2008 Gardening Thread

Tradition states that we should start with a nice photo of a flower...
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3047/2584875110_6b6b6c48b5.jpg

I am all about alliums this year.

T-minus a week and a half to ripe tomatoes!

We've got blueberries. LOTS. I can't give them away fast enough.

Peas, peas everywhere. In fact everything is growing like the wind. Hot weather + rain = bounty.

Finally starting to get some tomatoes. The earliest ones have been small cherry tomatoes, the size of marbles, very intense flavor. But I noticed some others this morning hiding under foliage, much bigger, like ping pong balls. My seedlings were so badly mislabeled that I don't know what they are -- miniature Boxcar Willies or gargantuan Rose Quartz. Good flavor, either way.

They're huge Rose Quartz. These would be good to cut the tops off of and stuff with crab salad, if I had any crab salad.

I wasn't sure whether to put this in the gardening thread or WDYLL, but my wife took this 10 days ago --

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/WilliamCrump63/gardening070208.jpg

PS, I finally found the perfect tomato stakes: 10-foot 1/2" galvanized electrical conduit, $2.19 each at the hardware store. Sink 'em when the ground is good and wet and you can get them 24"-30" deep just by leaning on them hard*, no hammering needed, giving you at least a 7.5' stake. They'll last what, at least a decade? Does that galvanized stuff even rust?

I mean to say 2 months ago that they are awesome tomato plants. Mine got to about 2 feet high and then curled up in a ball. I think a cat pee-d on it.

I have had to mow the lawn twice this week. Damn this sudden bit of summer.

I think I was better at growing tomato plants than growing tomatoes. Still, a pretty good crop. If I hadn't left them for two weeks of vacation in August when they needed close attention, they'd still be producing like crazy. I still have a couple of cherry tomatoes putting lots of fruit on. I could go out there now and pick a gallon of blondkopfchens, but the mosquitoes would carry me off.

Tomorrow: pull the rest of the plants up, spray Roundup in the places where grass grew back during the summer when it was too hot for me to weed. Defoliate the fuck out of the whole area. Repeat as necessary before first frost.

After frost: borrow tiller and till garden area. Cover with the last grass clippings of the fall and all of the leaves from our oak. Top with 10# bone meal. Let it sit and stew all winter; hope for hard freeze.

Next February: LABEL THE SEEDLINGS CORRECTLY THIS TIME, DUMMY.

Shoot for:
Boxcar Willie: 4
Paul Robeson: 2-3
Blondkopfchen: 2 (planted together to come up around one stake)
Matt's Wild Cherry: 2 (ditto)
Maybe a Rose Quartz; I missed those from last year, really tasty.

No more: Costoluto Genovese (picky calcium-deficient bastards)

Possibly an asparagus bed. I think the artichokes can be deemed a failure. Also, I need to learn how to tell when a watermelon is ripe. The thump-test failed me three times this year.

YEAH, I just had the first tomatoes of the season today. There really is nothing like a fresh picked tomato. It's like them, and the slimey tasteless pink things you get in the supermarket aren't even the same species. NUM!

Last gasp of 2008 gardening! Went nuts planting bulbs. On election day I put in lots of Triumph tulips of the "Attila" variety because they are the same radioactive violet as Michelle Obama's dress the night he accepted the nomination.IT WORKED. Also lots of purple crocus& hyacinths. I love the fat Orientalis hyacinths. Like soldiers, my mother says.
For one of my favorite customers I put in a gazillion daffs. It'll be a daff museum.

YAYYYYY BETH'S BACK YAYYYYYYYYY!!!11!

My vegetable garden spot is wintering nicely, but I need a small tiller for next year.

Well, after such a welcome, I'll come on down with my trusty shovel! One hyper-neurotic middle-aged lady>one motorized dirt churner.

I must say, I'm disappointed in everyone's lack of interest in December gardening.

My only 2008 gardening activity has been a preemptive strike on 2009 - a worm bin in our flat to support container gardening in a few months. Little buggers keep trying to escape though.