the garden thread

Ya know I wasn't aware until 5-6 years ago that a "weed" is simply an unwanted plant. A plant that is growing where you don't want it to grow basically.
If I have a Rose bed and a Tulip is growing right in the middle I can holler "Pull that weed!" and be correct in my statement.

Weeds are misunderstood. They just want to fit in!

 

My tomatoes are starting to bloom. I tried to lose them the other day. The weather forecaster said it was going to be a warm night so I left them outside--about had a fit when I got up, looked out the windows, and saw frost all over the place. Fortunately the plants were up by the house and didn't get frost damage.

 

I think all grass is a weed. It never grows where you want it to, and always shows up in flower beds and sidewalk cracks.

 

I concur.
I got weeds in my gutters!

 

Peas coming up and almost grabbing the fence they will cling to. broccoli and herbs are doing well. Grandson's radishes are needing a thinning. asparagus patch has yielded a batch. here the last frost day is considered 5-10 May, so some things are waiting. have tomatoes in the cold frame with the lid propped open a bit getting use to being outside. so some more planting this weekend. peppers moving out to the cold frame soon. Heavy rains this past few days have given the garden a good beating. I have installed a drip system this year and have high hopes for it.

 

Since I am in NJ "the garden state" and we grow some of the best tomatoes in the summer time, I think I want to get into growing some tomatoes, but it might be a huge PITA, any suggestions on really hearty varieties?

 

I told you Lucretia would know.
The flowers are an exact match for the Arrowleaf Balsam Root.

I should take some other photos of the wildflower/weeds around here.
Some look like tiny orchids. The way I do things with the field is if the plant looks interesting, I let it grow.
The grass gets weedeated.

 

i hae thought really hard about a wildflower patch to help keep bees around but then i remembered that rabbits love that stuff also

 

Pulled a bunch of weeds today. Ow. But it's a particularly pretty time of year to be out in the yard. Had to take cover from strafing hummingbirds, tho.








And the roses are off and running--about a month early:




Also grabbed another tomato plant from the grocery.

 

Am I the only one that would love to see Lucretia's whole yard?

I imagine it looking like something you could charge admission to see.

 

Aren't you sweet! The yard actually has a long way to go, but it's getting better. Here's the back yard when we bought the house:




Yes, all those light colored things are rocks. Lots and lots and LOTS of rocks. In clay. That turns harder than cement in the summer when it's dry.

Now it's just starting to form up. Still a long way to go before we can charge admission!

 

It's not the same yard! I bet the wildlife love it. Thanks for sharing.

I know all about clay and rocks, I live in Middle Tennessee. I'm surprised anything grows around here.

 

I live in middle Tennessee too. The Clay is so tough to dig into

 

I can't take any credit since we've only been here a couple of months. The former owners were arborist and did all the leg work for us.

Grape flowers:



A little apple saying hello! The apple trees were espaliered, but haven't been maintained for 1-2 years maybe. This is all pretty new to me so I have research to catch up on.

 

Ooo! Grapes & apples--sounds great!

Jason, we have a lot more critters visiting now than we did. Salamanders in the compost, frogs, garter snakes, rabbits, moles, voles, shrews, possums, raccoons, and something that I think is either a coyote or a fox that comes through and leaves presents behind. A lot more birds, too. We have some crows nesting in the back of the yard. I like to throw crackers out for them. They try to see how many crackers they can pick up at a time rather than just taking one and coming back--fun to watch. Yesterday I wore tie dye as bait and got a photo of this little guy after he figured out I wasn't something full of nectar for him to eat:

 

I think cherry tomatoes are supposed to be easy to grow. We grow Sun Golds every year. really sweet yellow cherries. Still trying to get it right with the bigger tomatoes.

 

we have been doing roma

 

I wish I could get romas to grow. We get them from the local farm stand for oven roasted tomatoes, but I bet the home grown ones are a lot better.

Butch, could you grow chives to bring in bees? They don't have a long blooming season, but the bees go nuts over mine. I don't think the rabbits will eat them. And they're pretty and tasty, too.

 

I am doing some San Marzanos this year. .....and purple cherokee, yellow brandywine, berkley tie dye, black russian, green zebra, 4 or 5 varieties of cherry tomato, and others that I forget.

Like at Lucretia's place, the hummingbirds have been following me around. Yesterday evening wild turkeys were casing the place.

 

we had 3 plants last year and canned qt after qt and still ended up giving some away (got them from burpee ) think we ended up right around 100lb (turned to saucees) the rest we traded for peppers . its was shocking to see the amount of food we got out of 36 SqFt
this was last year after taters onions and peas were pulled