Alright.. I'm gonna say something that most people where I live would strongly disagree with.. We had one of the wetter April/May spring months we have had in a while.. That makes what i'm about to say as sounding like a joke statement.. It's not that wet out there.. Seriously even though we have had nearly eight inches of rain in the past two months (nearly 16 total) and how can I make such a stupid statement?? There is this webcam that is associated with the states 511 road system that shows road conditions, webcams that show road conditions and this one shows a field just up over there.. And it was flooded, and gets flooded when it rains really hard.. This time it was as full as I've seen it and thought alright let's see how long this lasts.. Four days later it was dry.. Not dry likely but the water visual wasn't there anymore.. It was still very muddy sure, but not standing water.. And here is another indicator.. I had turned the soil over in the garden area(s) this past last day or so of April with the idea that I was going to do til Tuesday through May.. Tilling the soil every Tuesday until Memorial weekend when I would plant everything.. That was a bust as it rained every Tuesday and almost every other day as well in May, I was only able to get things going this past Saturday.. Here's the thing as well.. we got a fairly good rain on the Wednesday before that Saturday so I went into the old pumpkin patch with the tiller thinking this might be a mistake, it's going to be too wet.. IT WASN'T.. So I turned all three planting sites over, then let them sit idle over night.. Should have waited until today with the rain we got Monday night settled the soil down, but we got plants that I wanted in the ground nearly a week later than I usually like to plant them.. The soil was relatively moist but not dry or muddy.. The soil didn't collect on the tines of the tiller which is really good.. Getting everything planted and testing the irrigation system, part of the fun of gardening to me is setting up the irrigation system.. I use drip irrigation with those smaller soaking hose things mostly because while those little sprinklers are fine to water from above, the little soaking tube things deliver the goods right where I want it and leave the rest of the garden dry.. That helps to keep the weeds from growing supposedly, and why do I say supposedly?? Because in the years I have tried to do it this way the weeds still love to grow, in dry arid conditions or wet.. This year unlike any other year, I have a mower with a grass catcher and that produces grass clippings that I will use to help keep the weeds down a bit (I hope) and also trap water from being evaporated.. I try to stay more Organic where possible, I mean I know the tomato plants are more than likely GMO.. Nothing I can do about that..
This year my tomato variety is as follows.. : 2 Containers choice planted in the Earth box planter
2 la Roma planted in the section next to the gas meter
1 Krim planted directly in back of the bench in back
1 Sioux variety, much like the Krim in look and flavour..
The reason there are two each of the Containers choice and the Roma planted relatively close together is to hopefully stop cross pollination, something that with the Earthbox happens because of the close proximity to one another.. That never used to bother me and truth be told if I would have had just two tomato plants I would have had two different variety in there it wouldn't have been a big deal.. Except that I wanted to see if I could prevent cross pollination just to see what they would be like.. Same with the roma, they are down by the gas meter some fifty or more feet away from the Earthbox planter.. They however are close to the other two variety, they might be ten feet away.. And in the pumpkin patch will hopefully be pumpkins again this year.. I got a package of seeds (the giant variety again) and planted too many AGAIN.. Thin them down?? Maybe, but maybe let them grow a little then dig them out and give them to someone else. Might be a plan.. Also planted sunflowers this year.. A variety pack.. Not those mammoth ones.. They didn't grow worth a crap last year anyway.. So .. There you have it.. A busy two days.. And now we cross our fingers..
Badge Henry
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