2008 Garden, Third Week of May
In response to my killed tomatoes, I went and purchased more. Originally I had started from seed:
- Roma
- Better Boy
- Sweet 100
I planted a Sweet 100 and Better Boy in 1 square foot each, next to a trellis to vine it. I planted 2 Roma and 2 Better boy in 32 square feet total. I staggered them so they would each have roughly 9 square feet.
Now I was concerned about getting any tomatoes at all, so this is my new planting:
- Roma
- Celebrity
- Super Fantastic
- Better Boy
- Champion
- Sweet 100
Fortunately, I had not planted all my starts. So I added another Sweet 100 in the same square with the one that was suffering. It will grow up the trellis. I replaced a dead Better Boy (only later did I learn that during my seed starting, I had mislabeled and really I was replacing it with a Roma).
In my 4×8 box, I planted 1 Roma, 2 Super Fantastic, 1 Champion, 1 Better Boy, and 1 Celebrity. So instead of 4 plants, I now have 6 tomato plants–each with about 4-6 square feet.
Since I was at the nursery and my peppers were suffering, I bought more of those too:
- Gypsy bell
- Jalapeno
- Thai
- Anaheim
I pulled out my weakest peppers and replanted the new ones. I even added 2 or 3 extras (I bought some 4 packs) to my tomato garden.
I also rigged up some temporary irrigation. I had a valve dedicated to this side of my garden, but only a stub. I went to Home Depot and bought the parts to convert the stub to a hose spigot, and hooked up my hose and a sprinkler. That way when my sprinkler system went on, the garden would be watered. We’re going on vacation for 10 days.
