Garden 2024!

We’re in midsommar, so the late garden update. Took a trip to Sky Nursery in the first week of May, when we received a mailer that new starts were in. There was an abundance of starts, even cucamelons! Sadly, no Snow Whites. But we found many interesting other plants. For a relatively small garden space, we might have gone a little nuts. Thanks to global warming, was able to prep and plant earlier this season than usual.

It has been hard for me to till the soil the last couple of years, so I just added 3 bags of compost and worked coarsely into the upper layer. This ended up being pretty sparse; probably could have done at least 2 bags per planter.

This year, I tried the “dunk” method for the tomatoes – plant the root ball deeper so there are several inches of stem below the surface (have to sacrifice at least 1 rung of leaves). Tomatoes can sprout roots from their stems, so this supposedly leads to a richer root network and support. Did a mild dunk for the beans, to give more vertical stem support, although there are warnings that bean stems are prone to rot (so far so good). Making good use of take-out chopsticks as compostable stakes. Trained the tomatoes, cucumbers, and cucamelons onto their respective bamboo stakes and trellises. Some days it’s a little painful to tie the twine, so using hemostat for instrument ties on those days.

At the 1 mo and 2 mo stage, added Walt’s Rainy Pacific NW blend bone+kelp+fish meal fertilizer around each plant. The neighborhood dogs think this smells delightful. The birds were respectful this year, so didn’t have to put out bird netting. Am hoping the city rats and the voles follow suit.

The 2024 roster (with descriptions from various garden websites):

• PLANTER 1
  • Ananas Noire – “Multicolored, bright green with deep red streaks. Sweet and smoky, with a hint of citrus.” Terry’s favorite. Usually late harvest.
  • Big Rainbow – “Huge fruit, delicious and sweet tasting. Yellow fruit has neon red streaking through the flesh.”
  • Pineapple – “Very large, sweet and fruity.”
  • Mortgage Lifter – “Immense, tasty fruit. Rich sweet taste.”
  • Golden Grape – “Tasty yellow grape. Mild sweet flavor.” These were late harvest, but very crack resistant. Firm and sweet.
  • Rogue tomato #1 – Based on last year’s position, likely Sweet 100.
  • Rogue tomato #2 – Could be a Pink or Purple Bumblebee. Hoping this was a hibernating Snow White seed from 2022.
  • Provider bush beans (18) (?!?) – “Tolerates cool soils. Powdery mildew resistant.” Added these as a late round last year, very productive and tasty.
  • Cucamelons! (2)
  • Carrots
• PLANTER 2
  • Golden Grape – Shaynee really likes these!
  • Early Girl – “Satisfy that itch for the first fresh tomato of the season.” Alton enjoyed this last year.
  • Cherokee Purple – “Rich dark color and unmatched sweet rich taste.”
  • Sugar Lump – “Super sweet cherry tomato. Early delight.”
  • Sweet banana pepper – Why not?
  • Lemon cucumber (2)
  • Salt and pepper cucumber
  • Tasty Jade cucumber
  • Tasty Green cucumber
  • Itachi white cucumber
  • Maxibel French Filet beans
  • Carrots
  • Lettuces
• PLANTER 3
  • Raspberries – Trained vertically on thin bamboo stakes. Despite my aggressive pruning campaign, have become quite bushy and productive.
  • Sweet Million – “Early maturity, extra-long strands.” One of Shaynee’s favorites.
  • Blondkopfchen tomato – “Heirloom from East Germany. Yield a phenomenal amount of grape-sized, yellow/gold, cherry tomatoes in clusters of 20-30. Large and sprawling. Undoubtedly one of the best tasting cherry tomatoes. High sugar content, crack resistant, produces well until the first frost.” Sounded interesting. Has already set several huge fractal fans, almost comical number of blossoms.

• ON DECK
  • Lemon Ice dwarf tomato – “Heart-shaped pale-yellow fruit. Excellent, delightful, well-balanced, sweet flavors.”
  • Tumbling Tom yellow tomato – “Cascades up to 20″. Ideal for hanging baskets.”