Towering Tomatoes

This is the time of year when my seedlings seem to grow faster than I can pot them up.  Thankfully, the weather has been more pleasant making it enjoyable to work in the greenhouse.  More of my tomatoes and some jalapenos were ready for roomier digs so I whipped them out to the greenhouse for some repotting.  This is another batch of Brandywine Heirloom tomatoes, I have a total of nearly 30 of these going now.  And in the background my constant companion on any given day, ice tea.  There was a flash of a glass in my post about painting hydrangeas also.  You will, most likely, catch a glimpse of a tea filled glass in many of my photos.

Here are my Jalapeno plants, I love hot peppers!  I have a batch of Habanero’s growing too but I got some called Zavory that are supposed to be very mild so you can enjoy the Habanero flavor without frying your taste buds off.  As you can see, more than ready for some leg room. (or root room)

I start by putting a quarter inch of perlite in the bottom of the pot to help drainage.

Then a tad of my potting mix (compost, perlite and sand, I am still out of vermiculite), I don’t put much in yet as I want to plant my seedlings deeply. A nice healthy root ball on this one, it goes all the way down in the pot.

I fill it with potting mix up to the rim of the pot.  As you can see most of the stem is in the pot now, the plant will develop roots all along the stem under the potting mix making it a sturdier plant. 

They all get a shot of diluted seaweed water, and though they look a bit shell shocked here I can guarantee you in a day or so they will have shot up quite a bit.

Here is a great post on planting your tomatoes in the garden, she has quite the recipe to put in your planting hole before popping in your tomato plant.  She has 10 foot tall tomato plants so she must be doing something right!
http://www.growbetterveggies.com/growbetterveggies/2011/04/repost-how-i-plant-a-tomato.html
Her recipe:
1.  A fish head (for slow release nitrogen and calcium).
2.  Two handfuls of Sustane 4-6-4 all purpose dry organic fertilizer.
3.  One handful of bone meal (for extra calcium and phosphorus).
4.  Three or four crushed chicken egg shells (for even more calcium).
5.  Two aspirin tablets (for added immunity to disease).
6.  A handful of worm castings (for all around good health).
7.  A tablespoon of humic acid (for stress help).
8.  A teaspoon of mychorrizal fungae sprinkled on the root ball.
For  spacing, depth, and some of the science behind this seeming madness, click through to her full blog post.
 
There are a few things starting to pop up in the greenhouse.  My Echinaceas for one.  I have red, yellow, orange and white ones coming up, they have names like Tomato Soup, Maui Sunshine, Fragrant Angel and Tiki Torch, how fun is that! You can’t start these from seed they are hybrids but they do put out little plantlets at the base you can separate off and pot up or plant around your yard.  I love them, they are hardy in this area.

And this little beauty is blooming away, this is Apple Blossom, a pelargonium or zonal geranium I started from seed last winter.  These are so easy to start from seed. 

I hope you have enjoyed your time in my greenhouse as much as I have!

It’s sure a Monday!

Hi everyone.  We had a lovely little getaway weekend.  The weather was so nice and the rolling hills along the way were grassy and green. After getting more snow last Thursday and Friday I really needed to see green and grass.  The only downside of the weekend was a nasty tooth aching.  I need a root canal and finally got an appointment scheduled for early tomorrow morning.  You know you have had enough of the pain when you look forward to the root canal! 

I have a couple photos to share from the weekend.

First off, I have to bring a smile to your face…this is my nephew, Cayden and my mom..isn’t that little face kissable.


He was all duded up for Sunday.

His brother, Jackson was just as classy looking.


That was the only decent shot I got of Jackson.  I just had my point and shoot camera.  I will have to ask Leon (the gentleman taking there photo with his great camera) for some of his photos, I think he captured some better ones than I.

Then there is us…my hubby and I. 

I did not do anything with my hair that morning, I had had a rough night with my tooth aching and what my hair may have looked like was of no concern at that point.

We got home before dark on Sunday evening.  I was greeted by a lovely bloom on one of the geraniums I had brought inside last Fall to overwinter in the warmth of the house.  It is called Cherry Glow..I started a bunch of geraniums last summer from seed and this is one of them. 

You can see why it has that name, it certainly seems to glow. 

After getting our state taxes done this morning I started working on some special order signs.  I received 3 orders over the weekend, which is good, it will all help to pay for this expensive root canal.  Have you had one lately?  Good grief, it is a house payment!

I got what I could done on the signs, then I walked over to my mom’s to check on the progress of our chicks.  It sure looks like we have quite a few roosters out of the batch of of 10 straight run Black Copper Marans we picked up about 6 weeks ago. 

They are getting so big.  That is a good thing, in about 4 weeks they will be ready to be put in with the bigger hens. 

Towards the back there (the lighter brown ones) are the Welsummer chicks, they are all girls, and only a week younger than the Marans.  You can tell this Maran is a rooster, see his larger comb and the wattle under his neck, both are larger than the hens.

In the photo below the guy in the very back is obviously a rooster but the gal towards the front and to the right does not have the larger comb or much of a wattle,, the one to the left of her is questionable, not as big of a comb and barely a wattle.  That one could be a hen.  The chick behind and to the right of the hen is definitely a rooster as well, big comb and wattle. 


We were hoping for more hens than roosters but you can get any ratio when you buy straight run.   We were just thrilled to be able to find some available, they are tough to come by so far. At least around here. 

Tomorrow morning I go in early for my root canal.  They have a tough time getting me numb so it ends up being an ordeal so I will be toast.  I hope to be able to paint some once I get home but I rather doubt I will be able to accomplish much.  I should just plan on using the rest of the day to recoup and be ready to tackle the world again on Wednesday morning.

May your Tuesday be enjoyable!  Once this tooth is done I will be back on my game!
To see some of the signs I paint just click on the photo to visit my website