Week 12 Garden Update
Published by Scott M. Head on Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 3:04 PMIts getting to be a snarled mess in the garden, and I'm enjoying a few ripe tomatoes each morning as a snack. The fruits of the larger varieties are starting to go from bright green to a yellowish green indicating that they will be table ready very soon. Birds are already interested, making me think bird deterrent efforts may be underway soon. I'm done with the mustard greens, good as they were, its getting too hot and the bugs are enjoying them more than I am, so they will give way for more summer cowpeas. There's a yellow-green treefrog living among them so he'll need to relocate. The beets are putting on some root weight now and I ate the first one this week raw, just to say I did. It was actually pretty good, and being a guy who has always hated beets, that's saying something!
Watering the containers has been a key to success. Because they are containerized, we've had to stay on top of it or the tomatoes begin to look wilty. I'm due to fertilize them this week too, I'll report on that later. Because the containers are rather small, keeping the plants well nourished is critical to getting the most out of the plants. Here are some photos from week 12.
 Cowpeas getting close to blossoms, and some carrots starting to build up root. |  Huge jalapenos ready for eating, and some nice tomatoes. Pico, anyone? |
 Overall view for week 12 |  Clusters! |
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That is how I like my garden to look too, all overgrown and filled to the brim with plants! Keep up the fantastic work. When did you plant your carrots out of curiosity? How late do you think they can be planted and still produce in the Houston area?
I planted the carrots 12 weeks ago from seed. I pulled one up today and they are about a half inch thick and 5 inches long, still a little young and strong tasting even for baby carrots. Its probably getting too hot for them now but the fall would be good. I plan to try some more then. But you can never tell, some people say that sometimes they do well regardless of heat. If you have some space, why not try them?
This will be my first success with carrots if they make it to maturity.
Thanks for the comment!
Hey Scott, your garden is looking great! I should upload some photos of our progress also.
I found this link last night that might help with your watering.
http://earthtainer.tomatofest.com/
There's a link at the bottom with a full PDF construction guide.
Serengeti,
Man you ought to see the latest pics, I'll be posting them this week. Had tomato soup tonight. Awesome!
Thanks for the link. Now my biggest worry is getting quality plants to start with next year, hoping you guys keep on growing them because I'm definitiely coming for more next spring!
I especially like the sunsugars, beefy boys, the Romas are incredible (forgot which variety) and had a Purple Cherokee today that was outstanding!
Oh yeah, that's the second time this week I've seen a post about the earthtainer system. My problem will be cost, I like having 30+ plants, so it may be more cost effective just to keep on schedule watering them.
Next year we hope to at least triple the size of the garden too, we start making room later this summer.
I think the romas you got were super marzano. And my dad has tomato plants every season.