Category: Garden Design

Planting onions and potatoes is not as satisfying as planting tomatoes. This planting starts the gardening season for me. Maybe this is because my earlier gardens were small and very few varieties could be put in, so tomatoes, my favorite veggie to grow, was usually first.

This year the first tomatoes in are Celebrity and Big Beef seedlings which were started early. Planting early is risky but these plants may well produce the first fruits of the season. Does everyone want to say: “I am already getting tomatoes from my garden!”? I need to shake off this boast and replace it with: “Man we are harvesting lots of tomatoes!” If is true then our food bank clients will be very happy.

The seedlings are long and lanky, perfect for planting ‘on their side’. Long seedlings are laid in a trench, about 6 inches deep, so that the stem is mostly underground. The tip of the plant is gently bent to point up and out of the trench. Only a few leaves at the tip of the plant peek out above ground. In about two weeks the entire buried stem becomes covered with roots establishing a great root base for the plant. Half the roots will come from the root ball and half from the stem. We plant the stems to align with our drip irrigation lines so the roots are nearest water and cultivation near the row will not disturb major roots.

The soil 1 foot below ground was very compact. It was difficult to drive a stake or to spade up. To encourage roots to grow down, the ground was broken with a 2 foot breaking plow. Each bed was plowed twice with this breaking plow. It is also called a sub-soiler. Tomato roots can be 5 feet long. To get this long they will need to grow down.

It is risky to plant tomatoes in March in Oklahoma. Historical last frost is March 4th. But this is long history. A shorter view of ‘history’ is our heat wave. The last few summers have been ‘historically’ hot. Last year the last frost was March 7th. The heat has reduced the number of days tomatoes set fruit. So these early risky tomatoes hedge against another hot year. These tomatoes will have had a couple more weeks to bloom than later plantings (early April).

The seasonal changes in Oklahoma make it a great place to live. If you like to see this sort of thing. In an Oklahoma spring, pears and plums bloom first, large flocks of Cedar Waxwings fly together whistling and take water at my pond. Daffodils and chickweed are in full bloom too. Wild geese pair up. But despite all these signs and having peas emerging by the hundreds, and 1/2 the garden already in the ground, planting the tomatoes marks the beginning of the garden season for me.

The 2012 tomato season was poor for most people. I even heard about an elderly couple quitting gardening because of very low yield last year, saying, “It is just not worth all the work!” I think last year’s trouble was high temperatures.

Tomatoes, America’s favorite garden veggie, were hit especially hard. They require certain temperature ranges to set fruit. Night time, when the fruit is set, must be between 62 – 70 degrees F. Normally night temps fall into this range frequently and tomato blooms set fruit. But last summer, in June, night temperatures rose above 70 F and stayed there until August 10th. Below you can see that 2009 had days throughout the summer.

In 2009 the last spring freeze was about April 7. But in 2012 the last freeze was March 7. Last year I luckily planted tomatoes early and the plants set fruit in April. But if you planted late, you might only get a few fruit clusters to set before the summer heat began.

 
I have to admit to “irrational exuberance” each spring. Spring fever is very strong. Today will be 80 F. I want to plant early.

But based on the charts and a generally warming climate, a little risk may reward with a better crop of tomatoes. Or am I simply feverish?

Either way, I have started enough tomato plants to risk a few. In my own little garden I have covered early plants with success. Covering them with plastic has protected them from light frost. Elm Tree Garden is bigger and would be more work to protect the plants.

I think I will start 50 feet of tomatoes next week and hope for the best. I have planned this with some Celebrity and Big Beef seedlings which are being hardened off for that last several days. They are ready. I also planned on enough seedlings to replace these plants if frozen.

Here the “Average” last frost date is April 1. But climate warming is happening and may have pushed the future last frost dates into March. I believe it has. Plant some of your tomatoes early in you are in Oklahoma and spread your risk.

If I have any secrets about gardening, it is chickens. Specifically how to use chicken litter compost to improve soil in a raised bed. In raised bed gardening you will use the same soil year after year so it is important to amend the soil. Once the beds are ready they are filled with the best soil available. Chicken compost can be added to increase nitrogen and organic material. The picture above is a yummy recipe for success.

Fresh eggs, heirloom tomatoes and crookneck summer squash all come together in July. I look at composting like a cycle of life. The long days of summer are the best place to start. It takes time to take shape. Egg production is stimulated by long days. Hens are hungry and they love to eat from the garden. Their appetites produce lots-o-littler in the coup. All this poop must be cleaned up. I use a method that reduces the work and yields good quantities of litter ready for the compost pile.

Chicken manure needs lots of carbon to compost well and reduce its ‘heat’ before adding to the garden. So I use wood shavings to cover the floor of the coup. After I make a layer of shavings, I add diatominous earth (DE) a powder of finely ground sea shells. DE is a powder that is abrasive to pests, helps dry the litter and really knocks down the stink. Once the DE finds its way into a raised bed it adds calcium to the soil. Once the chickens have made a mess of this I make another layer of wood shavings and DE. Three layers produce two or three large wheelbarrows of chicken litter for the compost pile.

We use wire mesh hoops made from old fences to form the piles. The chicken litter is concentrated so we add it in with layers with grass clippings, ground up leaves and residue from weeding around our place. If we have any compost that is done, I like to add a small scattering of it to each layer of the pile to inoculate the pile. My hens help make about 5 piles a year. They are great producers! They also lay from 1 to 3 dozen eggs a day. I think that everyone that gets these eggs really enjoy them too.

Turning a compost pile speeds the decomposition. If a pile is left untouched it still makes great compost but will take about a year to finish. A well turned pile will finish in half that time or less. If you turn your pile you will need several piles to work with. Probably the easiest way to turn a pile is to use a garden fork to shovel one pile into another pile. We lift our wire hoops off the pile and set it next to the pile. Then shovel the pile back into the hoop. Two turnings and four months in summer and the pile will be about done. Add water when you turn if it is dry. To really cook, a pile needs moisture.

Except in winter our pile really heats up. Dig a hole down into the pile and place a thermometer. Our pile ‘cooks’ at about 140 degrees F. Grass clippings are really hot. This heat of decomposition is a good measure of how quick your pile is cooking down to the rich black earthy elixir that is compost. It will have a rich earthy smell and is fluffy (almost like potting soil).

One good pile is enough for about 3 inches of compost in two of my 4′ x 16′ beds. I add crushed limestone to reduce acidity and help tomatoes absorb the calcium. This also prevents blossom rot on tomatoes, a calcium deficiency in the plant sometimes caused by the combination of rich chicken litter and highly acid soil.

The soil in each of my beds is rich and loamy. It yields heavy production. I am very happy to give any of this back to my chickens. They only get the C grade fruit but they are delighted with all offerings when it is fresh from the garden. I keep them happy and they me.