Teresa & Mike CHS - Our journal

[Bruce]

I found another site that carries a tomato by the same name and I'm hoping it is actually the same tomato. The seed comes from Kazakhstan which Baker Creeks seed did also.

Can you not save seeds for next year rather than having to hunt them down and pay for them? You might find some people here interested in getting some from you

I wonder how early "VERY EARLY" is since there is no "days to maturity" number given.

 

[Mike CHS]

We will save some this year and hopefully they are the same type. Last year we only had a couple of seeds and just wound up with one plant which we cloned in mid July. Our main tomato was Rutgers which had fruit a little over two weeks after the Brave General. I didn't see any major difference in time to grow but that was a busy time for us so there wasn't a whole lot of record keeping.

Our problem was that we misunderstood what you needed to do for seed saving. We thought you would have cross pollination if more than one type was grown together - we now know that it probably doesn't matter with open pollinated types.

That site had a couple of varieties that is supposedly really early and considering the weather in that part of the world they would have to be.

 

[Mike CHS]

We reclaimed some more of the hill that is in front of our house by hauling out about 3 front end loader buckets full of stone and leveled the area with landscape timbers. It give us an 8' x 8' kitchen garden bed. If the wind will back off a bit we are going to try and get a cattle panel hoop house up for some shade/shelter for the sheep.

I made a big batch of Spicey Lamb Meatballs yesterday so we could put it on and have a big lunch then work outside when it's cooler.

 

[Bruce]

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Looks great!

 

[CntryBoy777]

I know the rocks can really be a headache, but your land sure is nice looking and very scenic. Ya can never have too much garden space, because there is always something to grow or experiment with....

 

[Mike CHS]

I like garden boxes even though I know that the tree roots will take over the beds in a few years. I figure if nothing else we can grow some herbs in what soil the trees leave for us.

That rocky row behind the raspberry and blackberry vines last year gave us more tomatoes than we needed to can and most of the neighbors got what they wanted.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Do ya grow any potatoes there...Irish or sweet?....or do the rocks and groundhogs cause problems?

 

[Mike CHS]

We planted potatoes in the big garden in the bottom. We are right on the edge of the hills here and they literally stop and some deep bottom land starts. We have some sweet potato starts ready to go and they will be in the bottom garden also.

I'm in the minority here as everyone prefers row crops but I like my raised beds. Less trouble maintaining them and you get more bang for your buck.

 

[CntryBoy777]

I like raised beds too, for the same reasons....plus, I put harware cloth underneath to keep moles and voles from eating plants from the bottom. I use decking screws to attach the sides with 2x4 corners, then take them apart and move them if wanting to work another area and let the old one rest.