Tomatoes today May 26, 2018

The tomatoes love the Walls of Water! Started from seeds February 15 the transplanted up to 4 inch pots then on March 31, into the WOW. Now, May 26 they are showing out the top.

The weather is still cool at night so I am not ready to lift off the WOW and replace with tomato cages.

The next photo will show the difference between the WOW tomatoes and some extras I planted directly in the ground on the same date, just to compare what would happen.

Having fun with tomatoes

I just love getting my hands dirty with transplanting. It is such a time of hope. Good food in a few months. The remainder of these tomatoes are for the Central Valley Garden Club plant sale in early May.  Until then they will be toasty warm in my greenhouse.

Mason Bees in my garden

I enjoy nurturing the native bees and providing nesting homes for them. Since we have five fruit trees, four blueberry plants, 50 strawberries and multiplying raspberries, my garden keeps these bees working. I like them because they work in the rain, unlike other pollinators. I have some cute bee houses and some practical, jury rigged ones and they both do the job.

The wire one above is what I will explain. Mason Bee season here in the Puget Sound lowlands runs from about March 15 when you put them out until mid July when they are ready for storage. Recently I have learned about these predatory wasps that drill holes in the cardboard straws to lay their eggs, ultimately killing the developing Mason Bees. This year I am using white cardboard tubes placed in natural reeds, hoping to discourage the predatory wasps. The tan tubes with mud closures are the bees from 2017 and the white tubes are the nesting sites for 2018.

Fruit and veggie update

Mostly success to report about my Spring garden. If you have any questions about what you see, leave a question or comment below. Let’s dialog.

Miniature Gardens

Every year I like to try something new in gardening. This year, in addition to growing potatoes, I gathered up needed materials to make two miniature gardens. Very fun!

UPDATE: I think the red chair really works! It looks more complete now. What do you think?

Class of 2014: Tomatoes

Today was tomato planting day, inside Walls of Water. We have not had a frost for a week and the 7 day forecast looks mild. This year I have planted one each of Sweet Million, Oromo, Amish Paste, Cosmonaut Volkov, Gypsy, Stupice and two Brandywine.,

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I am not happy with the spotty germination of my peas as seen in the second photo. Cascadian at the far end look ok but the near area has Sugar Daddy and less than 50%.

Greenhouse Growing

These plants will be ready for April planting outdoors. I can’t wait!

Wordless Wednesday in my garden

Forsythia, Crocus and Other Signs of Spring

Today is the first day I noticed the yellow starting to show on my forsythia bush. It is such a busy time of year here. My strawberry patch took a hit from the cold over the winter, so today I bought 24 plants to fill in spaces where I pulled out dead dry plants recently. So much to do and so little dry weather to get it done!

Greenhouse Action

Assorted lettuce seedings transplanted to greenhouse bed.

It’s Spring inside my greenhouse. Starting February 15th we get ten hours of sunlight and that is my daily minimum to support growth. I always start out with lettuce. The seeds were started indoors under lights with a heat mat around January 21 and were transplanted into the greenhouse bed this weekend.

I also have flower seedlings that are hardening off now and will be potted up soon.