tn_veggie_gardner is back!!! =)

I know it's been a while since I've posted on here & I want to apologize to my dedicated followers for that. I have had both of my hip replacements done & am in a nice duplex/house where I can have a great garden again. In the time between my last post on here & this one, I lived 3 different places, had one of my surgeries & also had to have my garden taken care of by my aunt for a few months. Crazy, huh? =) I plan on trying Winter sowing again & also soon will be ordering my usual round of seeds from Baker Creek, and probably a few supplies from Greenhouse Megastore. For now, here are a few pictures I've taken over the last month or so...

A few pics of my Red Dragon Flower. After having a few plants of this (and giving away a few, then growing a few more from single stems) for 3+ years, I finally got to see a bud & flower!

My Dwarf Lime Tree, now about 4 years old. She's getting big! I say this every year, but hopefully I'll get some limes off it this year!

A few cherry tomato pictures. None of these plants turned out too well since I was recovering from surgery & unable to take care of them, but that doesn't mean I didn't get any maters or cool pics of them! :)

I got the usual mid Summer cheapie $1 tray of 8 pepper plants from my fave nursery, and as always, most of them grew well. The 4 I managed to bring back to my house grew excellent. The 4 I left at the not-a-green-thumb-aunt's house did not do well. ;)

Some berries, almost all of which went to the squirrels. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

A pic of my aunts pretty (unknown) Hibiscus.

Some pretty flowers I found growing on the Stones River side of the dam.

A lil critter pic from work.

Hope you like the pics & look for more posts to come soon regarding my Winter Sowing! Happy Gardening!!! - Steve/tn_veggie_gardner

A few weekend updates

Thanks to Mother Nature calming back down, my plants went back outside Saturday afternoon. I think though, they somehow got a little wind/cold burn on 4-5 of the mater plants though, when they were inside (prob cuz I had window open those 37 degree nights...good job, Steve!). :-\ Stuff happens when you garden though that you just have to deal with. I'll give the burnt ones an extra little shot of fertilizer this week to help them recover. All will be well. :) I found a few more signs of Spring & some of the higher heat (Summer soon to come) too!.....



A bud set about to open (I'd say by this weekend!) on one of my Sungold Select II cherry tomato plants:


First open Blackberry flower! Probably about 100 buds on this plant; Not nearly as many as the Wineberry Raspberry plant has, but still enough:




Last, but certainly not least, is a pic of this supposedly invasive plant I saw at my friends house on Friday (while we were drinkin a few beers & cookin some dang good ribs!). I think i'm gonna try and get him to split it/give me some. Love the little blue flowers! Some kind of Cane Grass, he says:


Happy Gardening, all!

Gardening Awesomeness!

Just want to throw a few pics up that I took yesterday of some new growth I have recently found in my garden, along with a funny picture of everything I had to bring back in for a few days, thanks to mother nature. I love the Spring!!! =)



Fall planted garlic, except for the 4-5 small ones you see on the outer rim, which I planted in late Winter to make up for the squirrel destruction:



Grape plants all miserably intertwined together, since I forgot to train the vines...lol:



Kerria Japonica (Japanese Rose) babies!!! So excited to see that the mother plant threw out 3 of them this year! One a few inches tall right by main stem of mother plant, one bottom left of pot & one bottom right of pot:



Wineberry Raspberry bud pictures again. Love this plant! Tons & tons of buds should mean tons & tons of berries:




With low's in the 30's & 40's until Saturday night, I had to bring everything in hopefully for the last time. Mighty jungle, eh? =):

Nursery Bought Plants

Some of you that know me, know that each year when I go to my favorite nursery to buy my container mix, I usually pick up a few veggie plants. This year, I got a Tomatillo & a Bradley Tomato. I have also already bought a Jalapeno plant (not pictured below) since I like to can some & also make Chipotle's, and I forgot to get Jal seeds this year. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Tomatillo does. They will be great for salsa! =)



Happy Gardening! - Steve

First Wineberry Raspberry Flower!

A short post today because my allergies are tearing me apart & I feel miserable. Below is a pic of the flower. Probably 200+ buds on the plant right now. Should get quite a few berries off it this year. :)

The first fruit of the year

With lots more close behind, on this plant & others! =) Grape set on one of my St. Croix plats...

Buds on several plants!

My Kerria Japonica (Japanese Rose), Wineberry Raspberry & St. Croix Grape plants are all budding! Wicked excited to get some berries growing. I can't take a very good picture of the grape bud sets with my phone (not like the ones below are good either...lol), but there are at least 4 of them I counted. Each one usually has about 15 or so grapes on it. Plants look nice, so I should get several hundred grapes off them this year. My Wineberry Raspberry plant is 4 years old & has tons of vine, so I should also get a lot off it this year. At least 150-200 or so. Enjoy the bud pictures below & Happy Gardening! =)

Wineberry Raspberry bud set:


Kerria Japonica bud (should open within the next few days!):

Hardening off the veggies

All of my cherry tomato & about half of my pepper seedlings are ready for the hardening off process. For those of you not familiar with this phrase, it means to take the plants outside on nice days & give them a little "taste" of the outdoor weather a little bit at a time, more & more each day. Mine have been out 3 separate days over the last week or so. Today I left them out for a good 5-6 hours where they got maybe an hour or two of indirect sunlight (through bushes). When hardening off plants, you do not want to immediately put them in direct sunlight or they will die quickly. My plan usually involves 2-3 days of a few hours shade, then a week or so of a few hours each day with 50/50 sun & shade. Then, a few more days of mostly sun for a few hours. Then overnight 1-2 days just to make sure at the end that they're ready for the outdoors. Feels good when you put them out there knowing you hardened them off well & you see no affects at all from sun, wind, etc.. Let's you know they'll be ok. =)

Anyway, I took a pic of them, of course. This is less than half of my total veggie plants (probably after i'm all done, will only be about 1/4th...lol). These are just my cherry tomato plants & 2 different types of peppers that were ready for it. I still have my 2 paste tomato varieties, Rutgers tomatoes, all my habanero seedlings (12 or so) & a handful of others that will need to be hardened off & put out for good over the next month or so. I'm excited that Spring is coming soon, along with the average last frost date, so I can have my garden all together. Last frost date for Middle Tennessee is supposed to be around April 21st, in 11 days. I'll play it a bit safe like I usually do & not put anything out for good until the end of the month. The peppers, loving the extreme heat & not much below 65 at night, i'll wait a bit longer with. One thing I like to do, that helps, is to keep a close eye on the weather, on a daily basis. Last thing I want would be for me seedlings to sit through a storm or whatever & get destroyed!

More updates coming soon. Almost time to pot up the 3 Habanero varieties. Also, my re-seeding of all my non-cherry tomatoes that got killed when I moved is going excellent! =) After only 2 weeks, all cells but one have germinated & they are growing second sets of leaves. I may still yet get a July 4th tomato or two...lol...Anyway, take care & Happy Gardening!!! - Steve

Cherry tomato & habanero pepper seedlings

A few of my cherry tomato seedlings have wee lil bud sets on them now! Yay!!! =) Habanero (Jamaican Hot Chcocolate, Carribean Red & Orange) seedlings coming along nicely as well...

Deck/Fruit Garden

All of my fruit & berry plants have been moved to a nice sunny spot on the deck. The Wineberry Raspberry plant looks awesome draped over the side. Also, in the other pic, i'm going to try and train my grape plants to grow up the pole on the covered atrium thing. :)

Wineberry Raspberry, TC Blackberry, Dwarf Lime Tree, Kerria Japonica, Garlic, Dill Weed, Garlic Chives & one or two other small plants:


Grape plants:

First round of potting up.

And i'm exhausted...lol...below are some pics of the seedlings I potted up today. Tomatoes are: Chadwick Cherry, Chocolate Cherry & Sungold Select II. Peppers are: Golden Marconi & California Wonder Bell.

Tomatoes:


Peppers:

Garden Move

Well, my move went well this weekend. Despite the few tomato seedlings that my friend Justin destroyed & the few that just didn't make it, most of my garden took it well! Only a few windburnt leaves on the Kerria Japonica (Japanese Rose) & 2-3 others. I'll get some updated pics on here soon. I resowed my paste & slicing tomatoes because they were either killed in the move or just didn't look great (thanks, floating pellet tray!). Luckily, it's only the end of March, so they will only be delayed a month or so (be hard to get the July 4th maters, maybe). I'm also sowing an herb garden soon, too! Take care & Happy Gardening, all! =) - Steve

Sungold Select II Seedling

Just a quick post. Figured I'd share a picture I took last night of my most mature Sungold Select II cherry tomato seedling. Isn't it beautiful? =)

Seedling Update. Tomatoes, Peppers & More!

They are all growing great, except for the dill weed. I just can never seem to get dill weed to stand up well from the time it sprouts throughout its whole lifespan. It needs to be tied down, but is too delicate! lol...Here are some pictures of the beautiful babies...




Garlic Chives (looking very healthy & dark green):


Garlic (planted in the Fall...got from my friend Adrian):





Tomato seedlings (this is most of them...also have 6-8 in 1 gallon pots which are Amish Paste, San Marzano Lungo No 2, Placero & one other variety I forget right now):


Chadwick Cherry Tomato:


Chocolate Cherry Tomato:


Sungold Select II:





Pepper Seedlings (this is most of them...also have 6 or so in 1 gallon pots):


California Wonder Bell:


Golden Marconi (happy that I have 4 very healthy seedlings of these! Tasty sweet golden pepper great for grilling & such):





The milk weed "test plant" is still doing fine, but still fallen over. I plan on sowing one more tray of seeds (not sure what yet) then also planting some more garlic. Things are coming along well! Many signs of Spring are showing too. Both my Wineberry Raspberry & Triple Crown Blackberry plants are growing leaf nodes (around 1 cm in length). Also, my Kerria Japonica (Japanese Rose) is growing leaf nodes (1-2 cm in length). Spring is in the air & even though I unfortunately have to move again within the next month or so (means no raised bed use. :( ), I plan on still having a great garden this year to make up for last year. Take care & happy gardening!!! =)

Seedling Update

Most of my veggie seedlings are doing well. A few are getting slightly leggy (not enough to affect the plant), so I probably need to rotate all of them. Below are a few pictures.

Some of the pepper seedlings, along with a close-up of one:







Some of the tomato seedlings & a close-up of my most mature Sungold:







My dwarf lime tree has started its Spring growth a bit. Here's a pic of it:

My First True Raised Bed

This will be a learning experience for me, for sure. In all my years of gardening, I have never grown in a true raised bed. I'm thinking maybe all garlic & onions? lol...Should be fun, one way or another. I'm researching soil pretreatment on it now, with the help of some friends on GardenWeb. Here's a before picture of it with all the dead wildflowers, weeds, etc. & an after picture. I dug out about the top foot of the whole thing, to try and get rid of all the old plants there. There was one root about a foot or so long by a few inches wide that took a while to get out of there! Anyway, i'm gonna fill it with compost and some good soil soon. Gotta find some compost first. :)

Before:


After about 30 minutes of digging out all the old weeds, wildflowers, etc. & tilling up the soil a bit. Looks good so far & not too hard to do:

First Veggie Plant Forming True Leaves!

The excitement continues! Today, while checking on my plants, I found a Sungold Select II cherry tomato plant starting to grow it's first true set of leaves. Very cool, as at this point they usually start growing fast/take off. I have several more that are barely a few days behind this one, if even that long. So, many more of the first tomato & pepper plants I started should also start growing their first true leaves soon. Below is a picture of the wee seedling.

First sign of Spring in the garden!!! =)

As always, my 5 year old Garlic Chives are the first to show signs of Spring in my garden. Very excited to get things going this year! Here's a little pic of them.