Tying up Your Tomatoes
If you planted tomatoes in your 5×5 Challenge garden you’ll want to provide support for them. It can be something as simple as a large garden post or a beautiful iron trellis. I usually use wooden stakes, but I used two metal trellises in my 5×5 Challenge garden (it is in the front lawn right by my front door).
There’s not really a trick to tying up tomatoes, you just don’t want to tie them too tightly and risk damaging the vines.
I like to use natural jute or hemp rope, but you can use all manner of things. Since I have a lot of tomatoes to tie up, I typically spend time one evening cutting a lot of foot long lengths of rope. This avoids having to stop often to cute lengths of twine, which saves a good deal of time if you’re tying up 30 tomatoe vines!
Tying up tomatoes is quite easy, but it’s a garden chore that shouldn’t be neglected. I check weekly to see if the vines need extra support. If you wait too long the vines have a tendency to sprawl and you risk breaking them when trying to tie them up.
What do you use to support your tomatoes?
Share this:
It’s HARVEST Time
Yesterday, I harvested the first item from my 5×5 Challenge garden. I could have been harvesting the lettuce for at least a week, but I’ve been eating salads from the main garden. This lettuce was planted en masse and I will simply sheer it off when it’s time to harvest. The zucchini plants are getting HUGE and are starting to crowd out the lettuce anyways.
It’s truly amazing how many salads you can get from four square feet of lettuce. We didn’t eat all that I harvested and I only cut about a tenth of what was out there.
After I cut my lettuce I like to soak it in cold water for 15-20 minutes or so. That really seems to crisp it up nicely, especially when the weather is as hot as it has been around here.
If you did plant lettuce in your garden, make sure you start harvesting it soon. With the heat wave many of you are having the lettuce will start to get bitter and it will be bolting before you know it (bolting = going to seed).
Do you have any tips/tricks to share for growing and harvesting lettuce?
Share this:
Stay On Top of It
Now that your 5×5 Challenge garden in growing like a champ, the weeds are probably growing as well. The key to keeping your gardening chores to a minimum is to weed often. If you pull any weeds you see when you’re checking on the garden, it is never a huge chore. Weeding will happen without you even noticing.
I’ve been pulling the weeds when they’re tiny, this is the best way. They don’t have big roots and don’t disturb the soil as much when you pull them. They’re also much easier to pull when they’re so small.
Mulching is also a great way to keep weeding chores to a minimum. A couple inches of mulch will help keep weed seeds from germinating and it helps the soil retain moisture. I wouldn’t use that brown bark stuff most people use on their flowerbeds, some shredded leaves or good compost will do. Spread an even layer around your plants, you can skip the lettuce patch and the scallions as they’re probably too close together and too small yet.
Any tips to stay on top of the weeds?
Share this:
My 5×5 Garden
When I came back from Ohio, the 5×5 Challenge Garden was looking fabulous. In two weeks it had grown into a jungle!
I spy tiny scallions seedlings and flower buds on the zucchini. The lettuce could be harvested as well if I wanted to.
Now that your garden is growing, it’s time to check on it often and pull any weeds you see. If you have trouble distinguishing between plants and weeds, check out the post from a few weeks ago with photos of seedlings. You could also ask an experienced edible gardener you know.
How does your 5×5 Challenge Garden grow? Are you harvesting anything yet? Which plants are growing the best for you?
Share this:
I Spy Seedlings
This is the eigth installment in the 5×5 Garden Challenge Series. Every Wednesday I’ll be posting about the challenge, covering topics that will help all the new gardeners get started. If you haven’t heard about the challenge head on over to the 5×5 Challenge Website, we’ll also be putting up a page here that pulls in all the 5×5 Challenge posts.
Last week I planted my 5×5 Challenge Garden and I’ve been watching patiently for the seeds to germinate. After losing a few bean seedlings to those pesky chickens, I finally spied almost every seedling emerging. Today, I’ll be showing you a parade of seedlings so you know what to look for after planting your garden.
In this post I’ll be showing you the first leaves not the second set or the first set of true leaves. When your seedlings first emerge they will have a leaf shape that shows what type of seed they are, so brassicas all have the same shape of first leaves (brassicas include: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, mustard).
We’ll start off with a zucchini seedling (pictured above). Zucchini seedlings are HUGE, you’ll definitely be able to spot them. No need to get out the magnifying glass for these guys.
The lettuce on other other has fairly small seedlings that look like this. They generally fairly small and can different colored leaves depending on the type of lettuce. Some of my have a reddish tint to them.
Basil seedlings are also small, you’ll notice that they have a different leaf shape than the lettuce seedlings.
Tomato seedlings are also fairly small, they have beautiful long slender leaves and often they will have a purple color to their stems.
Finally you can see the beans. Bean seedlings are big and tall, often you can see the bean itself pushing up through the soil if you catch them at the right time.
As of yesterday, none of my scallions had germinated yet, luckily I had a few in my photo files. Onion seedlings look like tiny onions. The marigolds hadn’t germinated yet either and I have none of them in my archives. As your seedling start to emerge, pay close attention. One of the most magical things about garden is watching the tiny seeds germinate and grow into giant plants. Just like children, they’ll be huge in the blink of an eye, so enjoy the intricacies of this seedling stage.
Which kind of plant has your favorite seedling? Do you like big, bold seedlings like beans and zucchini or do you prefer dainty seedling like lettuce and basil?
