Tomato Wilt - Year 2!

Last year each of my tomato plants eventually got some form of wilt or blight. And despite using sparkling new soil from the nursery and disinfecting each pot - it's baaaaaaack!

So far it's positively in my first three tomato plants - two Jelly Beans and a Brandywine. I've suspected it for weeks but didn't want to admit it, but the Brandywine got so bad it was time to put it down :( And not a single tomato did it produce.... The Jelly Beans however have tons of tomatos on them, they seem to be stronger at fighting the wilt though I know they probly only have another couple of months. It is very likely my stupid fault because I added extra to raise the soil level in the pots a couple weeks after planting...and I think I just re-used some soil from another pot I was re-planting. *doh* No disinfecting at all....

I also suspect my Yellow Pear tomatos in their humungo pot are catching some sort of wilt but I don't know how as I am 100% sure they got sparkling new soil and did NOT get re-used soil.... I must watch them carefully....

Anyway, I had to very carefully remove the fallen tomato plant to not disturb it's mates in there...

mmmm.. Carrot Scarlet Nantes and Basil Purple Petra....

At least a couple of carrots were ready as well (and stunted from tomato roots of course).

And there's the new squash baby. It's a mini-scalloped type... I can't recall the exact variety at the moment. Anyway, it should do fine in a container this size. I've another one in a similar sized container as well. Hope I get many yummy squashes!

Landscaping in Progress

Updating on my parent's landscaping - about 3 weeks ago now everything in the front yard was completely torn out and we had a heap of "stuff" in the middle. My cat certainly enjoyed playing Queen of the Mountain that week. Then everything not needed was taken away last week and they finally got the new fence up and then put in the flower beds <3. I am so happy we now have a walk-through gate instead of having to open up the driveway gate to get in. The roses are now elevated to my dad can get to them for pruning without straining his back so much and they'll have good drainage. And of course we now have plenty of room for other types of plants now. That last bit is the sideyard - aka my personal space and where all the containers have been squished into while the work is going on.

Saturday, after clearing the driveway for another portion of the work, I was able to till and plant a couple of the new beds. I thought alot about the color and texture mixes, Fern's blog helped. On the left my dad requested we put the smaller of the two Butterfly Bush in. My dad had claimed I killed it when I tried pruning it a couple months ago - but it sprouted new growth! Tiene ganas de vivir papa! To the sides he wanted cosmos so I put in the new Cosmos and in front of those the Shasta Daisies he's been growing for so long. And finally the Cupid's Dart along the front. It should be a nice cool mix of colors when they all grow in. I might tuck in some white Alyssum when they've really gotten a foothold in. Behind that planter (street side) there are 3 peat pots of Portulaca  and between them Ranunculus. Behind the higher Rose planters are Calendula.

The right photo has 3 Autumn Sunflowers, Dill tucked into the very back corners (to attract ladybugs near the Roses). Some Bright Lights Cosmo seeds were sowed between the Sunflowers.  Then several Statice to the middle and front corners and a couple of Calendula at the front. This bed should be very colorful!

I got lucky - Sunday was overcast all day so the transplant all got a break! Today is supposed to be sunny and high 60's so I'm crossing my fingers that they're taking root and all going to make it - especially the itty bitty Portulaca babies...

I'm hoping to get the other two beds planted this weekend...

Tomato Pot #1

I found a couple big metal tubs at Goodwill a couple months back that I knew would make great containers. They were originally from Target, the type for filling w/ice and beer bottles, and had a funky Christmas green hammered metal finish. Not so nice. I had taken a "before" pic but lost it along with my camera before I could download it. Anyway I was pretty sure they weren't galvanized so I primed it with Rustoleum, picked up a spray can of a lovely aqua blue color, and added white accents with some enamel leftover from another project. Turned out rather nice.

Oh, I put three drainage holes in the bottom before I started painted them so that rust won't work it's way in from them (at least not so quickly).

Anyway, the new containers are almost 2 feet wide so each can hold a small variety of plants unlike the ones I used for tomatoes last year. I've been looking up info about companion planting and decided on basil (Purple Petra) and carrots (Scarlet Nantes) to go with my Brandywine tomato plant. Carrots are supposed to help loosen and aerate the soil for the tomato roots, and basil is supposed to somehow help invigorate tomato. I don't mind if the carrots come out funny shaped from the tomato, it's an experiment anyway since I tried starting them in peat pots to see if they still come out crooked from transplanting. I may also tuck in some purple alyssum once those have grown in well, it attracts hoverflies whose larvae eat aphids. I put the tomato in the back so it wouldn't block the basil from getting sun and I figure once it starts getting height it can be guided toward the center of the cage.

Not bad. For the other container I might try it with marigolds, chives and parsnips. I hope I get to that this  coming weekend. Any other good tomato companion recommendations?

the Waiting Game

My Green Children are forcing me to be patient...

I have so many seedlings started and seeds I'm waiting to see sprout. I really want to be sure I'm starting enough of the flowers to fill mom's beds well. Some of the plants I started for my mom are almost ready to transplant...but the new flower beds aren't even started yet. My parents keep changing their minds about what they're doing to the yard. Last night we had a quick gruop talk to go over the contractor's recommendations. Because of the bad drainage in the yard it seems we're going to start completely from scratch so he can re-grade. Seems dad is going to spend more on this than planned-but improvements to their house are long overdue and that's the price of procrastinating. I may further edit the yard plan since we don't have to worry about only disturbing some areas... But if they don't start work soon I will have to scour the 99 cent store for larger cups/containers for the flower...

Two nights ago I set some seeds to pre-soak. Usually I only do that for the chard, beets and sweet peas, but I thought I'd give it a try for my next round of seeds. I was suprised to see the basil seeds developed an odd jelly coating.

The Blue Butterfly Bush I moved a couple of weeks ago went into shock. It did fine the first week, hence my happy post, but with the unusually early hot weather not so much. Since Friday it's been losing leaves and showing some signs of pallor. It got it's weekly watering on Sat, and I watered it again last night. This morning I lightly watered again with some liquid fertilizer to make sure it's getting nutrients. Now I need to leave it alone a few days and cross my fingers.

And I want my veggies! It's been a month or two since some of my larger veggies have been growing in their beds/permanent containers. I'm most surprised that the Cauliflower which are actually in the ground still haven't started growing their heads. The cabbage are getting pretty big leaves, but no cabbage head yet :/ But I'm most excited about my broccoli! They've been developing heads for a couple of weeks, one is nearly ready (I need to check info on the best moment to harvest). They're hanging basket is currently sheltered  by the storage shelves, the current heatwave was not playing nice with them (nor the kale, chard and lettuce).

the Blue Butterfly Bush is doing well

Well last Saturday I moved the Butterfly Bush. I've been watching it closely ever since to make sure it's doing alright in it's new pot and it seems so. No saggy wilting leaves or branches and no major loss of leaves. I have high hopes for this bad boy this year :)

I want to add something around it's base but I haven't decided what yet. Perhaps some Creeping Jenny, the variety growing in my flower bed has peachish flowers instead of the typical yellow that would look nice with the blue flowers of this bush. Or I might fall back on the pink/purple Alyssum...

Moved the Butterfly Bush

After reading Fern's post last week about root-bound plants I knew I needed to check the bush by the door. Suspicions confirmed.

My sister and I bought two bushes from Home Depot...I think back in 2001 or 2002... for our parents because dad always grew the same plants every year forever. They needed some livening up. Well surprisingly dad was happy about it and immediately got ahold of a couple of nice marble holders and set them up by the door. He left them in the black gallon buckets they came it. I figured he grew up a farmer so he knows what he's doing. \:)

One bush thrived and the other did ok but was obviously wimpy compared to his brother. After reading the post about being root-bound I investigated. I wanted to move them to the huge 24" pots anyway. Once one pot was prepped I went to lift the beefy bush out of the marble holder and was a little suprised when I couldn't get it to budge, so I tried to tip the whole thing over so I could trim the roots, and it still wouldn't move. I had to sit with my back against the house and shove it over with my feet to find out...not only did some roots go out the bottom-there were 3 huge ones that had rooted into the dirt below! They snapped in the process of toppling bush and holder over, I tried to pull them up out of the ground, wouldn't move. Well, that explains why that bush was the beefy one.

The next ordeal was chiseling off what was left of the monster roots so I could remove the plant from the holder (and finding several species of bugs that I had never seen in my garden before *shiver*) and cutting the bucket off the root ball. Indeed that sucker was root bound. I know I should have trimmed the smaller roots more than I did but after the big trauma of losing the monster roots I was afraid that'd finish it off. Especially since dad was telling me the whole time that "you're going to finish with that thing", thanks dad. I did separate them as well as I could and trim some off, and the roots have a ton of room in the huge pot now so I'm hoping it makes it. When cutting off the original bucket I also re-discoverd what it actually is - Blue Butterfly Bush (Clerodendrum ugandense). We'd forgotten what it was called. Hmm...I often see bees and hummingbirds feeding from it...but hardly ever butterflies...

As to it's little brother...dad says I killed it two weeks ago when I tried to prune it. Well, it still has a few leaves so I'm gonna watch it for a bit before I give up on it...or try to move it. In the worst case some of the berries it dropped last year actually grew in the flower bed next to it and I collected them. Dad wanted a couple to plant at another house, I kept more than that just in case some didn't make it and seems like it was a good idea...

Sorry no pics, I still haven't replaced my lost camera.