What did you do in your garden today?

[Meadowlark]

80f all the way through Monday predicted here. Loading up the fungicides, insecticides, herbicides this morning. Getting the 25 gallon sprayers out. I put them in a garden cart and wander about happily. Thats is the sign of a good hobby right?

Same here on the temps. Have you purchased any glyphosate lately? It has more than doubled in price just since last fall.

A 60-gallon PTO sprayer is my weapon of choice with primary usage on 200 hundred acres of fence rows. I never use it in the garden, however.

 

[Meadowlark]

On Wednesday I tripped and fell face first in the garden. It drove the lense of my glasses into my eye and I have spent the last few days visiting hospitals until they removed the eye yesterday. Afraid this is going to put me behind this Spring.

My goodness. So sorry to read that.

 

[Sean Regan]

When I planted the new hebees yesterday, I dug up a clump of peonies near the tea-house. They never did much I always had to grow them through a square of weldmesh on sticks to stop them flopping over.
But they were showing new shoots.
I decided I'd put some of them in some pots to see how they did.
I'd run out of green plastic pots, I don't like the brown ones so I went to Parkers and bought four 12" at, "two for £7." Which I think was good value.

I put the spare hebee in the fourth pot.

No idea where they are going, I'll leave them on the small patio for now.

I was thinking about the hebees I bought yesterday at £12.99. I bought four the same size four years ago when Dobbies was Wyevale.
They are in the two wooden planters on the patio.
I remember they were £7.99. Talk about inflation!

 

[Meadowlark]

I had to look up "hebees". Would that be the evergreen shrub, which was named after the Greek goddess of youth?

 

[Sean Regan]

There's a lot of different varieties. These are the ones in pots I bought four years ago, in the two wooden planters on the patio.
Two each of three different varieties. They don't need any attention other than watering and an occasional feed.

The ones in the middle of each planter are the same as four of those I bought yesterday. Caladonia.

 

[Sheal]

On Wednesday I tripped and fell face first in the garden. It drove the lense of my glasses into my eye and I have spent the last few days visiting hospitals until they removed the eye yesterday. Afraid this is going to put me behind this Spring.

I'm so sorry to hear that. I wish you well and hope you cope with the loss of your eye.

 

[dirtdigs]

On Wednesday I tripped and fell face first in the garden. It drove the lense of my glasses into my eye and I have spent the last few days visiting hospitals until they removed the eye yesterday. Afraid this is going to put me behind this Spring.

Hope you recover the best you can.

 

[dirtdigs]

Was able to FINALLY get in the dirt.
Raked out some leaves, little bit of assessment and planning.

Was so nice here today, cooked a pot of beans over a firepit in a cast iron pot, tasty it was.
BTW, next Friday is calling for some light snow

 

[gary350]

I'm trying to decide which tomatoes to plant this year? Neighbor garden friend says he grows celebrity tomatoes he likes the flavor. Every time I grew celebrity they don't have very good compared to others I grow. Grocery store tomatoes are celebrity perfect round all the same diameter they look very good in a pile of 500 tomatoes.

Is anyone growing celebrity tomatoes that you think have good flavor.?

 

[DirtMechanic]

Yes they are an indeterminate standard here at our house. Once I grew 20 without any treatment as we abandoned them due to contaminated manure compost. They were not special and were bland tasting compared to others we grew. The 20 I simultaneously grew in grow bags with espoma fertilizer and epsom salts were amazingly flavored. I suspect sulfur brings out the flavor. I had started the abandoned garden with espoma but never treated it again. They are not large, and one generally gets consumed so having to figure out refrigeration is not a problem like the big beefsteaks

 

[Meadowlark]

...
Is anyone growing celebrity tomatoes that you think have good flavor.?

Yes, I have grown them and yes, they have a very good flavor.
All the growers I'm familiar with agree that the celebrity is a hybrid...but some call them semi-determinate and some call them determinate. Haven't seen anyone call them indeterminate.

The hybrid vigor seems to make them very easy to
care for, very disease resistant.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Yes, I have grown them and yes, they have a very good flavor.
All the growers I'm familiar with agree that the celebrity is a hybrid...but some call them semi-determinate and some call them determinate. Haven't seen anyone call them indeterminate.

The hybrid vigor seems to make them very easy to
care for, very disease resistant.

How big is indeterminate? 6 feet or if they just keep growing? Definitely bigger than any determinants I have grown.

 

[Meadowlark]

I buy a good bit from Bonnies...and they say determinate. I agree they reach a good size.

 

[Marck]

Almost any defined dichotomy will soon be followed by a vaguely defined gray area.

A Semi-determinate tomato might be described as a determinate one that grows so large and for so long that the season often end before the growth. Of course, that is likely an over-simplification.

There is a number of plant genetic papers investigating the semi-determinate condition. Wade through them if you dare.

 

[gary350]

How big is indeterminate? 6 feet or if they just keep growing? Definitely bigger than any determinants I have grown.

Commercial growers plant determinate they want every plant in a 100 acre field to be ripe ready to harvest on the same day. Determinate means plants grow a fixed height & produce a fixed number of tomatoes about 20 then plants die. I never grow determinate tomatoes its a total waste of garden space, I want ripe tomatoes all summer. If I give tomato plants too much nitrogen fertilizer I get very tall plants & few small tomatoes. Fertilized with lots of P & K and not much nitrogen I get 35 lbs of tomatoes from every tomato plant. I feed my plants about 2 tablespoons of 5-20-20 fertilizer plus calcium once a week plus 1 pint of water every day. I don't want any of my plants taller than 6 ft Sept. We get our 1st ripe tomatoes about July 4th & first frost is about Nov 5 and we often have ripe tomatoes Thanksgiving day & sometimes ripe tomatoes Christmas day. Only way to have ripe tomatoes after frost or freeze kills the plants is pick a 5 gallons bucket of green tomatoes let them get ripe in the kitchen.