Weekly Garden Round-Up (Week #27)
- themarigoldgc
- Jul 5, 2023
- 7 min read
I have started a brand new thing. A weekly post with thoughts from the garden. Just whatever is on my mind, stuff I have happening in my potager, and any tips and tricks I can share with you all for a happier, healthier food garden.
Is this new salvia not the yummiest? I absolutely love these guys! I have them in deep purple, as well. Always love a new idea for the thriller plant in my pots ; )
The flower pots have all come into their own now and look so amazing! I just bought whatever plants I liked each time I went out this spring, with no real plan in mind, but stuck to mostly the same colours. The snapdragons, sadly, were not as labelled. They are a weird red colour with a yellow eye, but my feeling is that anything goes when it comes to flowers, so is all good.
Tomatoes....
How to prune indeterminates. Check the vee between the stems and each branch. If you see a sprout growing from there, you want to remove it. Most times, you can just snap it off with your fingers, but if it has had time to grow really big, you will want to use pruners to snip it off.
I have pruned my tomatoes, removed any foliage touching the ground, and tied them up to their strings. This is an ongoing thing. It will seem like 5 minutes after you finish pruning your tomatoes, you find new suckers! Keep removing the bottom foliage as it begins to yellow (they are the oldest leaves, this is normal) and anything touching the soil.
The greenhouse tomatoes are growing fast, they are all indeterminates growing up strings. Will likely be a crazy jungle in there by end of next month. Staying on top off the pruning is going to be prudent or I am not going to be able to get in the door later on. Yikes!
The fence line garden bed tomatoes are all indeterminates, as well. The ones growing in the back row are shorter than I would like, we did not realise that they would not get as much sun as other areas of the fence line. Hmm. The front row is doing great though. Will see how they are fare this year and then make changes accordingly for next year. It's all about getting to know this new yard.
The paste tomatoes in the raised bed , despite my worries about them being planted into near 100% compost, look really great! They are all determinates (bush type). Stocky, deep green, flowering, look wonderful. Will be canning tomatoes in August! I hope they do not end up being too high in nitrogen so I end up with great growth but few tomatoes. It is a legit worry.
I also have a few dwarf tomatoes from the Dwarf Tomato Project and are different from anything else out there. They are on really stocky stems, nice and thick, almost like sunflower stalks. They are often referred to as Tree Form rather than indeterminate or determinate. I love these guys. They have big, juicy heirloom-like tomatoes in all colours (I prefer blacks and bi-colours) growing on sturdy 3 to 4 foot stems. I grow them with a stake, to keep them from breaking under the weight of all the tomatoes.
The tomatoes on the south side love it there... but so does the grape. We hack back the grape once a week to keep it from smothering out the tomatoes. Hahaha! That said, we are going to have a ton of grapes this year!
Seeding...
Early July is the perfect time to pop in a few new seeds, both flowers and veggies.... The flowers will all come in to bloom just as the spring sown flowers are starting to peter out from the heat. Fresh colour all over again to take you right into fall.
Stick some nasturtium seeds into empty pockets along the sides of your raised beds. They will be blooming their hearts out when you pull the tired ones out.
Pop a few cucumber seeds into a pot to grow up strings or a trellis, or into the garden bed.
When you harvest your garlic, sow some pickling cucumbers, regular cucumbers, bush beans, and greens. Or sow your fall and winter garden, if you are not using that bed for garlic again in fall.
Pop in a few sweet pea seeds beside the cucumber trellis, the tomato cages, any place they would have a bit of something to cling to as they grow.
Toss in your last block of carrots this week! If you miss the window, save your seeds for winter sowing.
Grow a row or two of extra beets.
Wondering where to sow your extras? If your lettuce is getting ready to bolt, pull it and toss in some new seeds. Small pockets in the garden with room for something? Toss in some seeds. Although you want good air flow, as long as everything is not the same height, you grow root crops or low growing crops with vining ones or tall ones, you will be fine for air flow and preventing powdery mildew.
Just remember, as the garden starts to fill right in, you want to make sure not to wet the foliage when you water. Ground level only. Stick that watering wand under all the growth and water, move it to the next spot, and let it stay there for a while as the water spreads about, move to the next spot. Or, if you were wise enough to install a drip system or weeping hoses, you are golden ; ) Never use sprinklers or you will get powdery mildew in late summer, when the nights are cool and days are warm as the dew point is high.
Fall Food Garden
The fall and winter veggies are all up and doing great. Will thin them out, grow them on, and pop the seedlings into the garden in August. I've started Swedes (rutabagas), purple cauliflower, broccoli, and storage #4 cabbage.
Watering
This advice is less popular with folks, lol... Get to know your gardens, your beds, your pots and planters so that you can save water, only watering as needed. My beds are good with watering every third day. I might be able to push that a little bit, too, as the plants get bigger and deeper roots. My goal is to find the right balance for the best production, the best flavour, and save on water - water only as much as benefits the plant. I do what I can to live the most planet friendly life I can : )
The tomatoes under the hail-cover get no rain but I can already get away with just watering them every 5 to 7 days now that they are established. They are not in the hottest part of the yard and can make really deep roots to go seeking water.
When I lived on the acreage outside of Edmonton, I worked full time and ran the teenagers around to their activities, so the entire garden only got watered once a week back then yet everything thrived. I am thinking that maybe sometimes it is good to be too busy to fuss, eh?
Plus, I want rich flavour. If one waters tomatoes every day or two, they are watery and bland tasting, do not develop that deep, rich tomato flavour that we aim for. I just keep reminding myself that in parts of Italy, they dry-garden tomatoes! That is how they get that amazing flavour. Goals! So, I try to water like my grandmother and aunties did! Before hoses and stuff, when people were hauling water, the gardens were lucky to get watered at all.
I am using this thing to feed my pots and baskets every 2nd week, give or take. No set schedule, just whenever I think of it (aka, whenever I remember). Baskets, pots, planters are rely on us to keep them well watered and fertilised as they soon use up the nutrients in the potting soil. Garden beds, however, are amazing if you feed the soil rather than the plants.
I like this thingie as it has a dial on it that I can turn to just water and then turn it back to feeding when needed. I can water my veggie beds and feed my baskets without having to go back around later. If you want to feed your garden beds in summer, instead of this kind of liquid fertiliser, that does not improve the soil, try Acti-Sol hen pellets (pelleted chicken poop).
I am super worried about the lack of bugs and pollinators in my garden this year. All the feedback that I have received from my readers, indicates that they, too, have noticed the same thing in other parts of the country. I already don't spray with anything other than water, nothing on the lawn, nothing on the flowers or veggies, so needs to be something else. I also do not have hardly any birds!
The only thing I can think of is to plant more shrubs, perennials, and flowers. Work on making this yard the same kind of organic paradise as the last one.... teeming with bees, butterflies, and birds.
The fancy garden cottage is going up... Walls and roof will be up by end of the weekend. Exciting times! This side of the yard is going to look like a disaster all summer as the build goes on.
Check out the lovely antique lights I got from my bro for the cottage! Are they not amazing? Yellow is not the colour I was going to use as my accent colour but I kinda like it! Do I just clean them up and install over the patio door or do I spray paint them a pale blue or green, like the storage shed?
One of my favourite stylists that I follow, has painted her greenhouse/garden cottage doors from green to yellow... just the other day! I saw it the day after I got my new (old) lights! Is this a sign? What would you do?
So, that is my first weekly garden round up. I sure hope you enjoyed my thoughts and ramblings. See you next week to see what is on my mind...
I so enjoyed this read, like flipping through my favourite magazine full of helpful info and sweet stories. Thank you!
ps - I vote yellow door ☀️