Tomatoes and electric fence!

This week we planted out tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatillos, marigolds and Evans' Cherry trees. We also put up the electric fence. Remember to turn it off or step well over before you work in the garden! We also had some new volunteers out to help - thank you!

Peas beans peppers

Yesterday, peas and beans were seeded and peppers were planted out. Just before an evening shower.

On Thursday, if it doesn't rain, we will set out the electric fence (the deer have been lying in the garden) and we will plant out tomatoes, tomatillos and eggplant.

Photos

Planting beans

Tomato plants for Food Bank clients

Varieties

Here are some of our vegetable varieties for 2011.

Grand Rapids Lettuce

Grand Rapids Lettuce - Loose leaf. 45 days to harvest. Good tolerance to tip burn. Well adapted for outdoor use.

Buttercrunch Lettuce - Head lettuce. 60 days to harvest. One of the best tasting loose leaf types. Harvest over a 2 week period. Thick, crisp leaves are very tender.
 

Odyssey Lettuce - Head lettuce. 62 days to harvest. Dark green butterhead/boston type with excellent tip burn and bolting tolerances.  Heads are slightly larger and heavier than Baja.  Use for fresh market or processing.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Bright Lights Swiss Chard (hyb.) - 55 days to harvest. Unique blend of many colors. Mature plants average 50 cm with savoyed leaves.  Colors fade when cooked.

Centennial Rocket Tomato - Bush type. Only half the leaves of normal Tomatoes--so most of the energy goes into early medium-size fruit. Heirloom Seed.

Prairie Pride Tomato - Bush type. Abundant, flavorful, low acid content, medium-sized fruit on sturdy, compact plants. Heirloom Seed.

Mamma Mia Hybrid (paste tomato) - 60 days to harvest. Mamma Mia is a meatier, firmer fleshed fruit, just right for a thick and rich spaghetti sauce, or for salsa and any other recipes requiring a rich Tomato taste. Staking type.

Early Prolific Hybrid Pepper - 55 days to harvest. Produces far earlier than any other sweet Pepper on the market. The fruit is 3-lobed, with medium thick walls and a mild sweet flavor.

Black Bell II Eggplant - 58 days to harvest. Early maturing oval round fruit are dark in color, good quality. Plant is a little more compact than Black Bell, tolerant to Tomato Mosaic virus.

Annie Oakley II Hybrid Okra

Annie Oakley II Hybrid Okra - 48 days to harvest. (F1 hybrid). Pods are ridged, medium green, tapered, remain tender up to 4 1/2 in./12 cm long. Spineless, dwarf plants.

Bonanza Yellow Marigold/French - The Bonanza series is larger flowered than the Janie or Boy types. Blooms average 2 in./5 cm. Bushy 8 in./20 cm plants are early flowering and provide better hot summer garden performance than Janie types. Bonanza Bolero is an All America Winner. 

Early April progress update

The tomatoes have been seeded - both our garden tomatoes and our Tomato Plant Project tomatoes. Thank you Drusilla! The marigolds will be started this week, too.

Our garden is still far to wet to consider seeding. At least there are a few good gardening workshops to attend (see the poster below for the Urban Farmer sessions and the calendar for upcoming events).

Come on sun!

Volunteer Meeting - a dozen new recruits!

The Volunteer Meeting was a success with about a dozen new people signing up to help with the garden. These new volunteers have been distributed among our teams. Thank you to our new recruits!

Our first job will be planting our tomato seeds for our Tomato Plant Project. This will likely happen next week (the first week of April). Emails will be sent.

The Tomato Pepper Eggplant Okra Team (TPEO) will start their seeds the week after.

Approximately 600 lbs

We now have donated approximately 600 lbs and have beets, carrots and the majority of our tomatoes yet to harvest.

The weather is still wet and temperatures are cooling. We have had to prune our tomatoes hoping to encourage ripening. The danger of frost is lurking and we have a contingency plan should we need to harvest the tomatoes before they are ripened.

The beans have finished and the peas are nearing the end. Lettuce is still growing and we have harvested a few eggplants.

We have seeded radishes two weeks ago and plan to have an early fall crop to harvest.

The apple trees on site are nearing ready for picking. We'd love to have extra help when it comes time for this. Let us know if you are able to help!

Emergence

Peas are up!

So are the beets!

Lettuce, spinach and carrots have begun to emerge. We dug down to check on the beans and they have germinated.

And the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and marigolds are beautiful.

Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant are in the ground!

Thursday, June 3, the Tomato/Pepper Team planted out tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. They plan to plant out some marigolds tonight (Tuesday, June 8) after work for pest control.

Tomato Varieties

Beefsteak

A very popular garden variety, producing large fruit ideal for fresh, cooking or canning. Each fruit can weigh up to 1lb (454g). It matures in 70 – 80 days and was developed by Johann Muster at his Marathon, New York State farm.

Roma

The characteristic Italian tomato. Good for sauces or fresh. It is plum shaped and matures in 70 -80 days.

The English word tomato comes from the Spanish tomatl, first appearing in print in 1595. A member of the deadly nightshade family, tomatoes were erroneously thought to be poisonous (although the leaves are poisonous) by Europeans who were suspicious of their bright, shiny fruit. Native versions were small, like cherry tomatoes, and most likely yellow rather than red.

The tomato is native to western South America and Central America. In 1519, Cortez discovered tomatoes growing in Montezuma's gardens and brought seeds back to Europe where they were planted as ornamental curiosities, but not eaten.

Most likely the first variety to reach Europe was yellow in colour, since in Spain and Italy they were known as pomi d'oro, meaning yellow apples. Italy was the first to embrace and cultivate the tomato outside South America.

The French referred to the tomato as pommes d'amour, or love apples, as they thought them to have stimulating aphrodisiacal properties. The earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources. However, in certain areas of Italy, such as Florence, the fruit was used solely as a tabletop decoration before it was incorporated into the local cuisine in the late 17th or early 18th century.

Pepper and Aubergine (Eggplant) Varieties

Early California Wonder

This variety produces large blocky bell peppers that can be harvested when green or later when they mature to red. At both stages flavour is sweet and mild and texture crisp. Excellent source of vitamins A and C. 75 days to harvest.

Cloche Rouge

This variety produces beautiful bell shaped fruit with colouring from medium green to red depending on maturity. It matures in 95-110 days. Contains vitamins B1, B2, A and C.

Orange Sun

Peppers are green turning to orange at full maturity. Matures in 75 -80 days. To avoid injuring plants harvest all peppers by carefully cutting off fruits along with a short piece of stalk.

Black beauty

This variety is known for its large plump deep purplish black fruits, forming after a bright purple flower. Plants grow about 2 feet (61cm) tall and produce several fruits. Harvest by cutting from plant when glossy and dark purple. Skin should not spring back when pressed with thumb.

The eggplant or aubergine is our experimental crop. They are delicious fried, in casseroles and in several ethnic dishes such as the moussaka dish of Greece and the lasagna of Italy.

Tomato seedlings

Our tomato seedlings are coming along......

Tomato, pepper and eggplant seedlings

Tom K. has graciously donated tomato seedlings to the garden project. Thanks!

And yesterday, Drusilla and Parthiba planted pepper and eggplant seeds for seedling starting.

We're on our way!