Contributors

Rach

I'm daughter to Lissie, sister to Jess, wife to Brien, mom to Hannah, Lily and Eleanor. I am a stay at home mom to my girls, and my free time is dedicated to gardening (I confess I'm still a novice and look to Lissie and Jess for advice), baking and cooking, and card making. I'm doing my part to make the earth a bit greener, trying hard to avoid processed foods and HFCS, and find the "slow food" movement intriguing and inspiring. I love visits to my local farmers' market, fresh produce, reading, getting out in nature, and spending time with my family.

Jess

Catholic, homeschooler, lover of books and great wine and an amateur gardening addict.

Lissie

I'm Melissa aka "Lissie", mother of Rachael and Jessica, and grandmother to a passel of the sweetest children on the planet. I'm a semi-retired public educator and professor who works from home for a small publisher. I am a lover of all things beautiful ... flowers, the mountains, nature scenes, the innocent faces of children, and my rock and fossil collection, to name a few. I enjoy shopping at the farmers' market for fresh foods and then experimenting with new recipes. Good food and good wine delight me. I love to travel so my suitcase is always packed. Like my daughters, I take pleasure in simple things ... clothes drying on the line, tomatoes so fresh they are still hot from the sun, good books, and interesting movies. I'd like to know everything before I die.
Tomato Growth

Transplant Day


Week Three


Week Five


These plants are going crazy. We used a simple mix of compost and peat and that seems to be giving us the best results we've had in raised beds thus far. We've really pruned a few of them back pretty severely of suckers and let others go - we are testing whether pulling the suckers really makes a big difference in tomato production. I've found a few tomatoes with blossom end rot that had to be yanked and chucked but overall things are going well. Our one plant, Stupice, has already produced a few tasty tomatoes and another should be ready tomorrow. The herbs are also doing well and our chard and beans have really taken off. We harvested our radishes and they were too spicy for the kids so I will be looking for milder varieties.

Because of the insane heat and lack of rain we are watering daily and deeply. The tomatoes especially are beginning to show leaf curl from the intense heat - they like it hot but they are trying to not get burned to a crisp! Hopefully things will cool back down into the 80s this weekend and we'll get a little rain.

-Jess

 

3 comments:

Lissie said...

I'm happy for you, but a bit jealous. My tomatoes aren't doing nearly as well.

Mom

Rach said...

My tomatoes are not in a very good spot and will be moved to the other bed next year. No matter how much I water, everything is drying up and dying. :sigh: It's just too darn hot and dry around here.

Jess said...

I have even stopped using the spray attachment on the hose. I just take the regular old hose, put it on full blast and let it soak the base of each plant for a couple minutes. It is the only way I can keep them alive. Even doing that with all this damn heat, the leaves are still curling up like sausages. You can sort of see the ruffling in the photos. I hope we make it through this heat wave with minimal issues. Stressed plants are so much more susceptible to diseases.





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