I hear ya... I'm also putting in a couple of worm towers to help with that as well. Meanwhile, I only got a half trailer of soil into the gaping maw tonight before I was toast, so then I set up my lean-to and some make-shift benching to start the plant hardening process. This is the first load out of the laundry room... about 25 tomato plants and a handful of sunflowers. Here's hoping they survive the process.
In other news, even with the crazy hot sun the soil I put in yesterday is still very high in moisture content... so day 1 of "does osmosis really work?" seems to be a success.
Well, I'm a happy, if not sore, camper. The wicking bed from hell is now done... all gravel and soil is in. I've now transplanted my 27 tomato plants into it, but they're not staked yet. I have a fence thing I'll be making and installing so that they'll be able to climb, but that won't be for a few days. Meanwhile it's supposed to rain lightly for the next couple of days, so my main deadline was met. Here's hoping that after all those weeks/months of work and care they don't fucking die on me. Next step is to build up the herb stepped garden and transplant the seedlings I've started for them.
Good luck. I went out this morning to look at my tomato plant hardening off to find deer had munched the seedlings. Probably 5 left. So now it’s going to be a big herb garden instead of tomato patch.
People laughed at me for transplanting 27 plants. Ha. If some die off, then so be it... still lots left. Sure, they're tightly packed in with each other, but the only real reason to not plant them close to each other is to not starve them of nutrients or light, and there should be plenty of light, and I expect to fertilize the shit out of them regularly, so we'll see how it goes. The number of old neighbours that are dropping by and giving me their years of experience, from the days before fertilizers and irrigations systems is kind of funny. Just about every time I hear some old tradition or wive's tale I pause, look confused, and ask, "why?" They can never really give me an answer other than a pause, then... "because that's how we've always done it."
I mean I transplant that many plenty. This year I was just going to harden off while they were still in peat pellets and repot directly into the ground. Hopefully the ones left will survive. I’m hoping this forces me to branch out to other vegetables and such as for the past few years all my energy was devoted to tomatoes.
I'm jealous of all you folks and your fancy gardening. I live on a wooded lot which is on a steep north facing slope - so I get very little direct sun. The first two years here I tried to plant a vegetable garden to no avail. Now I pot one or two tomato plants and put them on the deck. If I get 4 or 5 ripe tomatoes by the end of August it's a good harvest.
I hear ya. Last year was my first real year having a garden, and it was mostly motivated by the shitty tomatoes you get in the grocery stores. So I spent all fucking year watering and pruning and fertilizing and taking care of them... one big cherry tomato plant, one heirloom(I think). The cherry tomato plant produced like crazy... so much so that I still have frozen cherry tomatoes in the freezer. The heirloom plant? Maybe 4 for the entire season. I was soooo fucking disappointed, and promised that next time I'll have more than I know what to do with. That's what got me doing the seedlings early and getting to 27 good sized plants in the flower bed now. My neighbour was saying that I'll have way more than I'll know what to do with... and I said, "good... mission accomplished."
It may not look like much, but here are the 27 tomato plants transplanted into the new wicking bed. I don't have the climbing support fence installed yet, I have to make it tomorrow... but there are 2 rows of plants and I've got some 3"x3" vinyl coated fencing that I'll stake between the 2 rows. I think it'll work out well. So far, it's been two days, and there's still plenty of moisture in the soil without watering them again (the whole point of the wicking bed in the first place), and only a couple of leaves that didn't seem to make the transition. All in all I think it's been a success, so far... so now it's just a matter of time and patience.
Your plants look fabulous! I like the idea of worm towers and will try that in the next bed I start. Tomatoes, okra, beans on one side, herb patch on the back with rosemary, oregano, variety of basil, lemongrass, cilantro, thyme Spoiler Anaheim peppers, which I went ahead and picked all that were large and green because they are splitting as they redden, so these will ripen inside. Spoiler This cool plant called Chya. I've had 3 cuttings in small pots for over a year and now that they are rooted well they are making big leaves. Spoiler I didn't get to use my cucumber trellis. I have a couple flats of extra tomato plants that I'll give away. I figure I'll complete the projects I can so it isn't all wasted effort. Not sure when I have to abandon it all anyway, might be a month, might be 2.
And if I weren't a total dummy I'd have about 20lbs right now instead of 1.3. I fertilized the everloving daylights out of them a couple months ago and killed most of the pepper plants. But it is very nice, I am excited to use some of the dried beans I bought to make chili. I'm an impulsive shopper and I bought an 8lb bag of pinto beans for $3. Honestly, the most worthwhile and successful part of my garden has always been the herbs. They can be grown in a small area, if you have a sunny spot you have to have some herbs.
Not sure if anyone is interested, but you might want to know that a bunch of Miracle Gro water soluble fertilizer is on a bit of a sale on Amazon right now. I just had 3 1.5kg containers shipped to me overnight for about $5 cheaper, per package, than what I could drive to Home Depot and buy. $7 delivered vs $12 at HD. Bamboo support poles are almost half the price as Home Depot too. I fucking love Amazon.
Put my tomato supports up tonight... 4' tall vinyl coated wire fencing that should do really well to support the tomatoes as they grow. So... grow, bitch. I want me some tomatoes! Next step is to transplant all my other seedlings over the next few days of colder weather... no need to specially harden them with the upcoming cloudy and cold days.
What. The. Fuck. Within the last 2 days I've been invaded by a shit-ton of bugs in my indoor seedling area. They are predominately all over my jalapeno plants... and have totally wiped out my mature cilantro. I think I've caught them fast enough as I've now soaked them in insecticide (the "healthier" soap stuff), and it seems to have killed them off. But holy fuck did that come on fast and out of the blue. Anyone else have any issues with bugs? How do you manage them? I have a bug zapper that comes on with the fans for 10 minutes every 60 and that has done a great job of killing off some flying bugs... but I guess it wasn't good enough to protect everything now that the weather is getting nicer and windows are open.
I have gotten lucky the last few years. My garden has been filled with Ladybugs and Praying Mantises which have made aphids not a problem.