Perennial Tomatoes?!?!

Last year I began researching  a few articles on perennial vegetables and I found out that although tomatoes are not traditionally thought of as perennials if given the right set of circumstances they can overwinter. Over the past few years I have successfully overwintered Eggplants, Peppers sweet and Hot and for the first time Tomatoes. Last year I started some cherry tomatoes from seed and grew them in containers. Container garden for tomatoes has it challenges. First cherry tomatoes want to go everywhere. However, if you like the wild Hair look than cherry tomatoes in a container is the way to go. I'm not particularly fond of it but as an experiment it worked. As winter set in I kept the tomatoes out for as long as I could, checking the temperatures daily to to make sure they did not go below 45-40 degrees. As the cold weather set in consistently, I pulled the plants into the sun room and sat them by the windows. The rays from the sun intensify as they pass through the windows of my sun room. In there the temperature is comfortable and even on days of frost the tomatoes in my sun room do not wilt. My only downfall during this project was paying to much attention to water and overall leaf health and not paying any attention to the aphids growing unchecked in my sun room. During the overwinter process, the plants do appear to go dormant. But with tomatoes as long as there is sun they keep on producing flowers and through the winter many flowers were set and although they didn't produce bucket loads of fruit; they did produce fruit occasionally. As the spring arrived I put the plants out and for the first several weeks I saw and fought with the aphids for the first time. They were everywhere. On my eggplants, peppers, and hitting my tomatoes hard specifically targeting the new growth. The war of the aphids is not over but I'm winning and my plants are starting to show tall tale signs that they appreciate the dedication. I believe overwintering is important for urban farmers. Many of us don't have the land or space to properly rotate crops. However, with container gardening and your overwintered plants all you need to do is fertilize and re pot if needed. Recently, I added some Grade A compost manufactured from my chicken coop and the Tomatoes are absolutely loving it. The next phase of this project is to do more research on developing seeds that overwinter well. This is a whole new animal for me and the reading is intense but I find it absolutely exciting. The fact that individual plants that are exposed to certain conditions and thrive as a result only to pass on this code to future seeds of their prodigy is territory that is both foreign and amazing to me. My hope is to one day develop strains that first overwinter well and then produce sweet delicious fruit. Well see..... I feel like my journey has just begun.

Support your Habit, Sell some plants

This year I am taking this homesteading thing to another level. In another post I mentioned I had a seed addiction and it's only getting worst. So over the past few months I have been given some thoughts on how to supplement my passion for growing vegetables. I have decided to sell vegetable plants this spring. Although I will not become a millionaire selling vegetable plants I can offset some of the cost incurred by my sporadic need for seed. I have a sun room with southern exposure and it works great to start plants from seed. This year I have purchased several seed trays to start my seeds. 

Why does this make perfect sense? Many people love to grow vegetables especially where I am from. But many of these people don't have the means to start their plants earlier. Tomatoes have to be the most popular fruit to grow in the spring through summer. But in the summer in our region Tomatoes shut off because it's way to hot for them to have proper pollination, nevertheless, they pick back up towards the end of summer and produce all the way out to December. So if someone wants to plant tomatoes from seed in my area they will often wait until mid to late march to put seeds in the ground. Give or take 90 days to see the first fruits depending on the variety and that puts the plant right smack in the heat of summer. So here is where I come in. Germinate seeds from January, February time period and with the proper set up even earlier and raise strong plants that are ready to be transplanted in the spring with only a few weeks away from bearing the first set of flowers.

Pricing is a sticky subject, but as you peruse through catalogs and local markets you can get an idea for what the pricing should be like per plant. I am under the notion that people should not undercut the market by cutting the prices of plants drastically. The majority of Bonnie Plants sell for approx $4.00 at the local markets this year I will sell one plant for $4, two plants for $7 and three plants for $10.

Specializing in Heirlooms has drawn alot of interest in my plants this year and growing varieties from different parts of the world has seem to cause alot of interest as well. All in all this has gone viral and I could only wish that I can make a living from this. Who knows where this will go but as for now it's alot of fun.

 Advertising, plants is very easy by using craigslist. Also my local flea market has booths for $5-$25 that can be rented on the weekend. Well it certainly looks like I'm going to be that guy. Spending his weekends under a huge a umbrella with a Hawaiian shirt and sipping on some iced tea selling vegetable plants. I'll probably find something from American Eagle because whatever I do it has to be sexy, even if it involves selling vegetable plants:)

Second official growing season in Full Swing

In zone 8 the weather is warm throughout most of the day and there has been no let down from the rain; although Bob has had his fair share of producing rays without being hindered by any cloud cover. The robins have figured out that there is a healthy cache of delicious worms just below the surface of our raised gardens, which causes my wife to panic when they are scurrying around the Strawberry patch. Speaking of strawberries; it is our official second season with the patch and I didn't know what to think when we planted a few plugs last year. This year they seem to have taken off and although we are having plenty of flowers that are producing strawberries, they are not sweet for some reason. Maybe they have to sit for a while but I'm afraid that if they do all the berry eating birds will gobble them up once they learn they are there. If its not bugs, dogs, and hail destroying your garden you can count on those birds eating what you enjoy. But it's a trade off. I love looking at the birds make our garden their home.

The beans have have germinated and in typical bean fashion they have pushed through the earth like line backers ready to grow. The most enjoyable part of gardening this second season is watching my plants from last year that I pulled up and place in containers respond to the season once again. Most notably my Japanese eggplant; it's almost like we have become friends. To me a plant that sets flowers is like my buddies who stop over with a case of beer and meat for the grill. They plan on staying for awhile. Watching these plants grow from one year to the next and preserving plants from one season to the next that have been pulled from the earth and cultivated in containers adds a whole new dimension of possibilities for the Urban farmer. It addresses the issue of space and time consumed with a busy schedule. Not that planting a garden is really busy work to me. I enjoy it. But either way spring has greeted us and our little urban garden is responding wonderfully. The wife is doing things her way for the first half of the year and I suspect everything will be neat and orderly. During our second half of the growing season I will commence to start my Jungle. There is just something about the jungle that I like. Things growing everywhere, dense foliage that can not be seen through appeals to me, but scares the hell out of my wife. I look forward to it:)

Forget about it Gardening

Last growing season one of my main efforts was to grow sage and oregano. It proved more difficult than I expected. I tried everything and it seemed that the seeds just wouldn't take. Big Sigh:( Fast Forward through the winter into the beginning of this spring and my Sage that I had virtually forgotten about, are growing strong. Sometimes it just seems that little means more and I don't know what I did to make them grow but apparently ol Momma nature knew what to do. So needless to say Im happy. I love sage plants and oregano, I think they are beautiful in design and smell absolutely wonderful. My wife, saw the need to water them once a week and from her stand point they seemed to have just grown overnight. I remember just seeing one tiny plant and thought to myself that my Sage would be hopeless. I honestly forgot about them, but apparently they didn't forget about me:)

Starting Tomatoes for the Upcoming Growing Season

This past summer we grew alot of tomatoes in our garden and quickly realized that tomatoes have been the main staple to many of the dishes that we make. I absolutely love this fruit because of the many of things I can do with it and there never seems to be a dull moment when eating a tomato that is just screaming sweetness.

For our upcoming growing season we are going to do things a little different. For one thing we are starting now to grow all of our tomatoes in the sun room so that way when the spring comes we will have strong plants that will start soaking up all of that early warm Georgia Southern Weather and start producing fruits early. I followed a great recommendation from Growing Human to start pinching off the suckers early so that my plants produce really big juicy fruits and that worked very well. So by growing earlier I can get these guys started much earlier with healthier fruit.

Second, we are going to plant all of our tomatoes in containers this year because as I have learned Tomatoes are perennials if kept properly and can be overwintered. Being that I live in an urban environment I don't have much land so looking back we have identified ways to extend our growing season and free up our garden for veggies and fruit that really cannot be grown in doors. We will container garden alot of fruits and veggies this year so that we can over winter them next year and keep them for years to come to obtain a head start on every growing season. It should be alot of fun:)

Overwinter Transplants off to a Good start

My pepper plants have been doing well inside. This is the first time I have tried to bring a plant that was growing in the garden and convert it to the container and bring it indoors. The flowers have been setting on the plant and I have been making sure the door is closed to not allow for any drafts. But so far so good. My goal is to keep this guys green until spring and then I can take the containers outside and mother nature can take care of the rest.

My eggplant seems to have taken well to the transplant as well. I would really like for this guy to be successful. The Japanese eggplant are unbelievable and this is coming from someone who really doesn't like to eat eggplant. He is definitely a winner! The trick again is to preserve these perennials through the winter and have a head start for spring and summer next year. Speaking of next year I have to start planning for what type of seeds I want to purchase next year. We are definitely going to grow more of what we eat regularly and I would like to try growing some fruits and veggies from the middle east in containers. It should be fun.

Bok Choy Second Growing Season Zone 8

Bok Choy, is hands down one of my favorite leafy green veggies. They are a great alternative to spinach and cabbage. As the cool weather sets in here in the south our Bok choy are loving every bit of it. About a week ago I thinned several of the plants and my wife and I ate the tender clippings in a stir fry. Today I went back out to the garden to prepare another meal and noticed that the Bok choy was growing in full force with much stronger leaves. As I started clipping the leaves I noticed that there are just way to much and I got tired I finished about half way through the clippings until I got smoked. They went really well with the stir fry of other fresh veggies we pulled from the garden and fresh pesto we made over the weekend that went will with our grilled Chicken breast... Absolutely delicious!!!

What a Week!!

I can remember preparing to go hunting last week saturday to only find out that it was way to windy to be really succsessful. It was a hoot trying on my ghille suit for the first time. I felt like the yeti; in fact I could almost bet that the guys who made that infamous big foot video had on a ghille suit. But nonetheless, I had a great time out in the field. I saw tons of sign and I look forward to getting back out this weekend for some hot pre-rut action.

On sat afternoon and all day sunday, I did some much needed yard work and the misses and I planned our meals for the week. This week it was homemade chili, with jalapeno Cheddar cornbread, baked chicken with fresh veggies, lasagna rolls, or fajita burgers with lean ground beef. The wife and I have been planning our meals every sunday for the week and making sunday our official cook family day. I told her my official name is chef. Shes still rolling her eyes.

I uprooted my eggplant and transplanted it into a container and brought her inside and so far so good. My beautiful pepper plant the habanero is not doing so well, all the leaves have drooped and although it remains green, it looks really really sad. All my other transplants are doing great with a few flowers being set this week as well. I really hope the big habanero gets well. I think its from being left outside and taking in a tremendous amount of rain. Im at a lost of what to do. I just hope he pulls through. Big Sigh...............

Overwintering Pepper Plants

This is a photo of my prized habanero plant. This plant grew to an enormous size and is producing flowers at an alarming rate. I have two other Thai Chili plants that are starting to flower this week and are starting to produce peppers. They are currently growing in containers. I have been doing alot of research on overwintering pepper plants. From what I understand peppers are really perennials, but most people plant every year because they allow the cold to destroy them. But to the contrary if you take your peppers indoors during the winter you can actually preserve them for years to come. I don't know how true this is but I think its worth a try. After all I can't wait for another season to try this when I have peppers now.

Overwintering pepper plants require that I take the plants indoor into comfortable surroundings. As subtropical plants they can not tolerate any freezing and therefore they need to be in a situation where they can receive warmth as well as light. It is recommended that you place them near a window that receives ample light from the sun but doesn't get cold. Unless you have windows that do not get cold the other alternative would be to use grow lights. Either way the plants will go dormant until spring. However it is not unusual for pepper plants to grow and produce more fruits throughout winter if conditions are right

As fall approaches and then winter "tis the season for soups and chili" and peppers are where it is at.

Growing ButterNut Squash

I have heard so many great stories about butternut squash that I had to try it myself this year. We used a variety that is perfect for small gardens. Any squash species is a sore subject with the wife. She feels squash are just little greedy bastards that take over as much space as possible. However I had to convince her that Butternut squash we are planting are specifically designed to grow on its own soap box. I have never tasted butternut but there are so many delicious recipes that accompany this vegetable that I have to see for myself. I hope all goes well. I have put a few plants in the raised beds and a few in containers. If the containers go well as planned growing the butternut in them will be the rule. We'll see....

Reflections of our summer harvest

This was our first summer that we actually grew something. There were a period of highs and lows but all in all the experience was great. Ironically most of the growing season was left to my wife to develop and maintain and being a cherry, she did amazingly well. Our plan to use raised beds proved to be very easy to maintain and resulted in amazing produce from virtually everything grown in them. Some of the highlights for this summer are my almost 6' green pepper plants. I have never seen green pepper plants so tall and they are so productive. The Cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, and melons produced so many fruits that my wife huffed and puffed when she went to harvest them everyday. We learned so much about gardening this year and sharing our experiences. The wealth of information that we receive from all the home growers who we follow on the blogosphere has been hands down the best source of information that we have received. Thank God for Georgias Second Growing Season, we already have seeds sprouting out of the Seed tray ready to be planted in the beds.

Shiso Herb

My wife's pride and joy is this little bad boy right here. The shiso plant is a Japanese Basil that is regularly used in many Japanese dishes and my wife has not been to fortunate to get a seed to grow until now. I am so happy this little guy is growing strong. She read that for shiso you really need to soak the seeds for a few days before sowing them. I honestly didn't think it was going to work, but surprisingly they took off and now we have several small shiso plants. Shiso has single handily saved my garden, because I think if it weren't for this little rascal my wife would have not become as interested as she is now in growing healthy veggies. Thank you Shiso!!

Growing Potatoes in a bucket

There seems to be alot of interest in growing potatoes in a bucket. I can only talk about my ongoing success, because my work with potatoes is in a progressive state. From what I have gathered so far, the most important thing to do is acquire very good seed potatoes. A lot of literature states that you can use store bought potatoes that have the shoots on them, but they are not recommended. I personally used the advice of those that suggest purchasing the seed potatoes because they have a better success rate. I must admit getting these potatoes to grow has made me feel like a pro, only because I have grown something and it was green. Nevertheless, the seed potatoes are easy to grow in a bucket if you follow a few simple steps. What I did was add a layer of enriched compost and highly organic soil at the base of the bucket. As the shoots start to grow up ward towards the sun, all you need to do is add soil to until the highest leaf is just barely covered and continue until the shoots have reached out of the bucket. I have two experimental buckets; One that I planted in one bucket and the Second, I added an additional bucket around the top of the leaves to see if I can cultivate potatoes on a second level. As per instructions, the potatoes are done growing when the leaves have died back. You can harvest earlier but that would mean smaller potatoes. Its going to be interesting to see how these guys look in the fall. As for now I am relishing in all the green that is shooting from out of the buckets

Growing Potatoes in a bucket

My potatoe seeds are doing pretty good in the bucket. They have grown out of the box from just two or three days ago. So today I decided that I would experiment by adding another bucket on top of the bucket that has the seed potatoes planted in them. There are still green growth that are covered in this bucket. But I can't waste time waiting for them to reach the height of these guys, so some sacrifices need to be made.

I figure if I cut the bottom of another bucket, place it on top of the plants and add dirt I should be able to extend the growth of the potatoes and therefore have them produce more potatoes in the bucket. I admit it's abit exciting to see how far I can get them to grow. But I am promising myself that I will stop with this bucket. Because if I don't I will have buckets ten feet high and with no clue on how to gather my potatoes.

So once the bottom of the bucket is cut I place the bucket on top of the plants and fill it with dirt right up to the leaves. They are growing at a very fast rate and I want to give them the very best oppurtunity to produce.