But we’re setting them out in Wall O’ Waters. (If you’d like more information on using Wall O’ Water plant protection, check out my article about them in the Fourteenth Year Anthology.) After all, even though we’ve seen temperatures in the mid eighties (two nights ago) it dropped to 28° F, making it necessary to fire up the propane heater in the hoop house where our newly transplanted peppers are happily living. Twenty eight degrees is pretty iffy in an unheated hoop house. Plants probably would be okay … but we can’t gamble on “probably.” And last night, it went down to 31° F. We checked at 3 PM and decided we didn’t have to run the heater and everything was fine this morning.

Ashley and I set out a bunch of tomatoes in Wall O’ Waters this weekend.

Yesterday, Ashley and I set out a big bunch of tomatoes in the Walls. I’ve found it best to set them out alphabetically for ease of finding different varieties, come summer and fall. Boy, that job took six hours on Saturday! Lots of varieties this year.

Our asparagus is going big guns this year. We’ve been eating it often. Ashley made a wonderful grilled asparagus, wrapping each fat stalk with bacon, pinned into place with toothpicks. Then she wrapped the whole thing in foil and put it on the grill. Oh my God, was it good! We gorged. I also canned up five pints and plan on doing that again tomorrow. In the past I’ve often been so busy planting I let the asparagus get ahead of me, growing into huge plants. This year I swore I’d get it canned instead as we just love it in the winter too.

Ashley’s wonderful grilled bacon wrapped asparagus spears

Will is still hard at work in the new garden, removing rocks and pulled-out stumps. He picks rocks (some weigh 100 pounds or better), fills the tractor bucket, then when the garden is clean, he roots around with our big chisel plow which pops up more rocks. Luckily, there are fewer each time he does it. He sure is sleeping good at night. He figures he’s moved 22 TONS of rocks out of that garden so far. That’s a LOT of rocks! We’ll be hauling manure and fencing it pretty soon.

Will and Hondo checking out our latest “crop” of rocks in the new garden
After getting the new garden clear of rocks, Will roots up more with the chisel plow.

The planting is starting in earnest now. No more cold weather in sight, even on long-range forecasts. But I don’t trust forecasts totally. So I won’t be planting rare seeds or setting out unprotected plants yet. I’ve had unhappy surprises in the past and don’t want a repeat.

I saw my first oriole yesterday. I put out orange halves, grape jelly and oriole nectar two weeks ago but yesterday is the first time I’ve actually seen an oriole. Our hummingbirds were late coming north this year. We’ve had hummers for about a week now and we sure enjoy seeing them flitting about on our hanging baskets as well as the feeders in the yard. By summer, they get so tame we move the feeders up onto the front porch so we can watch them close up. — Jackie

17 COMMENTS

  1. It got hot here in Oklahoma finally and when l looked at the garden like l do most mornings there are baby yellow squash, some green tomatoes,and the onions and the garlic are looking good. Had a problem with dolly polies eati g my bean plant but the needs oil seems to have stopped it. Happy planting to you all.

  2. I started potting tomato plants in the green house yesterday. I use large (5 or 6 gal) and seven gallon grow bags so I deal with leggy plants by putting compost in the bottom then start filling so I bury much of the stem. I tried wallowaters in the hoop house several years and ended up with sun scalded plants even with careful ventilation. I tried outdoor tomatoes a couple years with wallowater head start but got almost no ripe tomatoes. Our nights are mostly too cool. Glad you are finally outside.
    Howard
    Copper Basin Alaska

    • Yep, we also have cool nights which is why we can only get a decent harvest of peppers and melons in our hoop houses. We’ve been planting like crazy and our forecast is for HOT weather. Boo. Why can’t we just have warm weather????

  3. Jackie: A neighbor just had me dig up her entire strawberry bed! So I received about 100 plants. I’m very excited to start a new bed. Here’s the thing. Here in the northeast, it’s baby strawberry season. These plants are covered with little green berries and flowers. I always go by the rule of not letting first year transplants flower or bear fruit. Does that rule apply here or has the plant already expended the energy it needs to start the fruit? I’m thinking the plants might drop the fruit anyway because of the stress of transplanting. I’ll go with your advice. Should I pluck off all the flowers and green berries so the plants can put all their energy into adjusting to their new home? Thank you for all your advice. Jeanne

    • As grass is the worst weed in strawberries, be sure to pick out all roots mixed with the plants. Then, yes, do remove the baby berries. I know it’s hard but if you remove the flowers and berries, your plants will be much stronger and produce very well for you next year. Don’t forget to water them well for the first couple of weeks so they set in nicely.

      • Thanks, Jackie! Yes, going out to water now; first plenty of rain, and now a few dry days and all the garden babies are patiently awaiting a drink.

  4. Glad that you’re finally able to do some outside planting. That is a LOT of rocks that Will is moving around! Have to try Ashley’s bacon wrapped asparagus idea. Looks terrific!

    • That IS a lot of rocks. I’d probably quit but Will is pretty tenacious about such things.

  5. The Wall o’ Water looks like an interesting solution. I put my tomatoes out two weeks ago and we haven’t had any freezing temps since. It is finally warming up, but my bean seeds haven’t received the message yet. – Margy

    • Every year is different. Some year we have terrific success with one crop only to have a total failure with another. If your beans don’t come up after 10-12 days, carefully dig a few up with your finger to make sure they haven’t rotted in the ground. This is sometimes the case following a period of wet, cooler weather.

  6. Can you explain what a “Wall O’ Water” is?????? Looks like your night time temps are about the same as ours here in Kenai, Alaska – 38 – 39 degrees. Our daytime has been getting up to mid 50’s and has been cool. Hurry up warm weather!!! Tomatoes must go in the greenhouse here. Thanks for all you share with us.

    • Happily. The Wall’O Water is an empty, circular sleeve made up of many individual cells, closed on the bottom and open on top. You plant the tomato, put an empty 5 gallon bucket over the plant then slip the Wall over the bucket, open ends up. I sit on another bucket and we fill each cell with the garden hose. Once all cells are full, I pull the bucket off the tomato and out of the Wall and move on to the next tomato. I’ve used them for decades in nasty growing conditions. If I hadn’t had them at 7,600 feet in Montana’s mountains, I couldn’t grow tomatoes; I had to shovel two feet of snow out of my garden in May so the soil would warm up and we even had snow on the 4th of July.

      • And if you live in a high wind area like I do, you may have to put 3 pieces of rebar or sticks inside and next to the WalloWater circle with the plant to keep them from blowing over. Mine start to rock back and forth in the wind, then over they go with a plop. Solved that by using the internal structure of sticks or rebar.

  7. After our coming week of 80’s and thunderstorms,am thinking our small garden will be flying,also!

    • Yes, we’re headed for 90s this week too. That’s just TOO hot for this ol’ gal. But we’re supposed to get a good rain so I’m planting, planting, planting!

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