Kerry’s Garden

Spring has sprung and beauty abounds.

This is the first Harison’s Yellow of the year. Isn’t she pretty?

These beauties have been blooming for a few days and will delight me again in the fall.

These are just a few of the babies that will adorn the garden in a few days.

This week I picked up a new toy at Ace Hardware. It is an 18qt Nesco Roaster Oven. I’ve been eyeing this for a while now. It will do just about everything including slow cooking, baking cakes & bread, and roasting a 20lb turkey. It has an adjustable dial from 200 to 450, removable enamel (or non-stick if you prefer) cooking pan and doesn’t take up nearly as much room as I thought it would. At $60 with free shipping to the store (our local store was out of them), I couldn’t pass it up.

I can see 18qts of tomato juice slow cooking down into sauce outside on the back porch this summer. I am also envisioning baking bread in August without heating up the kitchen. There will probably be a couple of roasted thyme chickens this summer too.

It is currently on the back porch curing. I’ve never had to do this with any appliance before but for some reason the Nesco requires it. Basically you remove the lid and pan, plug it in and turn it on high for an hour or two. It is outside because this process can create smoke and a nasty smell. The manual assures me this is normal and necessary. I wondered if using an extension cord (heavy duty) from the kitchen to the porch would be a problem but it has been outside for about 30 minutes and while the plug is a little warm it doesn’t seem to be hot enough to be of any concern.

The tomato seeds are in their little beds. I planted 1-2 cups of each variety with about 10-20 seed in each. In a few weeks these will be thinned 1 plant to a cup except for the patio toms which will have a couple of neighbors. I turned the heat aka 75 watt lightbulb on to keep their feet warm.

Yesterday’s visit to the chiropractor scored some grape vines they had recently cut. I am going to try some basket type stuff with some of it. Will keep you posted.

My yearly order from Tomato Growers Supply Co came yesterday. I like to get my seeds started by the first of April so the timing is perfect.

This year I am going with two favorites (Big Beef and Florida Basket) and two varieties I’ve never tried (Applause and Tumbling Tom). As a bonus TGS sent a packet of Giant Belgium. I don’t know anything about that one so it will be a surprise. I will also pick up a grape tom at the local garden center when the weather warms.

From the TGS site here are the specs on this year’s toms:
Big Beef – VFFNTA – 1994 ALL-AMERICA SELECTIONS AWARD. One of the finest ever hybrids yet for home gardeners. Impressive yields of extra-large, 10 to 12 oz. smooth tomatoes with real old-time flavor. Its virtues include great disease resistance, early harvests and fruit that stays enormous even at the end of a long season. Indeterminate. 73 days

Florida Basket- Perfect for growing in hanging baskets, this low-growing plant creeps 4 to 6 inches over a container’s edge. Delicious, 1 inch diameter fruit. Resistant to gray leaf spot. Determinate. 70 days

Applause – VFFA -Early maturity, compact plant size and large, beautiful tomatoes are tops on most gardeners’ wish list, and these attributes are just what Applause delivers. Perfectly smooth, large fruit are 8 to 12 ozs. with a fresh, delicious flavor. These plants stay smaller so they fit tighter growing spaces while still providing exceptional yields. Maybe the name of this tomato comes from the appreciation felt for such a great choice in an early variety. Determinate. 66 days

Tumbling Tom – NEW FOR 2009. Perfect for hanging baskets and containers, this plant cascades 18 inches over the container’s edge, bearing lots of bright red 1 to 2-inch cherry tomatoes that are deliciously sweet. Plants grow about 6 inches wide, so you can place several in a 10 or 12-inch pot for a very attractive display. This is a great variety for gardeners with limited space. Determinate. 70 days.

Giant Belgium – Developed in Ohio, this variety is distinctive for its fruit that averages 2 lbs., but has been known to grow to an enormous 5 lbs. Tomatoes are dark pink and solid meat with smooth blossom ends and a delicious sweet flavor. Some folks make wine from these very sweet tomatoes. Indeterminate. 90 days.

Tomato wine? I had heard of it but had never tried it. That might just be a late season experiment.

I like to grow a mix of determinate and indeterminate for several reasons. Indeterminate toms tend to bear over a longer period of time while determinate toms generally start bearing earlier and have their crop in a shorter amt of time which is good for preserving. I tend to favor the older tangy tomato flavor for fresh eating but do like a sweeter tom every so often. Also, we have disease issues in this part of the country which means I am left choosing from hybrid varieties for anything grown in the ground. I gave up on the open pollinated varieties some years back as they tended to die from disease before I could get more than a couple of fruit.

Today is the last day of my vacation and as per usual my plans far outweighed my abilities. I had hoped get into the garden/yard more but alas…the weather she did not cooperate. Actually the weather wasn’t bad, I’m just a wimp when it comes to temps below 50f. I did get outside today though and two of my beds are better off because of it. I know some people deadhead and clean up in the fall but I wait till spring. It gives the birds a chance to get the remaining seeds from the seed heads and I am much more enthusiastic in the spring after months of no gardening than I am after a hot summer.

I still have the herb bed and a couple of small beds to work on. More than likely they will be done next weekend or, if I am feeling overly enthusiastic, this week some time.

This week is my well earned vacation week. We aren’t going anywhere this week but I am using it to catch up on some projects.

Today I cleaned out the raspberry beds, cutting one to the ground and the other to about 12-18 inches high. They are just starting to wake up. I normally do it before now but it is still early enough I do believe. The variety is Heritage and since they will fruit twice I alternate beds so that each spring a bed is fruiting and that fall the other bed is fruiting. It makes for a very long raspberry harvest.

I also cleaned out the blackberry patch. Well…half of it anyway. I keep threatening to get rid of one non productive row. I do believe this is the year for it.

I bought some basil seeds yesterday that I will start tonight in the basement. I have some tomato seeds on order. I like to get them started by April 1 so I am right on target with that. I ended up not getting the garlic in the ground last fall so I started some in the basement about a month ago. I will transplant it outside probably this week.

There is still a LOT of cleanup that is needed in the flower beds. I am still not sure what I want to do with it though. We haven’t had the rain we need to keep it looking decent so I may just take out some of it and turn it back into lawn. The jury is still out on that one.