The Trusty Gardener-The Heirloom Tomatoes are Planted

Memorial Day Weekend-The Official Start of Summer

Welcome back fellow gardeners. It’s finally here. Memorial Day Weekend. Most importantly a time to remember those who served. To be thankful for our freedom. However, if your a gardener, you can’t help but be excited here in the Northeast and other Northern States. Finally, the threat of frost has passed. It’s been awhile. A long Winter.

Time to Plant

To date I have panted some cold hardy vegetables including lettuce, kale, and other greens. Also peas, onions, and potatoes. Oh yeah some radishes, spinach, and Swiss Chard too. Theses have all been doing well.

The weather has been up and down, with a few above average days here and there followed by a return to more normal temperatures. Since we were having some very warm weather, I put shade cloth over the lettuce and kale to try to prevent them from bolting. Shade cloth is a great tool for gardeners to use for vegetables susceptible to hot weather.

Tomatoes-The Main Event

If you follow me you know how much I love heirloom tomatoes. The flavor just can’t be surpassed. If you haven’t tried them, I encourage you to do so.

This year I planted 8 varieties! Yeah, I know, that’s a lot. I keep telling myself I need to downside the garden. As much as I love to garden, It’s tough on my back and knees. I hate to let part of the garden go back to lawn. Just can’t do it. At least not yet. Eventually I want to have all raised beds, off the ground beds that can be planted without much bending.

I wrote 2 articles regarding the tomatoes I started from seed. The first 4 varieties I covered in this article. The others I wrote about in an article on Ko-fi. Most of the varieties I chose this year are new to me. I like to experiment to see what happens.

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As I did with the onions, I decided to use the black plastic mulching film for the tomatoes. It helps tremendously with weeds, and also absorbs heat from the sun to help warm the soil. Tomatoes love the warmth, so it should help them to thrive. The plastic film does have small perforations to allow water through.

I also place tomato cages on when I plant, as well as some wood shingles around the plants. The cages provide support for the plants which is important when first planted and throughout the summer. When first planted, the tomatoes are susceptible to wind as they are not yet “hardened”. They have been in the greenhouse for months and therefore are not used to “real garden” conditions.

You may be thinking what's up with the wood shingles. This is an an old school trick I learned from my grandparents and Mom and Dad. The shingles push into the ground easily and also provide protection (both shade and wind protection). Wood shingles were common years ago as roofing shingles and gardeners discovered a new use for them once they were eventually replaced with asphalt shingles.

The actual planting process is simple, but it does take some time to get the cages and shingles on. But once finished, the plants are good to go!

I also gave the plants some Miracle-Gro for tomatoes to give them a good start. I will keep an eye on the plants over the summer and may use a copper fungicide or some other means to help prevent early and late blight if needed.

Peppers Will Be Next

In my next articles I will cover planting peppers. Stay tuned a always. I also will plant my Hügelkultur bed soon, a new gardening experiment for me. I will use that to plant cucumbers, squash, and pumpkins.

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