The Modern Victory Garden

Since the garden is delayed from the normal time frames this year (due to the cool summer we have been having) it means that it is the first week of August and I am not into the big harvest and preserving push that typically starts in late July and keeps going well into September.   It feels quite odd really, but I can see that things are coming along and that soon I will indeed have some big harvests to make and preserve.   I guess my window of time to do all that work and get the preserving done is just going to be more abbreviated this year.   With my daughter recently moving away, I am also going to be doing this without my usual extra help.   This could get interesting!   In the meantime, the workload in the garden is actually pretty low at the moment – mainly watering, light daily harvesting, and a little weeding, and filling in planting.   That will all change when the bean patch gets serious about producing but for the moment it is kind of quiet in the garden.   I am taking advantage of this lull before the big harvest and preserving storm, and getting the last of my fall plantings attended to.                          

You may recall that I have been fussing about the asparagus patch off and on  for well on to two years now.   It just has not been performing like it should and has been a continued disappointment  . It has not been a failure mind you, just an under achiever.   Attempts at rejuvenating it have not been successful and I recently came to the conclusion that I need to just cut my losses and remove the plants and use the bed for something more productive.   So, last Sunday I took a pitchfork and removed/lifted out the large asparagus crowns/roots from the bed, amended it, and then planted it up with the fall crop of spinach.   It is covered with wire mesh panels to protect the seed bed from birds and my cat until the seeds can germinate and get firmly established.                    

I am not really sure what I will do with this bed long term.   It is a good candidate for a perennial planting area and I may end up planting more blueberries or some other fruiting crop in it.   For now though, I will use it as a regular garden bed and continue adding amendments to it to replenish the soil.

The other thing I did Sunday was to plant another succession crop of lettuces in an open 2-foot by 2-foot area of the garden bed.   The spinach and lettuce that I direct seeded joins the long list of items that I already have growing in the garden for the fall and winter.   A short time ago I planted out the fall crops of broccoli and swiss chard and they are already zooming along with growth.       

I also recently planted a big bed of kale, which has also settled right in and started growing well.                      

These crops are in addition to the multiple plantings of carrots, parsnips, turnips, and green onions that have been growing in the garden for a while now.   Together these form the basis of the fall/winter fresh eating harvests that supplement the food we put by from the summer garden.           

While things may be a bit quiet in the garden at the moment, there is lots of action happening in the chicken department. . One of our young hens has produced her first eggs for us this week!   This is about a month ahead of what I was expecting so we were pleasantly surprised.   Her first effort produced two shell less eggs, but they were immediately followed by two average sized and perfectly formed eggs – one a day for the past two days.   She has used the chicken coop nest boxes for both of the “good eggs” and seems to be getting into good production habits right from the start.   Hopefully the other girls will follow her example and similarly figure it out quickly.   My husband ate the first one today and said it was delicious and I will be enjoying the other tomorrow for breakfast.               

The harvest and preserving storm is brewing on the horizon, and I am anxious for it to arrive so I can get going with the annual process of preserving foods for later use - getting the full benefit of the summer garden before the cold fall rains arrive and put an end to the warm weather crops.   In the meantime, I will continue nursing my newly planted fall crops along and try to enjoy the short lull before getting back into the "too much to do at one time" mode.          

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Tomorrow I will be flying to Pennsylvania to spend some vacation time with my daughter.  I will be returning home afterwards alone, as she will be staying on with a friend until it is time to move into the dorms and begin her first year of college life at Lehigh University.   In order to avoid thinking about this too much, I have kept myself incredibly busy over the past several days getting things taken care of ahead of time as much as possible.    

I was off from work today to do some required shopping and errands and to get the garden in good order so my husband (who is staying behind to take care of the homestead and animals) won’t have to worry about it.   Throughout the afternoon and this evening, I have managed to get the entire garden and the container plantings thoroughly watered. That is quite an undertaking to water the entire garden in less than one day.  It is supposed to be reasonably warm all weekend and on into next week – so I wanted to be sure all of the plants were set to grow unchecked in my absence.   The other chore I got completed was the planting out of the kale and chinese cabbage transplants.   I tucked the chinese cabbages in and around the basil plants that are growing in the longest vertical grow bed.   This bed gets partial shade so hopefully the cabbages will grow well and not bolt from heat.   The kale was planted up in the retaining wall bed in the spot where the garlic had been growing previously.  

I have not shown you the tomatoes in the greenhouse for a while.   These are Celebrity tomatoes and they are growing quite well.                               

I lopped off the top most part of these plants last weekend because they were pushing up against the ceiling of the greenhouse.   At this point in the summer season, I don’t want these plants to continue vining, instead I want them to concentrate all energy to setting and ripening fruit.   Which is what they are doing.                      

Out in the main garden area there are two varieties of tomatoes that are racing ahead of all the others – Market Miracle and Siletz.   Daphne of Daphne’s Dandelions gave the Market Miracle seeds to me and I had some high expectations based on her glowing reports of this tomato.   It looks like those hopes were well placed as they are forming nice clusters of really good-looking fruits!                                      

The really heavy and early producers are the Siletz tomatoes.   I started these ultra early, coddled them through late winter, kept them in the greenhouse until the weather really settled down, and they are growing in big black pots which adds additional heat around their root systems.    All of that extra effort is proving worth it as the plants are loaded with fruit …                          

…. and today I picked the first ripe tomato from the Siletz plants.                  

I sliced it up and ate it still warm from the vine.   It was so good!   There are more coming along right behind this one and I am so ready for the tomato season to get underway.                                                   

I am not taking a laptop with me on my travels, so I will not be posting a “Harvest Monday” recap this week.   I will however be back mid week and will post an update on how the garden fared in my absence.   The zucchini is pumping out the fruits right now so I expect to have some monsters waiting for me when I arrive home.   I may have to break down and make some chocolate zucchini cake to use it up.   Have a great weekend, and I will catch up with all your comments when I get back.              

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Sunday I planted out 36 broccoli (Premium Crop) and 12 swiss chard (Bright Lights) starts.   They went into the garden section where the pea patch had previously been.   I covered the bed with some netting because we have had a rabbit visiting the edge of the garden lately and while I am not too concerned about some of the plants being nibbled on, I am concerned about baby plants getting eaten down to the nub which kills them outright.                       

This is one of several important fall crop plantings that will occur over the next several weeks.   I still have kale and chinese cabbages to transplant out as well, but I ran out of time (and open bed area) this past weekend.   I am hoping to get them attended to on Friday.   My big challenge is going to be to find another open bed area big enough (and soon enough) to plant the fall crop of spinach.   Everything is largely in use at the moment and yet, I will need to plant the spinach patch within the next two weeks if I want to have spinach in September.                                  

While I am definitely thinking about the fall crops, I am also focused on the summer garden that is really coming into it’s own at this point.   The cucumbers have tiny female flowers/fruits formed.                            

Unfortunately, the bees seem to have all largely disappeared over the past several weeks.   Those cucumbers are going to need them and my pumpkins are not getting pollinated.   I am probably going to have to resort to hand pollination soon if they don’t return.                 

I have been keeping a careful eye on the first Siletz tomato to ripen.   It is a little shop worn because this green fruit has been formed for quite a while and had to wait patiently for the weather to warm up - but it is finally getting ripe and I think it may be ready by either Thursday evening or Friday.      

The Siletz plants have lots more tomatoes formed and growing so this one should soon be followed by a more steady supply.   The bush beans and kidney beans are flowering and I think we should have green beans fairly soon.   In the meantime, we are getting a bounty of sugar snap peas and zucchini.   The spring crop of broccoli is winding down but I am still getting a good harvest of side shoots, and I have been harvesting the large leaves for my flock of chickens.   Tonight’s dinner was a stir fry with Pad Thai sauce using the current bounty from the garden and some strips of lean beef and chinese noodles.                                             

For the last two years the Gold Rush zucchini has far outperformed the green zucchini variety.   This year, I switched green zucchini varieties and planted “Partenon” which has been very prolific and for some reason the Gold Rush plants have been rather unproductive.   I suspicion it is in part due to the lack of working bees in the garden currently.   I hope this is just a temporary dip in my bee population due to weather or some other circumstance and that they will return soon.       

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

While my morning was tied up with several errands, I was able to spend a little time this afternoon in the garden.   It was actually fortunate that my schedule worked out this way as the morning was overcast and grey, but by 11:30 am the sun was out in force and it turned into a gorgeous afternoon.   I had two primary tasks that I got done today.   First, I watered all of the side garden area.  In general, I use a combination of watering methods in my garden - hand watering (container plantings, new seed beds, and the vertical grow beds), soaker hoses (tomato and zucchini beds), and my favorite overhead sprinkler for the rest of the beds.   I like this sprinkler because it provides a very thorough soaking and covers a fairly good sized area.       

My second task was to remove the horizontal pea trellis and amend the bed in preparation for planting some fall crops.   I spread six large buckets of finished compost over the entire bed area opened up by the recent pea harvest (4 feet by 12 feet).   In addition, I broadcasted some organic all purpose fertilizer over the entire bed area as well.   The broadfork was then used to aerate the entire bed area.   My intention is to finish cultivating this bed on Sunday and then plant it up with the starts of broccoli, swiss chard, and kale that I have grown out and which are now ready to go into the ground.   I had them sitting on the railing of the deck this afternoon to keep them safely out of my way while giving them full access to the beautiful sunshine.       

The three sisters planting is getting to be a jungle.                     

The half runner pinto beans are “running” on everything within reach.    The corn, having gotten off to a slow start this year, is in jeopardy of being overrun by the bean vines.   I plan to use the weed whacker tomorrow to clean up the walkways, but will have to be very careful next to this 3 sisters planting area as the pumpkins are also running and spilling over into the walkway.       

The lettuces continue to really produce this year and I am pleasantly surprised by the work horse performer “Merlot” lettuce, which I grew out from seed shared by Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog.   This lettuce has been harvested hard many times all spring and summer and yet continues to be sweet and produces more and more for harvest.   Take a look at this lovely planter of Merlot lettuces!              

It tastes as good as it looks and I will definitely be growing this variety again.   

Hoping to spend quite a bit of time in the garden tomorrow.   I need to:

• Weed whack the walkways and do a general garden tidy up.
• Side dress the cucumbers and zucchini with a good balanced organic fertilizer.
• Water the container plantings and the back vertical grow bed (bush beans and pole beans).
• Transplant out the fall crops of broccoli, swiss chard, and kale.

The Royal Burgundy bush beans are flowering and will start producing very soon.   The Sunset runner beans and the Blue Lake pole beans are climbing at the moment.   The tomatoes have lots of blooms, small fruits formed, and the Siletz tomatoes have a few that are much bigger and one that is even breaking color.   While I am waiting for them to come online, the sugar snap peas, broccoli, zucchini, onions, garlic, lettuces, celery, kale, and swiss chard are keeping us well fed.                         

What are you doing in your garden this weekend?

It was a very productive day today.   I got most all of my “to do” list completed and had enough time to spare to just sit in the sunshine and admire the fine day.   It really does not get much better than that.                             

The first thing I took care of was weed whacking the garden walkways.   This is not my favorite task but it makes the garden very tidy and removes potential homes for bugs.   The first time I do this each spring is always a bit more of an undertaking because the grass and weeds have been growing all spring and have a big flush of new growth.   I was in need of a shower after I finished, but the garden looks beautiful.                                  

Today was the inaugural trip out of doors for our small flock of chickens.   They were ready last weekend but the weather was wet and cold so we had to put it off.   However, the weather was more than fine today so with my husbands help we moved them and their pen outside.   They had a lovely time; ate bugs, pecked at dandelions, and marveled at the sights and sounds of the bigger world!            

While the chickens enjoyed their time outside, I cleaned the top panels of the greenhouse (removed the caked on pollen) and planted out the cucumbers, zucchinis, and pumpkins.   I also watered all the greenhouse containers of tomatoes and ran the soaker hoses on the beds of tomatoes.   The pumpkins were interplanted with the corn and pinto beans – which finishes up the three sisters planting project.                                                    

Since it was a bright and warm day and was much needed after our very cold weather the preceding several days, I pulled the covers off the tomato beds for the afternoon and let them enjoy some unadulterated sunshine.     

I also took the pepper and basil seedlings outside as well to soak up sun.   The peppers and basil were both re potted last weekend and then moved out to the greenhouse.   Both are doing well but the peppers in particular have finally started to really put on some growth.                             

The potatoes have been breaking the soil surface, which indicates the John Jeavon’s method of planting seems to be working just fine.   I am looking forward to seeing how productive this bed of potatoes will be.     

The peas are also racing along with new growth.   They have reached the lower level of the horizontal support, grabbed on, and are now working towards reaching the second level.                                                    

The only thing on my garden “to do” list that did not get done today – was planting all the bean crops.   Tomorrow is forecasted to be just as beautiful a day as today but my time will be much more constrained as I am delivering tomato starts to my sister in the morning, and have a commitment to attend to with my daughter in the late afternoon.   In between, I am going to try and get the chickens out for another outside adventure and plant at least some of those beans.   I hope you are a having a good weekend in the garden too.

It has been down right cold here for the past several days.   Night time lows were right at 35 degrees for two nights in a row, which has not killed anything outright but has all the less hardy items a bit stressed.   It is supposed to warm up (relatively speaking) tomorrow and I hope that everything recovers quickly and resumes growing.   The tomatoes in the greenhouse have been completely unfazed by the cold though.   In fact the super early Siletz tomatoes continue to put on more blossoms.       

One thing that has been totally unaffected by the cold snap is the weeds in the walkways of the garden.   I absolutely must do the first weed whacking of the walkways this coming weekend.   I am in jeopardy of having small children and large cats getting lost in the tall grass along the edge of the beds!   Those of you who have followed my blog for a while will know that I really dislike this chore.   In fact, I  had good intentions of doing something different with the walkway areas this year but recognizing I have already spent quite enough money with the addition of a chicken coop this spring, I am going to have to wait.   So it will be yet another year of doing the monthly weed trimming work.   While I heartily dislike doing this task, I do love how the garden looks immediately afterwards which motivates me to get to it.   I also need to clean the top panes of the greenhouse.   The caked on pollen needs to go so the sunlight can reach the plants inside more effectively.    I am too short to do this job without standing precariously on a step ladder - so this is not my favorite job either.                                                  

The other thing that must be attended to this weekend is planting out the pumpkins, zucchini, and cucumbers.   They are way over due for transplanting but I have been holding back because the weather has been too chilly.               

While the majority of the squash family plants are growing and ready to plant out, I am giving up on growing Early Butternut squash this year.   I definitely am in possession of a package of bad seeds.   After two completely failed attempts to start the Early Butternut seeds in the seed trays of sterilized starting mix, the third attempt was made to germinate the seeds in a damp paper towel in a warm spot.   Absolutely no luck – not a single seed sprouted.   I think it is safe to declare that the package of seeds was a complete dud.   They were bought from a seed company that I don’t generally use and am unlikely to use ever again.   So, I am changing my plans a bit as a result.   I am going to plant the Small Sugar pumpkins in with the corn and pinto beans for the three sister’s plantings and just skip planting winter squash all together this year. Looking at the bright side, this gives me more room in the garden for bush green beans and dried beans.             

This week has felt like a lot of minor set backs what with the weather; confirmation that I had a totally bad package of Early Butternut seed; and weeds in the walkways that demand that I do my least favorite garden chore.  I need the sun to come out and make things right with the world - or at least in my garden!

The weather was damp and cool all weekend, but in order to stay on schedule I had some planting to do.   The parsnip patch and another section of carrots needed to be planted.   I used my 2-inch spaced planting jig on a 4-foot by 4-foot section of bed that I planted with carrots (Bolero).   I used my 3-inch spaced planting jig on a 4-foot by 12-foot garden bed that I planted with parsnips (Cobham Improved Marrow).    

The other planting project to be completed was the second of three steps in the three sisters planting process.   Last weekend I transplanted out the corn seedlings - leaving open areas for the squash to be planted later.   Today, I needed to get the pinto beans planted.   These are a half runner dry bean, which will grow up the corn stalks but should not get so tall as to overwhelm the corn.   It is important to let the corn have a head start, then the beans, before the squash plants go in - because the squash vines will quickly smother out the other plants if they have not had a chance to get tall enough to rise above the squash foliage.   I began the bean planting process by reestablishing the grid lines surrounding the 1-foot squares that the corn was planted in.   I used a 4-foot long narrow board for that purpose. 

I  then laid out the pinto bean seeds on a 4-inch spacing along the grid lines. 

I then just pressed the bean seeds into the soil with my finger, smoothed the soil back over the planting area, and watered everything well.   The only task remaining now for the three sisters planting project is to transplant the winter squash into the area of the bed that was left unplanted.                  

The pea patch is thriving in the damp and cool conditions.   The plants have reached the bottom level of the horizontal trellis support and are latching on.  

The cabbage family plants are enjoying the rainy and cool conditions too.     The Savoy Ace cabbages, Tronchuda cabbage, and Dwarf Siberian Kale plants are all thriving.                                

The weather has not harmed the spinach patch either.   Yesterday I harvested a nice bunch of young spinach leaves that were the basis for a salad for dinner.       

I hope the weather improves next weekend.   I really have to transplant out the cucurbit family plants.   I will work on hardening them off this week in preparation.   I am also planning to direct seed the remaining bean family plants – pole beans, runner beans, and bush beans.   Once that is done, all the spring and summer grown crops will have been planted.    How is your spring planting up process progressing?

I finally purchased the potting soil I needed on Sunday, which allowed me to finish planting the super early Siletz tomatoes into their permanent container homes and to repot several others of the remaining tomato plants that were in smaller containers and needed room.   There were a total of five super early started Siletz tomatoes that I have been giving extra care and attention to since late winter.   One of them is extra and will be given away along with the rest of the many remaining tomatoes.   Four of them are now planted into permanent containers, which for the time being are sitting in the greenhouse (they are the ones with the round tomato supports).                             

These plants will be moved outside when the summer weather really arrives.   In the meantime, they will stay put in the warmth and protection of the greenhouse.   I am happy to report that this evening I noticed my hard work to get these plants going extra early appears to be paying off.   Check this out!   The largest plant has several blossoms and two that were fully opened!                                       

In addition to getting the tomatoes attended to, I also planted the corn patch on Sunday.   I have two 4 foot by 12 foot beds planted up in corn.   One has Precocious and the other has Bodacious planted in them.   Here’s the bed of Bodacious plants.                                                 

Notice that there is an area in the center of the bed that was purposefully left unplanted.   In a few weeks, I will transplant the Early Butternut squash there so it can grow intercropped with the corn.   I will also be planting pinto beans in these beds this coming week, which is a half runner dry bean.   Combined the corn, squash, and beans are a variation of the three sisters planting concept.            

Tonight I harvested over a half pound of pac choi, which was used in a tasty stir-fry dinner.   Saturday I harvested a nice selection of spring greens - several types of lettuces (Super Gourmet Blend and Merlot) and some baby spinach leaves.      

The spinach patch is finally coming into it’s own and I will be harvesting much larger amounts of it in the weeks to come.   That makes me pretty happy as I love fresh spinach and because my overwintered patch failed me this year, I had to wait for the spring planted crop to come along to enjoy it.   The wait is over though!

The celery and some lettuces have been in need of transplanting for more than a week now.   I really had to get this taken care today as the celery plants were getting rather root bound.   They have been completely hardened off and were sitting outside unprotected (morning and night) for more than a week now.          

The bed area to be planted was given a broadcasting of all-purpose organic fertilizer, which was then lightly raked in.   I used my six-inch planting jig to establish the plant spacing.                          

I then planted 12 Utah 52-70 Improved celery, 4 Red celery (seeds given to me by Dan), and 24 Super Gourmet Blend lettuces.                        

Right next to the newly planted area is the bed of spring broccoli.   They are coming along nicely.                                             

The spinach patch has gotten to the stage where I can start harvesting some baby spinach leaves next week.   I may even pick a few leaves to add to some lettuces for tonight’s dinner salad.                                           

The pea patch and onion/garlic patch have also really taken off in the past week.   The allium bed has two kinds of garlic (Elephant and Inchelium Red) and several types of onions some started from seed and others from sets (Walla Walla, Candy, Yellow Storage, and Sweet Red onions).              

The Elephant Garlic is particularly impressive this year!              

The set grown onions are racing ahead of the onions started from seed.   These are the Yellow Storage onions.                                   

The blueberries and bush pie cherry plants are loaded with buds and are about to bloom.  The asparagus patch is getting more active in sending up fat shoots.   If the weather would warm up a bit (it’s rather chilly today), everything would explode with new growth and blossoms.   Unfortunately, the weeds and grass in the walkways are also bursting with new growth and I am going to have to pull the weed whacker out of winter hibernation soon and give everything a tidy up.   

My primary task this weekend was to transplant the tomatoes and (if possible) repot many of the remaining tomato plants into bigger containers.   I used up all the potting soil mix I had on hand before I could complete transplanting all the container tomatoes in the greenhouse and as a consequence I was also not able to do any repotting as well.   I will need to purchase some potting soil before I can complete those two items.   Hopefully later this week I can pick some up on the way home from work.      

Saturday morning was spent doing errands and grocery shopping, but when I got home in the afternoon I spent some time in the greenhouse doing a little rearranging to make room for the large tomato planters.   I harvested the last of the late winter container grown kale and pac choi and removed all of the mache as it was going to seed.   I then removed about 1/3rd of the soil from the three half barrel containers and recycled it into the garden beds.   I added a comparable amount of sifted finished compost and then mixed and aerated it into the rest of the soil using a pitchfork.   I then brought in two very large and two medium/large black plastic containers and filled them up with the potting soil mix I had on hand.   In the two smaller containers I planted up two of the five super early Siletz tomatoes.   These plants are super stocky and healthy looking!   I noticed that there are some flower buds formed on one of them already.   The remaining three Siletz plants will have to wait to be planted up until I purchase some potting soil.

I then planted up five Celebrity tomatoes in the three half barrel containers and the two large black containers.   The Celebrity plants are also quite big and sturdy but are small in comparison to the huge Siletz tomatoes.         

That was all I could get done on Saturday due to the late start.   The weather was glorious on Sunday (got up over 70 degrees), which made it a perfect day to do the big tomato planting for 2010.   In the first bed I planted all the indeterminate varieties; two Fantastics; two Cherokee Purples; four Market Miracles; and four Early Girls.   I did an alternated planting this year so that more light and air circulation would get in to the plants.   The 24 foot long bed had 6 plants down each side as a result.                                         

Because I am planting the tomatoes less densely this year, I had to use a half of another bed to plant the rest of the tomato patch.   I put all six Oroma paste tomatoes (determinate) into this bed.                                                   

You may have observed that the full bed of indeterminate varieties have both a cage and a ladder support for each plant.   I find this double support system works really well for all but the tallest plants.   For those, I add another cage on top later in the season.   The determinate plants are only supported by one cage.   Each tomato plant had 1 cup of organic all-purpose fertilizer, 2 tablespoons of Epsom Salts (magnesium sulfate), 1 tablespoon of finely crushed eggshells, and 4 plain aspirin tablets mixed into the soil at the bottom of the transplanting hole.   The plants were set much deeper than they were in their containers so that roots will form along the lower stem area.   I used a large watering can filled with rainwater from the rain barrels to water them in immediately after setting them into the soil.

I had to select the best specimens of each variety to go into the bed.   It was a hard decision to make in many cases because I had several of each variety to choose from.   The remaining plants will be kept on standby for the next several weeks so that if I lose any from transplant shock, I have a replacement standing ready.   After I am sure that the planted up tomatoes are growing and thriving, the remainder of the tomatoes will be delivered to my sister and my staff at work.

Two of the tomato varieties I am growing this year were grown from seed provided by fellow bloggers.   The Market Miracle tomatoes provided by Daphne from Daphne’s Dandelions is one that I have been really excited to grow.   They are relatively quick maturing and come highly praised by Daphne.   The seedlings grew well from the seed she supplied and were quite good sized by the time I planted them out today.                       

Another seed I received this year was Cherokee Purple from Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog.   These plants have also grown well (so far!) and I am excited to trial these in my garden this year too.                           

While the last average frost for my area is now behind me, the temps at night are still quite cool and the usual abundance of spring showers makes things too wet to keep tomato plants happy and healthy.    My plants were well hardened off prior to planting out but soon after the tomatoes were planted, I put a plastic cover over the entire bed to keep the bed warm and to protect the plants from the deluge of wet and cool spring rains.               

On cloudy but warmish days, I open the ends of the grow tunnel up to allow cross ventilation – closing it back up at night.   On really fair and warm days, I pull the cover entirely off for the day and put it back on in the evening.   On cold or rainy days, the cover stays on and closed.    It requires paying attention to the weather forecast and making a decision each morning as to what should be done – but I have had little problem with that.   Keeping the tomatoes protected until the summer dry season really arrives is critical to getting a crop in the rainy and cool coastal Pacific Northwest.            

Hopefully I will have a chance to pick up some potting soil this week and finish the container plantings and repotting of the remaining tomato plants.   I also have some celery and lettuces that need to be planted soon.   I ran out of energy and time today so they will have to wait until next weekend in all likelihood.