Update on Marigold Tomatoes

 Well I thought it was time to give everyone a quick update on my Marigold Tomatoes.  You remember the tomatoes I thought were Marigolds and planted as a border in my raised beds.  Well, I had to thin them to just four plants instead of ten.  I probably should have thin them to three but they look to be doing well.  I staked twine down into the soil then spiraled the twine up the tomato plant attaching it to the top of the Squash Arch to act as support.  Then as it grows I just twirl it around the twine.  Because they are on the inside of the Squash Arch they really don't get much wind which is good because this isn't what I'd call a real sturdy support system for the tomatoes.  However, it is working pretty good!



I was pleasantly surprised that the Marigolds Tomatoes are Roma's of some sort.  One can only have so many cherry tomato plants.  I've been pretty impressed with how well these Marigold Tomatoes are turning out.  

Marigold? Nope more Tomatoes!

Gardening is always a learning experience.  Gardeners are adventurous and always looking for something better while hedging their bets on the stuff they know will work.  Well this winter I decided to try Winter Sowing with a lot of encouragement from Meredith Sow Digging it.  However, if my tomatoes don't produce and everything else was a bumper crop, I consider the year a failure.  So I hedged my bets and started some inside as well.  Just to be clear I planted 15 different varieties, and I used ALL my seeds.  

Well, once Jim had my raised beds done he started gripping about the number of milk jugs.  He's most common a comment was "Are you growing a garden or milk jugs?"  So I started thinning jugs.  As most gardeners know thinning is when you go through and pull the little stuff to give room for the healthier plants.  Several of the tomato jugs did not sprout.  So I dumped them in the beds.  I'm not going to waste that good dirt either.  :) 

Fast forward to about a week ago, everything is planted, and the sun came out....Well, it did twice for a couple of minutes.  I'm out putzing in the garden and notice a clump of Marigolds.  Now, I have a gallon bag of Marigold seeds and thought, "Oh, the bag must have spilled."  Now Marigolds are golden flowers that keep bugs away and grow like weeds.  So, I just plucked them out the middle of the garden.  Then I used my handy dandy planting tool, my index finger and made a hole for the seedlings along a border and to fill in a blank spot.  In my opinion the black dirt is a background color for different shades of green that are in your garden.

Now, fast forward a week later and the sun isn't actually shining but it the best we had the last couple of days so I'm out in the garden putzing again.  I was fussing around the Marigolds and am thinking... "Wow, they really took off.  They must have been a tall variety."  I pull up the leaves and look down at the stem and immediately realize....Those are not Marigolds they are more Tomatoes!" Now I still have 48 potted tomatoes on a table that I've been kind of trying to selling.  Ok, that's what I'm telling Jim at least.  Let's be honest, I'm giving those babies away.  I was so proud of myself that I had gotten down to just 48 left.  Well, I couldn't just pull those Marigold Tomatoes and put them in the compost heap.  Nope, I potted them up too.  Not all of them.  But I'm back up to about 60 Tomatoes.  I have Surprise Tomatoes (I haven't a clue as to what type they are) and now Marigold Tomatoes.  If you need tomatoes come see me!  In the meantime after I laugh at myself about the Tomatoes I thought were Marigolds, I'm thinking I shouldn't start so many next year.  And I need to label better!  

Winter Sowing Jugs 4/11/2013

So where is Serial Tiller Pat?  

So, did I fall off the end of the earth/garden?  No, I’ve actually have been a busy ole lady in the garden.  Well not the real garden, but getting my winter gardening issues ready to be put to bed for the summer.  Huh?  One of the things I do to get me through the long Minnesota Winters is belong to a Garden Club.  I actually belong to the Champlin Garden Club (which is my cities garden club); however there are more garden clubs to belong to then there are weeds in a first year garden plot.  There are community Garden Clubs, there are Garden Clubs for Ponds, Garden Clubs for Rose growers, there are County Garden Clubs and there are State Garden Clubs.  If you are interested in something specific they got it!

What do we do at the Champlin Garden Club?  Well, we met from August through April once a month.  At the monthly meeting we have guest speakers who talk about a variety of topics.  We have had speakers on “Planning, Planting & Tending a Rain Garden”, “YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT EATS?”, “Orange Punch” and my favorite  “Top Ten Gardening Mistakes”, by speaker Don Englebretson.  All of them were informative; some had more useable information for me than others.  But learning is never a waste of time, and I learned a lot from all the speakers. 

We also do Community Work.  I enjoy the community work but with my job I’m not always sure I can get certain dates off, so volunteering gets to be a bit of a challenge for me at times.  Never one not to carry my share of the load, I tend to volunteer for the organizing part of things and hope I can get time off to do the fun stuff.  Our Club has about 30-40 members and have several projects this year.  They have their 23^rd Annual Plant sale to raise funds for community projects, we are in charge of decorating the Cities Christmas Trees, we take care of Doris Kemp Park and this year we are doing our inaugural Champlin Garden Tour during Father Hennepin days. 

I’m a part of the Champlin Garden Tour Committee and I’ve seen the picture of the gardens on the tour, and all I can say is WOW!  These are truly inspirational gardens that make you want to step up your game and do more!  Now, I’m a vegetable gardener at heart amongst flower gardeners for the most part, and a weed is a weed is a weed.  But I think I could benefit from incorporating both ideologies into my backyard.  With the snowfall still on its way, I am continuing to look out my windows and plan, draw and envision my backyard piece of paradise and the front yard will be next year.  I would encourage everyone to look into joining a garden club; it has been a great educational experience as well as an inspirational experience.  Most Garden Clubs do not meet in the summer (because we all in the garden) but as you spend time in your garden this year.   There is so much more we can all learn and so much more we can teach each other!