Tomatoes are in-FINALLY!

Tomatoes in wall of waters (wow) May 23, 2025

Today Elodie and Bob and myself planted 18 tomato starts today.THANK YOU! YOU BOTH ARE THE BEST!

I grew them from seeds inside the house under lights and heat mats since early spring. The tomatoes are so happy to be free-FREE at last! I don’t think I’ve ever put them in so late.

I was suppose to plant them on Monday but the weather was horrible and the nightime temp was down to 31 degrees at our house so I’m glad I waited. It was so cold and windy this past week-what a difference a few days can make. No need to stress them out.

We did plant them in wall of waters (WOWs) out in the veggie garden to help with our cold nights. I will take off the WOWs sometime in June when the plants either reach the top of the WOWs or the temperature gets into the 90’s. You don’t want to leave them on when it gets hot-you could fry them. But the weather has warmed up nicely and today the high is 80 today and a low of 48 degrees tonight. Perfect temps!

18 tomatoes is smallest number of tomato plants I’ve ever planted. Back when I was at the Santa Fe Farmers Market selling tomatoes, I use to grow 120 tomato plants and would sell out by 11 am. I’m so glad I retired from the Farmers’ Market after ten years there. Farmers work hard!

Now it’s a more reasonable pace. As I’ve gotten older, I realize I need to slow down a little and I’m glad I listen to my inner voice (sometimes). With age comes wisdom (well, maybe a little!)

May 19, 2025-Tomato plants still inside!

May19

This has been an unusual year for spring-freezing cold then warm then cold again and warm again. Today it has turned cold again-windy and 55°F high/31° low tonight. I was suppose to plant my tomatoes outside in wall of waters today but it won’t even get warm enough for the wall of waters to warm up before night.

Supposed to be no more frosts from May 15th
on but not tonight.

I have been able to get my tomato plants in the ground the first week of May in previous years, but not this year.

So it looks like it will be warm this Friday, May 23rd-a full 8 days past that date when we are supposedly safe. No sense in rushing it at this point. Looks like I will get tomatoes later this year… sigh.

Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants in!

Jun8

All my tomatoes get planted into wall of waters when first transplanting them. Really helps them get a good head start.

So I’m gonna try to catch up on the garden in the next few posts…

All the tomatoes went into the garden in their Wall of Waters on Wednesday, May 24. My friends, Janet, Mernie and Linda plus myself manage to get all of my tomatoes in by 2 pm. Thank you for your wonderful help! I was 5 tomatoes short, so I went over to Agua Fria Nursery (my favorite nursery) and picked up what I needed the following day and they are now in as well. I have 3 sections in my main garden and now section 1 is filled. One third done! I always espoused we should harden off out tomatoes before setting them out, but I’ve found out that if you put them into Wall of Waters, one doesn’t need to harden them off. The Wall of Waters, act like a little greenhouse and keep them warm at nite and the winds at away-well worth the money and effort. Once the tomatoes reach the top sometime this month, remove the WOWs. Still have many things to plant but the ‘maters are in!

Rhubarb is doing well even with a hail storm we had. Somehow it was sheltered.

My perennials are coming up-rhubarb, raspberries and grapes-yeah! I didn’t have to do anything (except water)! The cabbage is already in as well.

Himrod green seedless grapes grow great here. They are recovering from deer damage

Some deer came by an munched about half the leaves and grape flowers on one grape plant so now they are under row cover and recovering nicely. I pulled it off so you can see the recovery. I hope we get the grape flowers (that will become grapes) again. The deer have not been back or at least haven’t eaten any more of them.

Fushimi pepper and all peppers planted under fencing material and row covered until they adjust to heat

This week, June 1-4, I transplanted all peppers-the varieties are: Jimmy Nardello (sweet Italian frying pepper), Poblano (mildly hot use for chile rellanos), Fushimi (similar to shishitos only bigger-not hot), Shishito (good frying pepper-not hot) and Corno de Toro (big sweet Italian pepper). I put epsom salts in bottom of hole to increase flowers and peppers. I also planted all my eggplants-the variety is Fairytale. I love them, they are my favorite-I don’t grow any other. The bigger eggplants take longer to ripen and you only get a few on each plant vs fairytale eggplants are extremely prolific and ripen earlier. Fairytales are small, never bitter, thin-skinned, great sliced in half and sautéed with garlic in oil or on the BBQ-ed on the grill. You can still use them for Eggplant Parmesan, only takes more.