Moving On With Better Weather

 I finally got the tomatoes and peppers planted out.  They don't look so bad now that they are in the ground... a little pale. I am modifying the Florida Weave method that I employed last year.  On my first attempt I quickly found that only end posts was not enough to support the wall I was creating and I felt that using a single line was too constricting to the tender plants.   So I this year I have a double row of posts which will open up the strings a bit.  Instead of weaving I will run two straight lines, one on each side and crisscross if necessary.   The tomatoes are down the middle, and the bell peppers along the east side at their feet.  Peppers like cool roots, dappled shade and they like to touch each other.  So the east side of a tall row of tomatoes is a great place for them.  They share the same nutrient and water requirements as the tomatoes. I'll put a row of Marigolds or Nasturtium on the other side.   I have mulched them in with shredded leaves to retain cool moisture and keep down weeds.

I use my shredded Maple leaves from last fall and mix in compost in a one to two ratio, compost to leaves.  This weighs down the leaves a bit so they don't blow all over, and aids in breaking them down.

While we are in this corner of the garden, just look at this Sage plant that over wintered.  I did no trimming and the old stems put out new leaves to replace the bedraggled leaves from last year.

Below is the bed of Dwarf tomatoes.  These plants will be about hip high and very full.  They have different support requirements than the indeterminate tomato plants.  Now begins three weeks of tweaking these Titan Cages to get them to look plumb and level.  It's a losing battle.

Once they are full of tomato plant it won't be as noticeable.

Below are my micro tomato plants that weathered the cold spell against the south wall of the garden shed under a frost cloth.  See how the plant in the tan pot is exhibiting cold stress and the one in the black pot is not?  I think this is the difference in the amount of warmth that the black pots absorbed and held.  The pale ones should be just fine now and I expect them to bounce back.

The sweet corn that was seeded May 20th is beginning to sprout.  These littles guys are the humble beginnings of a veritable corn field. 

Speaking of sprouts, the Dahlias grew almost visibly today.  There are both green foliaged and dark foliaged varieties.  The grid is there to discourage critters from rootin' around and disturbing the tubers.  Even a deer strolling through could step in the wrong spot and ruin a plant at this stage.

I planted four of the El Brighto Coleus that I saved from last year in this planter.

Free plants....

Earlybird Blue and White Columbine