Anne's 2016 Garden 6-17-16

[aclum]

Hi,

I finally have a few photos of my garden to post. I got a late start to the season and my seedlings had sort of gone through hell and back before I finally planted them out (long story ). I planted out on April 17, so the plants are just 2 months old (in the garden) today. (I'm a month behind Raybo this year).

I just finished my "lower and lean" on the tomatoes. As I've mentioned before (probably ad nauseam), I'm in a wheelchair and have difficulty accessing the full height of my trellising. I can't manage the typical greenhouse lower and lean procedure so I indiviually unclip, reposition, and re-clip the vines to drop the plants and more them along the trellis horizontally. I've also been pruning quite heavily this year. The way I'm managing the tomatoes this year is, so far, working out great for me. I check the plant's health, prune/sucker, and toothbrush pollinate as I work my way own the line.

My two disappointments......What I though was a carbon with tons of fruit is not actually carbon (in first photo foreground) and what was supposed to be Mule Team is a determinate loaded with mid-size to largish fruit. I have no idea what it might be because I didn't start any determinate seeds!! I'll yank it out when it's done fruiting. It's sort of like a speed-bump in my lower and lean program . Most of the plants right now are at about shoulder height or less (while seated in the wheelchair) and without the lowering, most would have been at or near the top of the trellis by now (with no where else to go!). Most plants are pruned to 2 stems (with a couple plants with 3 stems).

So here are the photos - apologies for poor quality of any.
In order they should be:

Plants with "not carbon" in the foreground
Half row view with Wes on the right
Other half from with Tula on the left next to Daniels
Section of row with Wes to Tula
View of the section of garden with some eggplants (Rhapsody and Ping-Tung)and beans (fortex)
Bed with some peppers, 2 grafted tomato plants planted much later than the others, and 3 groups of cucumbers: Tasty Green, Eos, Northern Pickling
Zucchini in 2' tall 5'x8' raised beds with some peppers and basil

[rnewste]

Anne,

Your garden looks very colorful. Those green tomatoes will be turning red very soon. Keep up the good work!

Raybo

[Delerium]

Looks Great Anne! Your fruit set is outstanding. How many plants did you plant this year?

[Dutch]

Hi Anne,
Excellent write up and photographs.
Your garden looks great! Nice job!
Your accomplishments amazes me.
Thanks for posting. I am smiling.
Dutch

[brooksville]

Nice!

[ginger2778]

Wow! I can't get over the fruitset, and I can't get over what you accomplish in a wheelchair! Very innovative. I love the white mulch over the beds.

[Tracydr]

Wow,very nice! What did you fill your boxes with and what do you fertilize with?
Hoe do you get them planted in raised beds this low to the ground?
I saw a beautiful,accessible garden at the VA hospital last week and thought of you. It wouldn't be cheap but I wonder if there are any volunteer organizations making these for handicapped gardeners?

[aclum]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all of the nice comments! Much appreciated . To answer some questions:

The beds were built about 7 years ago. I designed things and had home depot deliver the lumber cut to size along with a tub of long deck screws. I hired some guys to assemble the beds then fill the beds with the compost from the county greenwaste people that sold for something like $50/cu yard. The county compost turned out to be fine. They test it before selling it and I had my own soil tests done before planting in it. (I'm not sure if the county still sells it for veggie garden use due to possible pesticides. I think it now goes to some local dairies who use it to produce biofuel).

IIRC, the beds have always been covered - first with weedblock and, for the past few years, reflective silver mulch. I haven't added anything except fertilizer at and after plant-out over the years.

Thanks to Bill , I'm a fan of Texas Tomato Food. I've been hand watering about once a week with about a TBS of TTF (actually just sort of a "splash" of it - don't measure anymore) and a heaping teaspoon of micronized Azomite. per gallon of water. I think the Azomite makes a big difference.

I've really been happy with the fruitset this year. It's nothing compared to what AK Mark and some others have, but good by my standards . I pretty much use the electric toothbrush to help with pollination on a daily basis. A couple of weeks ago we had a bad hot spell and I got a lot of blossom drop, but there's a new bunch of flowers coming on now. (I think the fruitset might look more impressive in the photos because of the way the plants are trellised and pruned with more of the fruit exposed).

I've got a total of 19 tomato plants this year. A lot less than usual so much easier to take care of. Just for the heck of it, here's a list of the 14 plants in my main bed along with the number of fruit set so far:

Marvel Stripe (9), Not Mule Team (12), Goose Creek (14 plus 1 with BER), TexWine (6), Lee's Sweet (14), DixieWine (6), Black from Tula (11). Daniel's (13), BKX (5), Wes (7 plus 1 3-lobe fused), Virginia Sweets (5), Red Barn (7), Blush (about 20), Not Carbon (41).

I also have Red Penna, Donskoi, Bear Creek, and 2 late grafted plants - a BKX and Red Barn grafted onto RST[-04-106-T.

I'm also thinking that part of the relative good performance I'm getting this year could be due to stress on the seedlings. Totally unintentional, but similar to how Dar Jones and others talk about using the cold treatment and drought stressing seedlings for higher yield. And AKMark recently mentioned stress (such as pruning) increasing production. My poor seedlings had sort of a traumatic upbringing . First of all, I had an oscillating fan on the young seedlings that really made the leaves thick and leathery and just weird, then they kept drying out due to inattention, and I nearly burned them to a crisp on a couple of occasions with my T--5 lights that I had too close. They had repeated near death experiences once outside patiently waiting for plant-out. I started most of the seeds January 27 and didn't get them into the garden until April 17 when they were only about 9" tall . So stress may have been a factor . I had considered tossing them and starting over several times but never got around to it. (I did start small bunches of seeds at various points to replace the must-have varieties that had died but I think most of the plants are from the January sowing).

I should start harvesting in a few days and the garden should be even more colorful (sticky traps do add a nice bit of color) than it is now as everything ripens. For dinner tonight, I'm using tomatoes from the freezer.

On using the wheelchair..... I can stand for short periods of time and use the kneeler on a limited basis. And it's pretty easy for me just to bend over to reach to ground level. Once the infrastructure is in place, working from the wheelchair is probably about the same as working from one of those rolling garden carts with a tractor seat. It's probably easier for me to do a lot of garden chores seated than it would be if I had to stand up and then bend down of whatever all the time.

The real killer on the back for me was weeding the whole area after a wet winter with no access to the garden, then putting down cardboard and heavy landscape fabric around the beds. That took me forever and was one reason it took so long for me to get to plant out.

Well, probably more than you want to know, but I guess I got on a bit of a roll ! (Hope to see Raybo's monthly update when I check out the new messages again).

Anne

[greyghost]

Anne, your plants looks great and the fruits are absolutely beautiful! Darlene

[Salsacharley]

Your stuff is wonderful! Do you still use shade cloth? I am curious why you use the reflective mulch with all the sun you get. Also, I'd love to hear how Lee's Sweet does for you. Great job.

[whistech]

You have a beautiful garden Anne. I'm sure you get a lot of enjoyment from it.

[aclum]

Thanks again, everyone!

Darlene - the Daniels, DixieWine, and Red Penna plants are all from seed you sent me. So thanks again to you for that .

Charley,

I use the silver mulch because I want some sort of mulch or weedblock and the reflective silver supposedly reflects the light to confuse and repel things like whiteflies and thrips (as well as reflecting some light up to the undersides of the leaves). It keeps the soil a few degrees cooler in the summer and, I would imagine, helps warm the soil in the spring. (I poke little holes in the mulch with a fine tip soldering iron so water can drain and the soil can "breathe" a little before I lay it out).

I still use the 40% aluminet shade cloth (keep it up year round). Here's a blurb from this link:

http://www.green-tek.com/energy_refl...ade_cloth.html

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
World Famous Aluminet is a highly reflective Aluminized Shade Fabric that provides a radically cooler shade environment than does traditional black shade cloth. Reflecting the intense IR radiation of the Sun, many Aluminet customers report double digit temperature improvements versus the dark shade cloth that they had used previously.

Specific benefits of Aluminet include: moderation of day/night temperatures, enabling microclimate control in greenhouses and nurseries, uniform shadows, control of air movement and optimum diffused light transmission to the crops.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An added benefit for me is that it's really lightweight and easy to work with. I don't think I'd be able to manage large expanses of regular shade cloth. Also heavy winds don't bother it as much as the heavier shade cloth. (BTW, prices vary greatly between suppliers).

With my heavy pruning, I have to watch out for sunscald. If it appears to be a problem, I'll probably drape some agribon over the fruits.

BTW, Charley, hope you're not affected by the Dog Head fire!!

Anne

[aclum]

Hi Again,

Just wanted to clarify a bit on the wheelchair thing....

It's actually not as big a deal as some of you might think. It's a fairly lightweight wheelchair and I don't use the footrests (they're removed) so I just sort of move around by paddling (?) with my feet (like one might roll around in a wheeled office chair for short distances). The paths are wide enough for me to turn around in. I generally only use the large side wheels if I want to get over a curb or get someplace (relatively) fast. And with no footrests, I can get up very close to the planting areas. Nearly everything is within reach from a seated position and it's all very pleasant for the most part. Sort of like gardening from a "comfy chair." (It's not like Stephen Hawking in the garden - no offense meant, but just the first public figure in a wheelchair that came to mind).

I just mention the wheelchair use as often as I do to explain why I sometimes have to do things in a slightly different way. There are some adaptations I need to make due to the wheelchair use. So there's generally a method to my madness .

That is all
Anne

[peebee]

Your setup looks great Anne ! Now I have to get me some Azomite--what brand do you recommend? I also use Texas Tomato Food like you do.
I'm also growing Lee's Sweets for the first time this year. Can't wait to taste them.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by aclum

Hi Again,

Just wanted to clarify a bit on the wheelchair thing....

It's actually not as big a deal as some of you might think. It's a fairly lightweight wheelchair and I don't use the footrests (they're removed) so I just sort of move around by paddling (?) with my feet (like one might roll around in a wheeled office chair for short distances). The paths are wide enough for me to turn around in. I generally only use the large side wheels if I want to get over a curb or get someplace (relatively) fast. And with no footrests, I can get up very close to the planting areas. Nearly everything is within reach from a seated position and it's all very pleasant for the most part. Sort of like gardening from a "comfy chair." (It's not like Stephen Hawking in the garden - no offense meant, but just the first public figure in a wheelchair that came to mind).

I just mention the wheelchair use as often as I do to explain why I sometimes have to do things in a slightly different way. There are some adaptations I need to make due to the wheelchair use. So there's generally a method to my madness .

That is all
Anne

You're still an inspiration. Your garden is gorgeous,too!