In order to produce the best tomatoes, I have to take out all the suckers.

Not suckers, like the ones from this D-Nice song…But tomato suckers, shoots that grow between the main stem and a branch.

If left to grow, suckers might steal energy from the main fruit, and you’d get a bunch of mediocre tomatoes instead of some really good ones.  For a more reasonable explanation, go here.

There’s discussion on whether you have to take out the suckers. The square-foot gardening method takes out the suckers to keep the tomato plants from spreading too wide and taking over the rest of the garden.  Who knew three tomato plants would require so much work?

I watched several videos while looking for ways to stay sucker free.

My Square Foot Garden had the best video of how to remove the suckers.

Front Porch Farm gives a detailed description of how to string and sucker tomato plants.  I haven’t had any success with training them on the trellis, so I’ve just been tying the branches.

I hope I’m not just hacking away at these plants.  I see lots of flowers, so there’s definitely potential.  There are lots of bugs too…but I’ll talk about that next time.

Here’s some updated pictures of my garden:

 

 

 

 

I’d love some feedback from the gardeners out there.  So tell us, how do you take out the suckers?  Or do you just leave those suckers alone?

I finished my raised garden beds this week!

I wanted to write an informative post to go along with this project — it would’ve included links to my Pinterest searches and square foot gardening, pictures of my sketches, list of materials, and possibly some jokes about my trip to buy a wheel barrow and pick ax.

But, I got so much done this week, that I just want to share it with you.  One of my husband’s favorite lines is, “Just show me the baby.”  Simple enough.  I will spare you all the labor pains…here are the pictures:

Before picture of my side yard where we removed dead bushes:

Here are a couple of pictures during the project:

 

 

Here is my first vegetable garden:

 

I worry that the sprinklers won’t reach the vegetables.  I still have to figure out how to make a trellis.  But I have faith that most of these vegetables will grow.

At the beginning of this post I said garden beds.  Yes, there’s more…

Before picture of shade garden:

 

 

After picture of shade garden:

 

Here’s one last picture of my tulips and daffodils. They finished blooming last week.

 

 

Special shoutout to my son for moving cinder blocks, dirt, and mulch in exchange for an excused absent note to study for his AP Euro exam.  Also, thanks to Lu for coming with me to get the wheel barrow and plants.  It would’ve been hard to take a selfie holding the pick ax.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.  Do you know how to build a simple trellis? Got any gardening tips?  Share it with us.

As my deadline for this compost bin project approached, I realized that you actually have to buy and cook vegetables to have scraps to compost.

I thought about asking the produce guy at Waldbaums if he had any rotting discount produce…but I had to draw the line.  I WILL NOT buy rotting fruit and vegetables to make good dirt.

So I started the project, anyway, knowing that if I waited one more week, common sense would tell me to stop blogging.

Based on the instructions, to make compost, there has to be a perfect mix of “browns” (carbon) and “greens” (nitrogen).  I won’t pretend to know what all this means.  All I got out of it was that I had to layer the two like I was making lasagna.  

So, the bottom layer consists of leaves and yard waste from my inlaws’ garden. This is considered “Browns.”

Next, I added the “Greens,” which consisted of vegetable peels, coffee grinds, and eggshells from my kitchen.  I also added a box of expired salad that was already turning slimy.

Next, I added potting soil.  I read somewhere this would keep things moving or speed up the process.

Last layer was browns.

This project was loosely taken from Preparedness Mama‘s, “Create a Mini Compost Bin.”  I decided to not collect the drippings.  For now, they can just ooze down to fertilize my tree.  

I’ll report back next month on my progress.  For now, I leave you with an updated photo of my daffodils and tulips.  Spring is really near!

How is your garden looking?  Share with us your projects for the Spring.

 

 

When the weather girl said there was a Nor’easter coming and we possibly might get snow (again), I was tempted to cry.   But I saw something that gave me hope that Spring was near.

Last Fall, I finally got tired of arguing with myself about planting some bulbs for the Spring.  What kind do I pick?  What color?  How deep would they go in the ground?  What if nothing blooms?  This yearly argument has always ended with me say, “Maybe next time…”

Determined, I scheduled “Bulb Project” on my planner and just did it. I planted 100 tulips and 100 daffodils in my front yard.  The bulb-planting gadget that I got from Home Depot conked out around Daffodil #28.   So I ended up using a shovel and plain old elbow grease to finish the rest.

So here it is, Folks!  Signs of Spring!

Even though it’s still freezing outside, I’m hopeful.

Tell us, what signs do you see that Spring is near?

Spring starts tomorrow, but my car was covered in frost this morning.  It’s been a nasty winter.

I’d like to start a compost bin.  I’ve found so many “easy” ideas on Pinterest.  I wonder if it’s something I can actually do.

Will there be bugs…ewwww..or worse – rats?  Can I find a spot that in the yard where the sprinklers don’t hit?  Will Bojangles be able to leave it alone?

This is the summer that I’m going to try.  I’m not going to let fear or negative thoughts stop me.

Now if only I can learn how to use a drill…

Does anyone have a working compost bin?  How easy is this really?

**Here is the site for the easy composting project:  http://preparednessmama.com/create-a-mini-compost-bin/

Let me know how it goes!