ive grown em before like beef stakes but purplish brown
they are super tasty best sandwich tomatoes ever
you can grow em ez and indoors
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ill mail you guys ryan and wendell too some of my sunflower seeds i got some short tiny flowers for windowsil and apartments
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I grow these
https://www.johnnyseeds.com/vegetables/tomatoes/black-krim-organic-tomato-seed-3814G.html
They’ll be a deep red/brown if they get full sun.
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Due to the heat waves in the PNW and the late freezes right before, all of my peppers turned out sad and I only got one harvest out of them. They were mighty delicious though.
So I played around with some Patio Sunshine tomatoes this year. They have been producing all year even though they are supposed to be determinant. I would recommend giving them a try. They are the best cherry type tomatoes that I have ever had. My chickens also enjoy them as well.
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Updates
Tomatoes
A week after last harvest + using every tomato we had on sandwiches and a pot of tomato soup, I assumed we’d probably start winding down/getting less frequent harvests. But uh, this was todays:
The veritable jungle of tomato plants (two roma + one prolific cherry):
Also pictured: Basil plants choking out my peppers.
The cherry tomato plants starts here and then manages to extend across the whole damn bed. Next year I will get a taller trellis to handle this lol, it’s impossible to weed this bed now:
Jalapenos
The jalapenos are also happy and producing away, we just used several for some indian dishes we made recently:
Cucumbers
I initially had two cucumber plants that were both producing quite a bit; one finally bit the dust and has been removed to make way for new plantings. But the other is still holding on:
(Also I saw a hummingbird pollinating this the other day and it was amazing)
New For Fall Season
Peas
I seeded some peas in the bed next to the tomatoes after we harvested our potatoes. I re-used the potato dirt to do so; if the internet hasn’t lied to me, the peas should restore nutrients into the soil even if we don’t get a harvest. I’ve never grown peas before so this will be an experiment. These are a shorter bush variety which the package claimed ‘don’t need to be staked’, but we’ll see:
Spinach and Lettuce greens
Spinach starts!
Also chaotically sowed spinach and lettuce starts that I will have to thin sooner than later ohnonono whatwasIthinking:
Prep for the eventual spinach and lettuce pots that should have a lot more room to grow. I’m planning on adding a layer of wood mulch on top of the cardboard to keep the grass down/make it easier to mow around:
New Bed Prep:
Also happening Soon! We’re starting prep for larger beds for next year’s season. I am slowly moving wood chips and cardboard sheet mulch to this section of the yard to smother the grass. We’ll be building concrete block beds on top. One tiny step completed, much more to go. I will try and post some inspiration pics and sketches shortly.
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Raised Garden Bed Ideas:
Here is some more imagery to see “The Vision” of the new beds we’re planning on putting in. After some discussion with husband, I think we’re going to try concrete block beds. We’re not 100% on the configuration yet. There are a few options.
Long and Narrow:
This would allow us to add frost covers super easily which would be a huge benefit to extending our growing season.
Keyhole Beds:
More space to plant and it would all be easily accessible. We could probably still add a frost cover to these but it wouldn’t be quite as simple.
Frost Cover Frame Example:
A hybrid option?
I’ve done a few sketches and also like the idea of a hybrid option; where the beds are long and skinny but still have ‘keyholes’, kinda. We’re also thinking of getting a greenhouse but that would be a loooooong ways off. They are 'spensive.
Garden plan idea:
Sketched onto a photo:
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Peas are pretty easy once they start vining. I planted some Snap Peas earlier in the year and just re seeded with a more winter hardy variety about a month ago.
The key thing is to make sure that you trellis them well as they need good airflow. If you leave them to their own devices, they will choke out their neighbors as well. Also keep an eye out for moths as their caterpillars love to eat the leaves of Peas.
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Lovely, you have so much space!
How much light do they need. Do you think I could grow them indoors and away from the windows?
You would need some grow lights. Peppers tend to be sun lovers.
Well then it is out of the question. I am looking for plants that can endure low light conditions on the side of my room opposite to the windows.
I have some Zamioculcas as well as two pots of spider plants and a parlour palm that are doing well so far on the shady side of the room. My ultimate goal is to have at least one potted plant per square meter of living space.
Yeah jalapeno and tomato are both sun+warmth hogs. You might be able to do some leafy greens in a cooler, darker spot-- spinach or lettuce or kale. Before we got the house we grew spinach in a shady spot on our patio and it did alright.
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yes ive learned alot and getting into the beds is key to keeping em gooing so hybrid imo
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Shade-grown green tea leaves?
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Have to look into that. I thought tea needs it sunny. I am currently looking into possibilities and wild garlic looks promising. I do not know however if it is dependent on the cold in the winter or if I can have it indoor all year. Would be great for cooking and salads.
Being shade grown forces the plant to produce more chlorophyll. This make the green tea even more green.
Some of the best macha is shade grown.
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October 2021 Update
Raised Beds Begin
So many bricks.
Starting a raised bed. The area around the bed needs to be slightly more level: in hindsight I should’ve dug deeper to start. I will be correcting that shortly. The plan is to make the beds two blocks high and fill them with wood scraps (hugelkulture), leaves, woodchips, e.t.c to decompose over the winter. In the spring it should be a nice layer of compost to mix in with our dirt.
Why Woodchips Rock
Earlier this summer I got a load of wood chips delivered, and have been layering them in this portion of the yard along with hay and cardboard for the last couple months. Even though that’s a pretty short time, you can see a huge difference in the quality of the soil.
A part of the yard with no amendments made:
(Ew it’s sandy and eroding everywhere)
Area under the wood chips:
(Look how lovely and dark that soil is getting!)
Grapes!
I’ve got grape vines! The trellis system is still under construction but the grapes came earlier than I anticipated. I have three Concord grape plants. Concord is an American grape variety that is supposed to be good for beginners and has a variety of uses, from eating to juicing to canning (unfortunately not a choice variety for wine, alas).
I’ve never grown grapes before (though we did have some along a fence in our yard growing up). Hopefully a rousing success?
Greenery Updates
My kale has started sprouting, FINALLY.
Spinach is doing nicely as well; they’ve got their first ‘true leaves’ coming in. I thinned these recently but it looks like i will likely need to thin them again soon. Also, they are maybe a bit leggy, like they’re stretching for sunlight, but I moved them into a warmer spot so hopefully that will resolve itself.
My lettuce is starting to get true leaves as well; I don’t think they look as healthy as the spinach but I kinda feel like I’m lettuce-cursed at this point so that tracks.
Peas! Got our first pea harvest this week. Not too many pods yet but enough for a small snack while I was in the garden. This variety can be eaten straight off the vine.
Forestry Finds
In perhaps the funnest update, I had a member of the Kentucky Division of Forestry come out and survey our woods on Monday. The forester who came out will write up a management plan for me now that she’s done the survey; but even just walking the woods with her was a super educational experience. Our woods are actually much healthier than I anticipated. Pictured: a persimmon fruit that fell from one of our trees. They are a native tree and the fruits are edible. They taste kind of like a really mushy banana? Interesting for sure. If you have this or a similar program in your state, I’d highly recommend it (it’s fo free too).
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Those cinder blocks look like a great idea.
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I love persimmons. The only kind that can grow up here are the Fuyu (Winter) variety.
Also save those pallets. They are worth their weight in gold and can also be used to barter and trade right now.
@kreestuh The year is nearing it’s end. Did your garden went into hibernation? Any great plans for next year?
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