Kathy's Garden 2021

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KathyDC
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Kathy's Garden 2021

#1

Post: # 43104Unread post KathyDC
Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:15 pm

It starts! Got the beds all cleaned up, turned and amended last weekend and now I'm just waiting for the last frost date. It should be soon now, just under a month I'd say.

This year, mostly for space reasons, I've decided to do all my plants with a well-pruned central stake and bottom cage. Last year it worked reasonably well for me, and while it will impact production, it will allow me to squeeze another plant into my rows, and I really enjoy having a wide variety of things growing.

As usual I started way more seed than I can ever fit, twice over... but I enjoy giving away plants. Last year, with gardening centers impacted by Covid, they flew out of my yard. Things seem like maybe they'll be a little better this year, but I'm still anticipating a lot of interest. This year I started some of my very old seed just for the purpose of giving them away. I likely won't ever grow these varieties in my garden and I know someone will enjoy them.

So here is what I started that I personally plan on growing, not counting the gobs of others I've started just to give away. This year I've decided to take a break from my crosses.

Karma Peach
Rebecca Sebastian's Bull Bag
Marmande Garnier Rouge
Yellow Ruffled
Grandma Viney's Yellow and Pink
Zena's Gift
brandywine OTV
brandywine Black
Orange Crimea
Red Barn
Stump of the World (for Remy)
Chocolate Icicle
Mushroom Basket
Selbo's Red Ribbed
Mme de Beauce (from v old Carolyn Male seed)
Garden Lime (from v old Carolyn Male seed)
Buck Bee (from v old Carolyn Male seed)
Premus (for containers in back)

Of course, allowing for actual germination - since I have been wintersowing, so far I haven't seen any shoots. But they should be coming up soon.

This year I'm also going to grow a few cucumbers (Hmong Red, Mexican Sour Gherkin and maybe a regular Muncher variety), and some snap beans. I've never grown beans before so that will be an adventure all on its own. I've picked Rattlesnake and Kentucky Wonder for my first time out. I'm also going to try growing them up a DIY trellis that involves completely repurposed items. What could go wrong?!

Herbs started: Cilantro, several kinds of basil, and I think that's it. I can barely remember!

For flowers, I have tithonia, marigolds, cardinal plant, black eyed susans and I think I started some red hollyhocks. I went a little crazy this year...

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KathyDC
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Re: Kathy's Garden 2021

#2

Post: # 47359Unread post KathyDC
Mon May 24, 2021 11:15 am

Well, growing is in full swing here, even though I've been a bit absent. The early spring was a frustrating series of waiting on things out of my control. Mainly, that was attempting to build a landing and steps down into the back yard. It took forever to find someone who would do it, I guess because it's a pretty small job. Then when I did, it ended up being a person who had to do it in between a lot of other jobs, so it took about a month for it all to be finished. Finally finally, that was last weekend. So I was able to put the back yard back together in a way that is easy for me to manage gardening, and I've been puttering happily ever since.

This seems to happen for one reason or another virtually every year, and this year was no exception, but I lost about 8 seedlings to a critter, prior to plant out. And, sadly, I was not able to get any germination at all from Carolyn's old seed. So my final grow list looks a little different than I had anticipated. I've got 18 tomato plants going in my beds this year:

Red Barn x2
a mystery beefsteak that does well in my garden
Cherokee Lime
Karma Peach
Marmande Garnier Rouge
Zena's Gift
Rebecca Sebastian's Bull Bag
Grandma Viney's Yellow and Pink
Yellow Ruffled
Sungold
Brandywine OTV
Brandywine Black
Stump of the World
Selbo's Red Ribbed
Chocolate Icicle
Mushroom Basket
Orange Crimea

A few worthy of note:

Red Barn was by far my biggest and most robust seedling and it has continued putting on growth at an exponential rate now that it's in the ground. As of this weekend, it's showing a truss with one open flower -- early for here, and for its size. I'll be surprised if that blossom hangs on, but it sure made me smile when I walked the rows this weekend!
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I've also got in grow bags snap beans, cucumbers and peppers. It's my first time trying to grow beans, so fingers crossed. Beans are Kentucky Wonder and Rattlesnake.
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Here are the peppers. I've got going: Takanotsune, Fish, Red Peter Pepper and Mirabel (dried is Guajillo).

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And cucumbers: Mexican Sour Gherkin and Hmong Red.
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I've also already got 4 planters on my new back landing, mostly with herbs. I've got going cilantro, sweet genovese basil, lemon basil, mammoth basil and lettuce leaf basil.
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And a box with two Premus tomato plants, a not-quite-micro variety. The cup in the middle is also Premus, but will be given away probably next weekend.
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Also a strawberry plant in a pot, just on a whim.
IMG_1611.jpg

Happy gardening, everybody!
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Seven Bends
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Re: Kathy's Garden 2021

#3

Post: # 47433Unread post Seven Bends
Tue May 25, 2021 11:51 am

Looking great (the plants and the new construction)! Exciting to see the blossoms on the Red Barn plant already. When did you get your plants in the ground? It's been hard to find a planting window this year in the DC suburbs -- nights were too cold in late April/early May, then we had like three perfect days, and then suddenly it was blazing hot, sunny, with a hot, dry wind. I got about half our tomato plants into the ground in those few perfect days, and they're doing well, but the rest are still on my deck waiting for adult life to begin.

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KathyDC
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Re: Kathy's Garden 2021

#4

Post: # 47450Unread post KathyDC
Tue May 25, 2021 9:28 pm

Ugh I know. The weather has been bonkers. I had some of the same problem although I was relatively less worried about the cool weather because I do winter sowing. So all my seedlings have been hardened off for a while.

But like you I’ve been planting in stages as I could and watching for breaks in the weather. My first row (which included Red Barn) went in on 5/1, then the next row a couple weeks later, and finally the last row over the weekend (or it might have been Friday). I had to replace one tomato that got munched by something and I did that yesterday when the weather was cooler and overcast.

How many plants are you growing this year?

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Re: Kathy's Garden 2021

#5

Post: # 47478Unread post Seven Bends
Wed May 26, 2021 9:15 am

In my own plot, I think I'll end up with twenty or so, depending on how many extras I can sneak into spaces they don't really belong. I also help my mom in her plot, where we've planted eighteen. Her plot is the home of the hybrid red slicers and most of the paste tomatoes (Better Boy, Big Boy, Whopper, Big Beef, Super Fantastic, Fourth of July, Early Girl, Roma, La Roma III, Viva Italia, and Pompeii). Mine has cherry tomatoes, heirloom/open-pollinated varieties, and less-common hybrids. So far, all I've been able to plant in mine is one Sungold, two Orange Bananas, and two Italian Golds.

For the remaining 15 spots, I have 28 varieties and am having trouble making up my mind, but most likely they'll include: Stump of the World* or Terhune* or both, Think Pink or Momotaro, Big Rainbow, Pineapple*, Old German or Hillbilly, Jaune Flammee, Kellogg's Breakfast*, Cherokee Carbon*, Sunrise Bumble Bee, Pink Bumble Bee, another Sungold*, Super Snow White, Super Sweet 100* or Braveheart or both, and a mystery little orange pear from saved seeds from grocery store cherry tomatoes (just for fun, expecting it won't grow true, though). Asterisk means I've grown it before.

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KathyDC
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Re: Kathy's Garden 2021

#6

Post: # 53297Unread post KathyDC
Wed Sep 01, 2021 5:48 pm

My goodness the time has gotten away from me. I have been so absent here and missed it. But I guess better late than never.

It’s been a tough year in the garden. I got a late start and then we had a string of unseasonably warm 90 degree plus days early when it should have still been about 80. My seedlings were still small when that happened, and I hadn’t started to treat them with fungicides so fungus set in almost from the start. From there it was an on again off again battle, with me mostly behind. It has been dispiriting.

Some of my little plant babies never produced a thing. Others like Red Barn got off to a promising start and then got zapped by fungus. Still others were not what I expected! (A plant that was supposed to be Cherokee Lime ended up more like Cherokee Purple - it was tasty though! - and my mystery beefsteak somehow reverted to Berkeley Tie Dye which was ... surprising! My Brandywine OTV was productive but more like saladette size...)

But perhaps the most confounding of all, Selbo’s Red Ribbed wasn’t at all what I expected. It got a late start but since then has been ultra productive despite the fungal stress. However they’re not ribbed, they’re piriform, often with very defined nipples. Ahem, Selbo’s Red Nippled? These seed came from [mention]Tormato[/mention], paging Tormato to the garden please! I have saved copious seed and happy to share. They were productive and tasty with thick walls and VERY long keepers!
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worth1
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Re: Kathy's Garden 2021

#7

Post: # 53299Unread post worth1
Wed Sep 01, 2021 5:59 pm

Glad to see you here once again..it's been a tough year in more ways than one.
Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

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KathyDC
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Re: Kathy's Garden 2021

#8

Post: # 53300Unread post KathyDC
Wed Sep 01, 2021 6:05 pm

Yes, so sadly true. In many ways this year has felt harder than last. Glad to see you too!

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Re: Kathy's Garden 2021

#9

Post: # 60369Unread post KathyDC
Sat Jan 08, 2022 1:22 pm

Haven’t had much time for posting due to several family things, but my mind rarely strays far from my garden. And as I sit here looking out at the snowfall in my back yard all I can think about is my 2022 garden. Spending some happy hours planning today - sketching and selecting seeds to start, soon.

I probably won’t do beans again this year, or if I do I’ll have to plan it better. The way I had them set up ended up feeling too cramped.

I really enjoyed my peppers last year so I’m probably going to double what I grow - assuming I can get them to germinate!

And since I had such a rotten season in 2021, I’m going to regrow a few varieties. I almost never repeat tomatoes but I had several that just didn’t make at all because the heat and humidity hit so fast last year, faster then I had anticipated. I’ll start spraying earlier this year and hopefully no repeat of that.

Also must share that one of the year’s surprises is that my mom had to be hospitalized. She’s doing better now but one of the first things I did after she got out was make her a fresh green salad, after almost a week of hospital food, with the last of my tomatoes. I cut up a beautiful Karma Peach and she exclaimed, “Oh, that tastes like the sun!” So thanks for that delicious bright spot @KarenO.

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Harry Cabluck
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Re: Kathy's Garden 2021

#10

Post: # 60453Unread post Harry Cabluck
Sun Jan 09, 2022 11:32 am

Yo! Kathy DC, Wishing you and yours good health and good seed-starting. FYI, they're still asking about you at Scholtz' and the Texas Chili Parlor.
Refrain from calculating the total number of poultry...before the process of incubation has fully materialized.

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Re: Kathy's Garden 2021

#11

Post: # 60466Unread post bower
Sun Jan 09, 2022 5:51 pm

We had a weird, overly hot and humid summer as well @KathyDC . Defiinitely hard on the tomatoes.
I really grow tomatoes for my Mom. She enjoys them so much. Your story made me smile! :) I hope 2022 is a better year for you and your Mom too.
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

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