The greenhouse is bursting with tomatoes! As much as I am eager to set them out, I'm still not sure yet. The forcast calls for temps to dip into the mid-30s into Monday morning, June 1, 2009. But, I've readied the big garden for the first row of tomatoes to go in today.
This garden is somewhat sheltered, so a light frost would not effect any plants in that area.
I built the shelves in the greenhouse back on May 3rd and moved in many plants that same day. There was one heavy frost back on May 19, 2009 when I had to use a space heater for one night and every tomato survived. The temp got as low as 29.4 F @ 5:30 AM. I lost a few of the small cauliflower plants because they were too close to the glass.
Next was the problem of marking my annuals with some sort of permenant markers. The solution was to use painted fur strips (left overs from when I screened in the front porch) and use a permanent marker for the plant names. The tricky part was creating the 30 degree angles with both the saw and the drill press, but I am happy with the results.
I also enjoyed building this handy rock sifter. I had this idea in mind for a while and it was great to bring it into this world. I designed it so that it would be just the right height to dump the rocks into my trailer to haul them away with ease.
I made about 3 nice piles of rock-free dirt and hauled it over to the greenhouse to have outside when needed. The sifter box is quite handy and should proove useful for many more years.
Here is my Super Secret Recipe for sucessful tomatoes. I will mix all of this up and use about 3 tablespoons in each hole when planting tomatoes out in the garden:One 3 lb. bag of Miracle Gro® Organic Choice Bone Meal 6-9-0
One 2.5 lb. bag of Vigoro® Blood Meal 12-0-0
One 4 lb. bag of Espoma® Tomato-Tone Organic Plant Food
Three Cups of crushed brown egg shells (saved-up over winter)
Six Quarts of wood stove ashes
Makes 11 Quarts.
Use 3 Tablespoons in each planting hole.
I like to save these bulk cat food containers for many uses. I can fill 2 1/2 containers with this recipe to have ready on planting day. If you're wondering about the egg shells, they help prevent blossom-end-rot, a common problem in my area. I begin saving egg shells in January. Yet another example of always something to do all year round when planning and growing tomatoes.
:)
