trigger remembrances of summer! I can't wait for the succulent taste of an acidic tomato on that 'mater sandwich. YUMMMM...

TGT

Swiss Chard ... My new favorite vegetable!!!

Left to my own demise, I really can cook up a storm. Well... at least I can follow a recipe well. ;)-

When my sweet wife has to run over to Alabama to attend to her parents and give them a hand for a few days, she often leaves me with cooked dishes of food that I only have to heat and/or meals that are fairly planned out for me.

This week one of the things on my "menu" was wild Alaskan Salmon that she'd picked up especially for me to eat. So, with the garden going so well and the chard running wild, I decided to hack some of it down and see what the stuff tastes like. No, believe it or not, this is the first time we've tried any chard from our garden and frankly I'm thinking about planting a whole stinking bed full of the stuff!

After a few searches, I came up with a chard dish that sounded good and gave me some remedial information on chard and techniques for cooking it. The blog I found it on is called "Beyond Salmon" and I give kudos to its writer for such a delectable dish!

With olive oil, cream and Parmesan cheese, how can it not be good?

The tidbit of info that really interested me was the author's description of Swiss chard as being "two vegetables" in one; first the stem and second the greens. When you take two different approaches with cooking the two, you'll never throw the stems in the compost pile again!

I added a couple of cloves of minced garlic to my version (since my wife is away) and I think I've found a new favorite vegetable!! Of course, my wife would say that I like anything with garlic on it.

... and yes, she's right again!

Chris
3GT

http://bit.ly/mhjSeN

New Drip System

Last year, we went to Seattle to visit my son and daughter-in-law and left someone in charge of watering our garden. Bad move! Even though the sprinkler was on a timer, the mechanical part went on the fritz and some things got too much water and some didn't get enough. Not a good year for the plants.

I hate wasting water on the grass and patio and house.... it goes everywhere except the exact place that needs it. Not so this year! I was determined to do the watering thing right (or at least more right) this year.

I just finished putting in my first drip watering system from DripWorks. They have some really nice products and I figure that by being much more specific with how, when and where I water those veggies, we'll come out with some tasty treats from the garden.

Right now I'm on a 15 minute timer every other day; which, will probably be increased as we move into summer. I'm using some 6 inch spaced Soaker Dripline throughout my raised beds and 1/2 gal per hour single drip emitters coming off a 2 gal per hour multi-port for my tomatoes in their Smart Pots.

I think I'm going to really like this setup. :)

Garden is doing great with the new drip system! Tomato plants are growing and my blueberry plants are loving it. They are hanging full of fruit. This is one of the best things we've done for the garden.

3GT

Life is good in a raised bed

Living on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia can mean only one thing to someone who's serious about wanting to have a garden; it ain't happening without raised beds!

Georgia's red clay is infamous for being hard to grow things in but until we moved there in '92, I had no idea. But that was just the start... our town is not far from Atlanta's famous Stone Mountain, a granite "monadnock" rising straight up 825 feet from the surrounding land, where images of confederate war hero's are carved in the rock face. This thing bulges up out of the ground like a huge zit on the face of the earth.

I think that this rock formation extends literally for miles around and our that house is build on part of this extension. The developers of our subdivision had to blast the rock just to get places where the foundations of houses could be poured. I discovered the extent of the rock during one of the first springs at our home when my dear wife wanted a rose bush planted in the back yard near the patio.

No big chore, right? Just dig a hole, put in the rose bush (a Mr. Lincoln) and cover the thing up. I finally got the rose settled in after an hour bout with Stone Mountain using my sledge hammer, pry bar and a pick axe.

So, when we decided to put in a garden... it was all about getting some great soil (kudos to Luxury Landscape and their specially formulated plant mix), setting up a raised bed and not fighting the clay or the rock.

We currently have two parallel raised beds (4x8 feet and 6 feet apart) and we use large smart pots where we grow our veggies.

Life is good in a raised bed!

The Older I Get

I've worked in an office setting for pretty much all my life and I find that I can be satisfied with just about whatever I do. Just throw me into something and I dig in start analyzing the problem or project that I'm handed and I find that I can be content with it.

Maybe it's just a quirk that I have, but I'm easy that way.

I can be just as satisfied digging in the dirt (though my body might not agree) and in the last few years I've taken much of my spare time and dedicated it to gardening. In fact, that's the impetus for this blog... sort of a way of recording the things that have worked for me in the garden and the things that have flopped.

For example, last year I tried my hand at a bit of hydroponics; somewhat successfully, I might add. But, in the end the beautiful red peppers that arrived (which were sold to me as Red Bell Peppers) were like a cross between a Bell pepper and a Habanero! The moral, if I can't eat the thing, is it really a success?

The older I get, the more I get out of seeing things grow... kids, grandkids and the things in my garden.

3GT