What did you do in your garden today?

[Meadowlark]

... I never grow determinate tomatoes its a total waste of garden space, ...

Weren't you considering Celebrity... a determinate?.

Stagger start them for continuous tomatoes all summer especially, if you can give them afternoon shade.

 

[DirtMechanic]

Our celebrity produce all summer but they just get slower, smaller and stay green longer into the fading son and falling temps of the late season. Really its better to have some decent replacements but at a certain point we do not have room for that much fruit.

 

[gary350]

Weren't you considering Celebrity... a determinate?.

Stagger start them for continuous tomatoes all summer especially, if you can give them afternoon shade.

I did not know Celebrity are determinate. It has been 35 years sense I grew Celebrity I didn't even know about determinate & indeterminate in those days. Only reason I was considering growing Celebrity is several people claimed they have good flavor. Flavor is an opinion like, which wine taste best, which taste best, beef, chicken, pork or fish. I plant my tomatoes under a shade tree so they get early morning sun cool part of the day then shade 12 noon to dark in 98° hot sun. I buy plants & seeds, I use seeds to stagger tomatoes new plants every month. Plants from the garden store are a month old, I plant the plants April 15 and 2 seeds April 15 then 2 seeds every month, May, June, July, Aug. Most plants produce a lot of tomatoes for 2 months then slow down, we need new plants on the way every month just to have 1 or 2 tomatoes every day for the kitchen table. I use to plant 6 different varieties of tomatoes every year if there is a problem with plants we still have tomatoes for the kitchen but sense I found Big Beef I only plants Big Beef every year. We still have 30 quarts of tomatoes in mason jars in the kitchen pantry from the past 3 years so this year our tomato crop will be small only 4 plants. Last year we were tired of tomatoes by Sept so we gave most of them away. We don't eat as many tomatoes as we use to 4 plants will be too many this year but they come in 4 pack for $2 at the store.

 

[Sean Regan]

Just a bit of tidying up.
I also cleaned both bird baths. That's always a pain as I take the tops off and scrub them out under a tap. They are very heavy.
However, when I put them back I had a couple of spare large green plastic saucers the diameter about the same as the inner measurement of the baths. So I put them in. They'll stay cleaner and it'll be just a case of taking them out now and again to give them a wash out.

 

[Amateur Gardener]

Cutting the cleavers

 

[Logan]

Sowed some more calendula, cosmos and Snapdragon seeds.

 

[scotkat]

I started to make a start to redoing my garden after Storm Damage left a trail of destruction in garden and so many panes of glass broken in my Greenhouses.

 

[Amateur Gardener]

Cutting the overgrowth of grass.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

snowed yesterday, ground soggy in places. can get to all my helleboruses (spelling) and clean up about them, cutting off the dead stuff, noted they are blooming some. that should be enough today with the other stuff inside. to wet to continue major leaf removal in paths etc, ---another day.

 

[Marck]

Cutting the overgrowth of grass.

View attachment 88009

Ah, the scourge of Bermuda-buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae), an invasive wood-sorrel native to South Africa.
It spreads by bulblets and is very difficult to control. Constant removal of all green tissue will slowly weaken the plants, but this is easier said than done. However, consistent and complete coverage with cardboard mulch can work well.

 

[gary350]

Potatoes are doing good I count 162 plants today in 4 rows & only 3 plants in the 5th row which is struggling to grow up through 6" of soil. I did several experiments this year. 1 row was planted Oct 1, another row Oct 15, another row Nov 1 and Nov 15, last row Dec 15. One row is covered with 6" of soil, another row is covered with 5" of soil. Another row 4" another row 3" another 2". I also planted 1 eye cuttings, 2 eye cuttings, a few 3 eye cuttings and whole potatoes with 5 to 6 eyes per potato. We are having 60° & 70° weather plants are coming up in, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6" deep soil order not by the date they were planted. Today is the 1st day I have seen plants coming up in the 6" soil deep row. I already know 1 eye cuttings will grow a 1 lb potato, 2 eye cuttings with grew 2 potatoes each 1/2 lb each, 3 eye cutting will grow 3 potatoes each 1/3 lb each. If I want large potatoes I plant 1 eye cuttings. If I want smaller potatoes I plant 2 & 3 eye cuttings. Cuttings act like 1 plant even if it has several eyes all the plants come from the same cutting so root and moisture from surrounding soil is enough for 1 plant. I already knew from years past potatoes planted in Oct 1st do much better than potatoes planted March 1st. No matter when or how I plant, each plant produces about 1 lb of potatoes. 50 years ago when I lived in Illinois we had do trouble getting 4 lbs of new potatoes from each plant but in TN it is a struggle to get 1 lb of potatoes from each plant. TN weather is rain & swamp all winter then no rain & desert all summer. When I lived in Michigan soil was very soft growing season was short but we got 5 lbs of potatoes per plant. When I lived in Phoenix I planted potatoes Oct 15 harvest was Feb 15 cool 65° winter & irrigation we had 6 lbs of potatoes per plant. So far I have been talking about WHITE color potatoes, Russet & Kennebec not RED potatoes. White potatoes are cool weather potatoes & RED potatoes are hot weather potatoes. I have NO trouble grow 4 lbs of RED new potatoes per plant in TN hot 100° weather. I hope everyone knows Russet potatoes are called Idaho potatoes in the State of Idaho. I have stopped buying seed potatoes commercial growers no long per chemicals on potatoes to stop eyes from growing. I no longer make cuttings I save golf ball potatoes from last years crop to plant Oct 1st. If golf ball potatoes as more than 1 eye growing break off the extra eyes so potato only as 1 eye. Tomorrow forecast is 20° & 4" of snow this will kill potato tops but not the plants before soil surface. Next week we have 60°F weather again. Our potato tops may freeze off several more times before last frost April 20 but they grow back in 1 week. Harvest this year should be about June 1st maybe sooner. Soon as plants turn yellow & start to die it is harvest time but it is best to leave new potatoes in the soil a month to allow skins to get tougher so they not damage easy. We are eating new potatoes June 1 dig up a few to eat every day.

 

[Meadowlark]

Interested in your results. I've learned more from my experiments over many years than any other source.

 

[gary350]

Yesterday I worked on the 22" wide tiller & have running. It has not been started in 5 years ignition coil was rusted & fly wheel magnet was rusted. Soon as I sanded away rust that is all it needed from ignition to have a good spark & it started. Wooden guards I added to both tillers keep soil from coming out both sides and covering up small plants. Tillers are both 5 hp and both blades turn the same RPM. Tiller on the right side is an old 5 hp Briggs engine it runs like a new engine I change oil every year and make sure air filter stays clean. It is not beautiful but it works.

 

[Meadowlark]

What to do with 10-year-old unusable tomato cages? One possibility is to repurpose into a cucumber trellis by turning them sideways and tying to short garden posts.

 

[Sean Regan]

I did a bit today.

Got into the mayleen clematis in the big tub, I trained to grow over the front door. I like it to "cascade" it would rather continue growing upwards. A bit of pruning and tying up will hopefully give us this again in mid summer.

Did a bit of training on the wisterias on the garage pergola, if I want this again this year.

Gave the roses another spray of sulpher rose.

https://www.greengardener.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/sulphurrose2502018.jpg

I only did them a couiple of weeks ago but I think the rain washed most of it off.
Sprayed all round the roots in each pot too. So far no sign of black spot.

The lawns looking a mess, worst it has ever been, but so has the weather. I gave it a cut, it had a feed a couple of weeks ago so I resisted giving it another.
I'll put a bit more grass seed down on the bare patches.

Might go to Parkers tomorrow for another azalea to go behind this tub. The one I bought last year to replace one that died, isn't doing that well, but I'll find a space for it.