<p>Sit out there with a glass of lemonade, perhaps fortified with vodka, and wave it around a bit as hubby rakes!</p>
<p>Since it’s only 37 out I’m thinking coffee with Kahlua might be a better choice!</p>
<p>^^^Try the Starbucks coffee liqueur, I think it is the best thing they’ve put their name on.</p>
<p>My H is going to build raised garden beds for me, because I expect even when I get a knee replacement I wont be crawling around on my hands and knees much.</p>
<p>Anyone have plans or tips to share before he starts? We are thinking of making it convertible to a cold frame by using the neighbors old paned windows that we salvaged when they remodeled.</p>
<p>I have most of my edibles scattered around the yard, raspberries against the trellis fence, a blueberry hedge in the front and strawberries for ground cover. So I probably will be growing greens and herbs in the beds with some root veggies that I rotate.</p>
<p>( darn I was going to get out in the yard this morning & it started pouring! Oh well, it will stop in an hour or two)</p>
<p>I am so sore I can hardly move! This getting old is for the birds.</p>
<p>I have all the edging done, and we just have to decide when we will order the mulch. Last year we hired someone to push the wheelbarrow. He shoveled the mulch and I raked it once hired guy dumped it. We couldn’t believe how much easier it was and we didn’t pay that much more.</p>
<p>The only thing I have left to do before deciding on the mulch day date, is to remove the leaves from around the banana trees, and to remove the dead banana tree stems. I grow banana trees in zone 6, so I have to mulch them with two feet of leaves in the fall. This is the first year that it has become a chore. I might have to rethink having so many of them.</p>
<p>So, ta-Dah! my tomato line-up for 2013 (they’re hatching!):</p>
<p>Lemon Tomato – A Russian heirloom. Tomatoes look like small lemons. Mild flavor.</p>
<p>Aunt Ruby’s German Green – Big,slightly flattened, one-pound, green-yellow tomatoes, very sweet and fruity taste.</p>
<p>Rutger’s Improved – Determinant hybrid; the original New Jersey tomato rediscovered. Short, bushy plants with medium dark-red fruit. Good for canning. </p>
<p>Red Robin – Grows only 10”-12” tall, and can grow in a one-gallon pot. Determinant tomato, with fruits that are golf-ball sized. Grows fine indoors.</p>
<p>Black Sea Man – Dark colored (deep reddish-green) early determinant tomato, very pretty, multi-colored. Spicy flavor. Grows well in containers. </p>
<p>Paul Robeson – A Russian heirloom. My favorite. Late season, dark, fairly large tomatoes, with a smoky, spicy flavor. Originated in Siberia; does well with cold.</p>
<p>Italian Giant Beefsteak – Just what it says. One-pound late-season reds. Also good for sauce. Very large plants will need heavy staking.</p>
<p>Costoluto Genovese – Italy’s best tomato. Red, with green shoulders. Heavy lobes and ridges. Heavy bearing. Makes great sauce. Likes heat; plant in hot spot.</p>
<p>Raf Tomato – The famous tomato of Spain. Semi-determinant plant. Medium size fruit. Mid-season. Cold resistant. Usually very prolific. </p>
<p>Orange Paruche – Semi-determinant cherry tomato, brilliant orange glowing fruit. Big plants need support. Big crop.</p>
<p>Sweetie – A hybrid cherry tomato, grows in bunches like grapes. Very prolific. Known for its sweetness.</p>
<p>Purple Tomatillo – Okay, it’s not a tomato, but it’s good. You only want one plant, because it is so heavy bearing.</p>
<p>All these ideas sound so good! emeraldkity- I’m glad you saved those old windows. You can use them, or an old storm door, and prop them up on some cinderblocks to make a cold frame. No need to buy anything fancy! You can probably get some of those supplies free through freecycle. </p>
<p>All those tomato varieties sound great too. I’m going to look for the costoluto genovese. It gets so hot here in the summer… and yet we’re only zone 7 or 7.5.</p>
<p>Speaking of edging, what tool makes it the easiest. I have been trying to find someone else to do it with no luck. So it is down to me. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>This is where I get my Costoluto Genovese:</p>
<p>[Tomato</a> Costuluto Genovese sel Valente (106-283) - Seeds from Italy](<a href=“http://www.growitalian.com/products/Tomato-Costuluto-Genovese-sel-Valente.html]Tomato”>http://www.growitalian.com/products/Tomato-Costuluto-Genovese-sel-Valente.html)</p>
<p>onward - I have an edging tool that you step on and roll forward and it cuts right through grass. Looks like a fatter version of a sickle with a little ledge on top that you step on. I’ve seen other ones that are half circles.</p>
<p>After using that, I use a straight edged shovel to go down deeper, if needed, and to flip a little piece of turf forward so the cut isn’t just straight down.</p>
<p>I have plenty of extra Costoluto Genovese tomato seeds that should get used. Send me a pm with your snail mail, and I’ll send you some. (I also have extra Firenze Violetta eggplant, for those of you with warm enough climates or greenhouses.)</p>
<p>Planted eight ‘Solar Fire’ tomato plants in backyard yesterday. Solar Fires are good for Florida summer heat when it’s in 90s daytime and not under 80 some nights. Eight plants is enough to keep me busy.</p>
<p>My husband and I are not gardening people; it is just something we never did. Last fall we decided to buy the bagged mulch and spread it ourselves in the front. Buying 70 bags took several trips to Home Depot in two car, and lots of time loading, unloading and spreading. Yesterday we went to Home Depot as the mulch was half price and we purchased only 35 bags this time; my hope is there is still enough left that we can just top it all off.</p>
<p>Because these bodies are old, we decided to hire a neighborhood kid to spread the mulch. I posted on our subdivision’s FB page for a teen available as it is our spring break. One young man responded that he would love the job. My husband and I could not decide on a price; my husband wanted to pay hourly, I thought by the bag like the landscape companies charge. Since the landscape companies charge $5 per bag, I decided on $3 per bag. I will give the young man $100, although maybe $75 would have been enough; I am just glad it is getting done!!</p>
<p>Topic of the day…“What the heck was I thinking when I planted THAT??? Was I on crack?”</p>
<p>Japaese Iris. I went through a phase. It’s only pretty for about an hour. It’s everywhere. And it’s hard to pull up.
Gooseneck Loosestrife. It was really pretty when I put it in a container in the ground. Then I transplanted some. No container. ITS EVERYWHERE. Under everything. Including under the Japenese Iris. Out it goes, I hope.</p>
<p>What are your “Oops” plantings?</p>
<p>No ooops planting this year, just a lot of planting. So far 5 dogwood trees, 3 rhodies, 4 hollies, 11 laurels, wood poppies, rue anemones, amsonias, columbines, phloxes, moon drops, and sedums. I need it to rain so I can stay inside and rest up.</p>
<p>So I now have 114 tomato plants. I’ve sold 48 of the (8 assorted plants for $30-$35) to support my non-profit work thus far, and expect to sell more (I will keep 16 for myself). The Rutgers Improved seed seems to be spotty at best. Some peppers. My eggplant seed might be dead. Arugula and beets and kale and spinach and lettuces are all growing, and massive amounts of garlic, and bright lights chard.</p>
<p>That’s awesome Mini! </p>
<p>My oops was primerose. Very invasive. Never again. </p>
<p>I put in another viburum korean spice a few weeks ago but it was doing really poorly so I returned it yesterday and bought a natchez mock orange. Fingers crossed it’ll thrive. Added some coneflowers to my rose and peony garden and added a second honeysuckle vine to the trellis separating my yard from the neighbors. It’s been summer-like here all week and everything is budding and beautifully green. If it would only stay this way.</p>
<p>I just replanted my summer squash and basil plants for the third time since mid-April. </p>
<p>I wish the weather would make up its mind. It’s either 85°, bright and sunny or 40° and really, really windy. Like 60 mph gusts windy. Have had 3 killing frosts/freezes since April 15.</p>
<p>The weather has really put my walls o’water to the test in the last 2.5 weeks. Had a hard freeze (below 32° for 6 hours) 2 weeks ago right after I’d planted eggplants. The water in the walls o’water was frozen solid in places the next morning, but the eggplant survived unscathed. In fact the eggplants have set fruit and I have 1 eggplant as long as my hand already.</p>
<p>I planted way too many tomatoes this year–8 plants. I have 2 Gurney’s Chocolate Cherry tomatoes; 2 Black Truffles (grew them last year and they have terrific flavor even if they do have a big core); 2 Sweet Tangerine (orange heat resistant hybrid from Burpee); 2 Razzle Dazzle Raspberry. The Black Truffle tomatoes are already blooming.</p>
<p>None of those names sound even vaguely like they ought to be tomatoes!</p>
<p>Also planted pole beans, dual purpose cukes, zucchini, yellow squash, Asian eggplant, Big Jim chile peppers, romaine and loose leaf lettuce. Plus herbs (sage, thyme, oregano, 2 varieties of basil, catmint, spearmint, chives). </p>
<p>D1 seems to inherited the gardening gene. She and her SO dug a 200 sq ft garden out at his new ranch about 4 weeks ago. The ranch is several hundred feet higher in elevation than here so the growing season is later. D1 says they’re going to plant the garden tomorrow.</p>
<p>P.S. Just bought a new chainsaw and I think I’m in love! Makes taking out junipers and pyracantha sooooo much easier.</p>
<p>I was out doing some gardening today, and I could have sworn I heard some giggling, and faintly, the sound of knives and forks being readied. I think it was the slugs in the yard, just waiting for my hosta to come out. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that’s what I heard …</p>
<p>Had our first harvest of asparagus today. So good. </p>
<p>Worst plant ever planted: Apple mint. I planted in a container and it still managed to escape. I sprayed it with round up today. </p>
<p>I’m so excited as next week the local arboretum has a plant sale that features members’ extra plants. I always get a bunch of stuff.</p>
<p>Chocolate mint is even worse!</p>