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