Chilies and tomatoes were planted out in the greenhouse today – a very wam May 8th. A bit earlier than other years, but the plants were ready and it looks like the warm weather will last.
2 x Tumbler (bush tomatoes planted in pots, to be placed outside)
Chilies
1 Cayenne Long Slim
1 Friars’ Hat
1 Jalapeno
1 Lemon Drop
All planted on top of capillary trays.
That leaves us with 4 slots free to use for additional plants, e.g. a cucumber and some special varieties of chili and tomato.
Following some good results with herbs last year, I also put some between the tomatoes: A parsley that survived the winter in the greenhouse; and some mint and chive that I salvaged from a herb bed that needs major maintenance.
Greenhouse 2016 – May 22
May 8
Tomatoes and Chilies planted out.
New home – the day the chilies and tomatoes moved out.
…or how you should also use that fancy camera in your pocket to snap pictures of the things you take for granted.
One of the special things about our house when we bought it was a big, old magnolia tree, standing in the front garden facing the street. It must have been planted only a few years after the house was build and whenever I am working the garden I would get compliments about the tree and be asked to please never fell the tree.
The Tree
In early spring:
Magnolia Tree – April 11, 2011
In bloom:
Magnolia Tree – April 27, 2008
The End
Every time the tree was complimented and people told me to please never fell the tree I would reply that there was no plans of removing the tree. Well, no plan of operations extends with certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main strength 1, and in last November came snow and lots of it. There were broken trees all around, in our garden also.
The morning after:
Magnolia Tree – November 22, 2015
And after the snow melted away:
Magnolia Tree – November 25, 2015
Looking at the damages, we decided that the right thing to do was to remove the tree – with such deep wounds it would be unlikely to recover and instead fall sick and in any case be in danger of breaking further apart in storms and snow:
Wound on tree:
Magnolia Tree, damage – February 24, 2016
We called a gardener and on Feruary 24 the job was done.
Before:
Magnolia Tree – February 24, 2016
After:
(no) Magnolia, February 24, 2016
I did count year rings on the stub and there were about 50 as expected (the house is from 1965).
Now we are looking forward and plan to start over with a new magnolia. Or perhaps a crap-apple. Some good is to come out of this.
Apart from being a story about how all good things come to an (maybe unexpected) end, this is also a reminder to make sure to photograph not only the new and unusual we see, but also the things we take for granted and believe will just be there forever. When I was looking for photos for this post I was surprised to find very few of the tree in full bloom. Lesson Learned: also use that camera in the pocket to snap the unexceptional things we would still be sorry to loose.
Update May 6: Chilies and tomatoes ready for the greenhouse.
It is still February but the days have already grown much longer and there is daylight when I go to work and when I come home. That means it is also time to start thinking about what is going to happen in the garden this year and in particular what goes into the greenhouse, because now is the time to sow anything you want to sow yourself.
One good thing about writing this up systematically is that it helps capture thoughts and decisions about what to sow. We usually have some good ideas for new things to try when we order the seeds, but forget them once we have sown and so we end up with a result like last year and the year before that and… Now, this year we will write down objectives for ourselves so that we remember (occupational hazard). Also, while we usually take some time every fall to think about what went well and what didn’t, those lessons learned have not been captured. Until now, that is (occupation hazard, again).
Objectives:
Try out some milder chili sorts, e.g., Habanero Dulce, Trinidad Perfume or Vicente’s Sweet Habanero (will buy plants since we don’t have seeds already) 2
Try some of Gartneri Toftegaard‘s own tomato cultivars (every year we note down the best at the every year at the tasting day, and this time we will use them 3
Successfully preserve chilies (we didn’t succeed the last couple of years)
Lessons Learned:
Capillary boxes worked really well – we are doing that again
We had trouble with lice on the chilies last year, probably because the plants were standing too close to each other and there was insufficient air circulation
Chilies may have been sown too late, the tomatoes too early
Chilies should be dried in a warm place like a sunny windowsill and not on the top of a cupboard (but we just weren’t ready to place chilies within easy reach of a toddler)
Last year we tried capillary boxes for the first time and were very pleased with the result: Reduced maintenance and improved growth, which also means that there will not be room for as many different plants as we used to have.
Also, we will sow chilies early and tomatoes later. Looking in our records, I see we have done this before:
2015: Mar 19
2014: Mar 2
2012: Mar 17 and Apr 1
2010: Feb 28 (Chilies), Mar 21 (Tomatoes & Chilies)
Time will tell if this gives us a better result this year than last, and we can record the outcome in new lessons and revisit the year’s objectives.
Here is what was sown:
Chilies 2016
Because we use capillary boxes we only expect to have seven chili plants this year. Since we will buy the milder chili plants, we only sow five different sorts this year.
Habanero
Habanero
Lemon Drop
Lemon Drop
Jalapeno
Jalapeno
Friars Hat
Friars Hat
Friars Hat
Cayenne Long Slim
Cayenne Long Slim
Cayenne Long Slim
Chilies sown on Feb 22, all seeds from 2015
Tomatoes 2016
Goal is to have 12 plants in green house and maybe some outdoor bush tomatoes, so depending on the outcome we may use 2 of each plant, or maybe buy some other sorts from a nursery.
Rosadel
Rosadel
Tangidel
Tangidel
Sungold
Black Cherry
Black Cherry
Bloody Butcher
Bloody Butcher
Gardeners Delight
First in the Field (bush)
Tumbler (bush)
Tomatoes sown on Mar 27, all seeds from 2015
Mar 2
Checked under the canopy today – several seeds have already sprouted, with seedlings more than 2 cm long. Cayenne Long Slim has come the farthest, Lemon Drop is just about to break though and Habanero isn’t there yet.
Chilies – 10 days after sowing
Mar 6
The canopy comes off
Mar 14
The longest sprouts or about 7 centimeters long. The Lemon Drops are still small, but may turn out all right, whereas I have no hope for the Habaneros.
Chilies on Mar 19 – 26 days after sowing
Mar 27
Time to move the best chili sprouts into pots and sow tomatoes.
Outcome of the different chili seeds were:
(#seeds/#sprouts/#re-potted)
Habanero: 10/0/0
Lemon Drop: 10/4/3 (two of them significantly weaker)
Jalapeno: 10/6/4
Friar’s Hat: 15/10/5
Cayenne Long Slim: 15/8/3
Class of 2016 graduates from the Chiliversity – 34 days after sowing
Also bought potatoes to to lay in our own little patch. one very early sort (Frieslander) and an early sort (Hansa). We are avoiding later sorts to avoid sickness later in the season.
Apr 2
Canopy comes off the tomatoes – sproutlings are alredy 5 cm long.
Apr 10
Some of the tomato sprouts are already more than 10 centimeters long, so time to move the best sprouts into their own pots.
Outcome of the different tomato seeds were:
(#seeds/#sprouts/#re-potted)
Rosadel: 10/7/3
Tangidel: 10/4/3
Sungold: 5/5/3
Black Cherry: 10/6/5
Bloody Butcher: 10/2/2
Gardeners Delight: 5/3/2
First in the Field (bush): 5/0/0
Tumbler (bush): 5/4/2
Looking at the plants after repotting, I wonder if I was out to early – time will tell.
Tomatoes on Apr 17; 7 days after being re-potted, 20 days after sowing.
Also: The first chili flowers are showing.
May 6
The plants are ready for the greenhouse – just need to clean it.
Chilies and Tomatoes on May 5, almost ready to be planted out.
May 7
Laid the potatoes out and prepared the greenhouse.
May 8
Chilies and tomatoes planted in the greenhouse.
It is still early to draw conclusions, but I suspect one lesson learned this year will be that the tomatoes could easily have been sowed a week later, but let’s see how it play out in the greenhouse.
