How To Prevent Early Transplant Disasters In Your Garden

 We all know that most transplanting is done in the spring.  But fall also has its transplanting chores.  Many grow brasssicas and fall crops to add to their garden in the late summer to harvest in fall.  Here are some tips from MIgardener Luke.

I especially like the toothpick tip.  Since I started using them several years ago, I never lost another transplant to cutworms.  It really works.

Enjoy your gardening.

How To Collect and Harvest Cucumber Seeds and Tomatoes

When you find a non-hybrid cucumber that you love and want to be sure to have them again the following year, you will want to save seeds and sow your own next year instead of paying to buy another package.  Here is a short video on how to do that....

Gary, the Host of this site, The Rusted Gardener, is very knowledgable about growing a home garden. 

Please note that this cannot be done with every crop, but for many it will work.  Some crops, like tomatoes, must have their blossoms isolated from passing pollinators which can cross-breed that tomato with little effort.  For those, you need to bag your early blossom, using a mesh bag tied around the stem as soon as you spot it and before it forms a fruit to keep all pollinators away from it.

To be sure it gets pollinated, you just have to tap the branch that's holding the blossom at least once a day which pollinates it without critters.

Once the tomato is growing, you can remove the bag, but mark the tomato with a ribbon or cloth so you know that is the tomato from which you must save your seeds, and not any of the other tomatoes.  When the tomato is fully over-ripened, you can save its seeds.

In this photo below I have a newly-forming tomato blossom bagged. Its closed tightly on the top to prevent any critters from getting in the bag and cross-pollinating that blossom.

Do Not Save seeds from any Hybrid variety.  Its already a crossbred plant and if you save those seeds, you cannot be sure what you will get once you plant those seeds.  It could have traits of either parent or even their grandparents, so be very careful which plants you choose to save seeds.

In the case of tomato varieties, you need to save your seeds from an open-pollinated variety or heirloom but none from those marked F1.  An F1 is a crossbred variety.

Enjoy your garden. 

I Have Tiny Tomatoes Fruiting

Its always nice to see something fruiting after all our growing efforts.  I have been watching itty bitty tomatoes fruiting on my plants, but today I was able to capture them in pictures since they are getting larger in size.

This is one of my little Red Robin tomato plants.  These only grow from 8" to 12" tall but they give lots of little fruit.  As you can see, the little green tomatoes are forming now and there are lots of blossoms still growing beneath those potato-leaf leaves.

This is my second Red Robin.  Another with fruits and lots of blossoms.  The tomatoes will be about 1 - 1 1/2 inches in size when mature.  Good size, like a cherry tomato.

My Lizzanos, though a larger variety in height than the Red Robin, produce only 1" fruits, but lots of them.  As you can see, they are fruiting now.  I have two of these plants as well.  I love seeing all the itty bitty green nobs forming along my two Lizzanos.  I should have plenty to harvest soon.

As for the rest of my raised bed, I had to water it today which surprised me after us getting 3 1/2" of rain lately.  But I gave the bed a dose of water.  My small variety of peppers are doing well though no fruits yet to be seen.  My Nasturtium flowers are growing larger.  The greens are doing well also, things like Tatsoi, arugula, and lettuces as are the Kale, thyme, and the radishes.  I am loving having a garden again, even if its a small one.  

My carrots have not come up yet so I may be sowing more of them in a day or so.  I got a new shipment, this time Scarlet Nantes carrots which are a good variety and tasty.  

Here's a view of my garden bed today...

Lookin' good.

Enjoy your garden.

My Garden After Torrential Rains

The great thing about raised beds is they can take a lot of rain without drowning your plants.  After 3 1/2 inches of rain in 2 days, my bed is doing fine.

No puddles in my bed.  All the crops are doing well.  

Lower left shows a few bits of Tatsoi greenery coming up after 3 days.  And to their right is my Tokyo bekana doing well.  These are greens I've never had before but if they taste OK, I will serve them in future salads.  You can notice the dark soil to their right where I sowed Hercules carrot seeds.  Still no sign of them after 5 days.  I will continue to be patient.

In this upper left corner I sowed Salad burnet seeds on both June 1st and June 21st.  There is a bit of green showing.  Maybe its burnet.  I hope so.

I will give my garden a few days of rest and then check into maybe sowing more carrot seeds around the tomato plants.  My radishes are doing fine.  I have a new brand I received today so I may sow a few of those radishes this week as well.  My needs are simple and I do not need lots of anything at any one time.  My bed has lots of different crops in it.  I hope to enjoy some variety this year.

Next year I will add squash and zucchini to my plot which I could not do this year since I was not even sure if we would get our beds at all.  Also some larger determinate tomato plants.  I stuck to patio size this time in case I had to plant them in plots if no raised beds developed.  I am pleased with those patio-size plants since they are all putting out lots of blossoms and the Lizzanos are growing new itty bitty fruits.  The good news is new plans are on the books for another year.

Enjoy your garden.

My Little Patch of Garden Space in July.

This year is the first year for having a garden patch of my own.  They were late getting them built so I was late getting my crops in.  Still, I am enjoying the experience.

My bed on the left is home to my 3 Mini-Red Bell Pepper plants.  They look healthy.  At the top are my 3 Bush Pickle Cucumber plants planted around a cage.  They will not get too large.  I just sowed 2 short 1 1/2 foot rows of Hercule Carrots which are under straw which covers the cardboard I have placed over the seeds til they germinate.

Between the carrots and the cukes, I have a row of arugula and above them a row of Nasturtiums.  Nasturtiums are edible but they also bring pollinators to the garden, so 2 reasons to grow them.

This is the center section of my bed. In front I have some lettuces like Thom Thumb to the left and top of my summer Thyme.  On the right of the thyme are some red Alkindus and green Starfighter lettuces just coming thru.  Above the lettuces are the row of arugula, then a row of Nasturtiums and at the very top are my two Lizzano tomato plants, very full of blossoms.  Lizzano is a semi-determinate plant and will not grow very large and will give me some 1" red tomatoes for a rather long harvest.

On the right side of my bed you can find l. to r. more Alkindus lettuce, then the serrated leaves of Russian Kale.  On the far right are my 2 small Red Robin tomatoes.  They only grow about 8" to 12" tall and give clusters of 1-1 1/2" red tomatoes.  Lots of blossoms on those two plants right now.  Between the Red Robins are 2 short rows of Cherry Belle radishes growing quite well.  In the top right hand side of the bed are two Stevia plants.

So far most are doing well.  I seem to have a problem with my lemon yellow Marigold in the bottom right corner of the bed.  Nothing has germinated and I planted seed twice.  

All in all I am quite please with the results of this year's raised bed and hope to be eating fresh veggies very soon.

Enjoy your garden.

Its July. Time To Plant Our Fall Garden.

 When you think fall, think of anything you can plant in the spring can be planted again in the fall.  As long as it can be harvested before frosty days.  With a little help from frost covers like hoops with sheets and blankets and frost blankets to save them from frosty nites, you can extend your harvest time.

Here is Luke of MIgardner with some idea he shares.

For myself, I am sowing seeds for carrots, Tokyo Bekana, more radishes, a few other greens for my salads.

Its a good time to enjoy your garden space and extend your harvesting.

Enjoy your garden.

When You Should Water Your Garden

The best time to water your garden is in the morning.  Why?  Well, let my friend Luke explain the whys and wherefors....

Get yourself out in your garden in the morning, between about 6 to 9 a.m. for best results.

Enjoy your Gardening.