The Green Pinky: How to Stake/String Tomatoes

Well my friends, its about that time when your tomatoes should be at medium growth and now need a little bit of support to properly grow. Today I’m going to show you an easy way to prop up your tomatoes with out using tomato cages… this method is called Stringing/Staking tomatoes.

Why not just cage them?

Cages can start to become expensive when you plan to have a large garden. They also take up more space when you go to store them during the colder months.

What you need:

• Post or garden stakes
• Twine

Steps:

1. Begin by placing the garden stakes every third or forth tomato plant.
2. Determine the height of where to tie your string on by assessing your plants height. Find the spot on the post that is about 2/3rds the height of the plant.
3. Tie or knot on the string on the post at the height determined in step 2.
4. Run the string down to the next post and at the same height wrap the string around the post. Pull tight for tension so that the string does not sag
5. Continue running string to each post wrapping the string at each point. Once you get to the last stake/post pull tight and continue running the string back to each post. Again wrapping onto the post each time.
6. IMPORTANT: When running the string back towards the first post make sure to wrap the string around the post in the opposite direction as the first time you tied on. This allows your strings to cross over each other which will be vital in holding your tomatoes up.

  

7. Once you have run your string on both sides you will want to knot off at the beginning post and cut the string.

8. Now it’s time to prop your tomatoes up using the string.

9. As you see above the strings have formed an X. Before you pull the tomatoes up through the two strings I like to continue to twist the strings with will add more tension.

10. Be careful not to snap the tomatoes stem

11. As you move down the string to each tomato twist the strings to add the tension.

Your tomato plants should nestle in between the strings allowing stability.

As your tomatoes continue to grow you are going to want to add additional string working your way up the post.

I just went outside on Monday and added an addition tier which puts me at 3 strings in height. The Tomatoes are looking nice and healthy and have started to flower!

I Can’t wait to be able to use them for all these yummy summer recipes I see posted everywhere!

My next post in the “Green Pinky” series will be on Weed Control

Google Reader is going Bye-Bye: Here is an Alternative Reader <3

Well folks, July 1st is just around the corner which means the DEATH of Google Reader. I’ve become to rely on Google Reader as my daily feed of blogs that I follow and have been on a mission to find a reader that is the closest resemblance. My mission has been completed!

{ The Old Reader }

Right away you can see the similarities between The Old Reader & Google Reader

{The Old Reader}

{Google Reader}

The thing that made me jump ship now from Google Reader was the fact that I could import all of the Blogs I follow in a few easy steps. This meant I didn’t have to save each Blog one by one and add them like many readers.

Below I will show you the steps to convert your Blogs from Google Reader to The Old Blog.

1. Log in Google Reader and go to the Settings button in the right corner beneath your Google photo.

2. Click on Reader Settings

3. Below you will see “Export your information” Click the link.

4. Click Create Archive (Arrow showing button)

5. Your Blogs from your Reader will load

6. Click Download

7. Select file you wish Download to save to

You are now done with Google Reader

Open The Old Blog and create a user name password. You can also just click login by Facebook and it will link.

In the upper right corner next to your name you will see Import

8. Click Import

9. Click Browse

10. Find your folder where you saved your Goggle Reader files

11. Open it and click “Subscriptions”

You’re Done! It will take a few minutes but all of your Blogs should Import into The Old Blog!

{24 Day’s until Google Reader Expires }

Back up your Blogs Now

The Green Pinky: How to Plot Your Garden

If you have followed through my blogging history you know that I love to garden! I have received many Questions about how we plan out our garden, what we plant, when to harvest, etc. so I decided to created a mini series called “The Green Pinky”.

I would not consider myself a “Green Thumb” at this point in life. That is definitely a term I hold to high standards and well… if you ever saw my Mom’s gardens back in Delaware you would say, “Good God, she has such a green thumb”. That Woman knows her stuff and it shows.

I am merely still learning, but have endless information I can share from running my own green house as an Agriculture teacher, working as a garden intern at a DuPont estate, and being a manager at my Colleges Horticulture Department for 2 summers, and lets not forget the good ol’ Trial by Error approach.

This first post is merely on how to plot a garden. How to decide what will go where, how large to make it, and some helpful hints that I’ve learned over the years.

What do I plant!

First things first: You need to decide what it is you want to plant and how much space you are willing to use for the garden. Most homeowners just want a small plot to grow a couple tomatoes, some peppers, maybe some squash, and well peas cause their fun!

Based on those facts last year I made a 12 foot x 12 foot garden.

I wanted to grow:

• Beef Steak Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Green Peppers
• Jalapeño Peppers
• Broccoli
• Cabbage
• Rhubarb was already there.

The key to figuring out your garden size is to look at the seed information on the back of the packets. They will tell you how far apart each seedling needs to be. Now I don’t stand out there measuring with a ruler to be exact but the information is helpful.

Note: If this is your first garden start small. You may end up with more Tomatoes then you know what to do with! I would advise: Two of anything you wish to grow is plenty enough for your first garden. If one dies you still have the other as back up.

What size do I make my garden plot?

My garden had mostly compact plants that grow upward. You NEED to consider how the plant grows. If you are wanting pumpkins or melons you need a bigger area to let them sprawl out. I did not plant any last year so my 12’ x 12’ garden worked great.

This year {G} and I went LARGE. The garden below is our 2013 garden that is probably 6x’s the size of my mini garden from last year. Why?

We decided on:

• Slicing Tomatoes
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Peppers
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Pickling Cucumbers
• Two varieties of squash
• Sweet Corn
• 3 Varieties of Water Melons
• Jack-o-Lantern Pumpkins

We needed the extra space for the sprawling veggies and of course Sweet Corn. But now how do we decide where everything goes? Well, usually people will draft up a scale drawing of where they want to plant each item. I didn’t draw anything up because I knew how much space things took in previous years and could picture it in my mind how I wanted things to look.

For your sake I did a quick draft of our Garden Plot:

Placement and Direction:

Vegetable gardens need to be in direct sunlight so choose wisely. You also may want to consider your nearest source of water for your plants. Pulling out hoses and carrying gallon containers makes a hassle when watering daily.

Our Garden Plot was pre-determined when we bought our house. We could tell (even though there was no garden at the time) that there had been one previously because the soil was not as compact and the grass was more weedy then full. There is a watering spicket at the top of the hill so watering is a little more strenuous. My future goal is to have rain barrels near our garden to ease the job a bit more.

The direction you plant items in your garden is going to also impact the plant growth. In my draft above you can see that we planted our sweet corn in the North West corner of our garden with rows going from East to West.

This is done purposely because as the sun rises during the day we did not want our corn to shade out the rest of the garden. If we would’ve planted them from North to South in short rows this would’ve made shade covering plants to the (right) or east.

Row Width/Pathways

Now you have an idea of what you want to plant, how large of an area you have to plant it, where to plot the garden, and have designed a rough idea of how you want to lay out your garden plot… what’s left?

One thing I have learned by trial and error is the width of how far apart to make your rows. On the seed packets it will tell you seed spacing but no one ever says anything about walking between your plants.

Here is my tip for you: Take a rake with you when you go to plant your seedlings. When your ready to start the next row use the rake as a width marker.

Why: One word…. WEEDS. I like to rake out or hoe the soil between rows every couple of weeks to keep the weeds down. In last years garden I even laid planks in the rows to suffocate weeds. The amount of space the rake width gives is also adequate for me to move through the rows with a water bucket or a basket during harvesting time without damaging crops.

Tomato row spacing: After last years garden I doubled the width between my tomato rows. Those puppies get huge and last year I felt like I wasn’t able to maneuver too well in order to harvest my crop.  I had the space to do so.

Um… what are those weird circles around your plants?

This is a trick my husband showed me a few years ago. As we plant our seedling we create a little bowl around each plant. When we water we use bucket to pour water around the plants. This also keeps weeds down and helps on water usage because we aren’t watering every square inch of the garden, only the area around the root systems. When you pour the water in the bowls around the seedlings it fills to the brim and you know when to stop. They are like little motes until the water seeps into the ground.

Hopefully for those of you deciding to start your own garden this helped a little. If you have any questions I am more than willing to try answer what I can.

 

My next post in the “The Green Pinky” series will be about

How to Stake Tomatoes

instead of buying tomatoes cages.

Delaware Raised: My Trip Home

After almost a year, I was finally able to make it back east to Delaware to visit family and friends. We try and make the trip twice during the year but the Christmas Break Blizzards this year threw us off by 6 months! I wanted to make it back sooner but with my parent’s going to Florida all of March and my crazy work schedule in April it just didn’t work out. I decided by Memorial Day weekend I would have enough vacation to make the $450.00 plane ticket well worth the trip. If your going to fly 1,300 miles you better believe I’m going to stay as long as I can.

I decided to fly Delta into Baltimore instead of Philly because of the cost difference. Philly is only a 30-40 min drive and Baltimore is and a little under and hour and 1/2 so the cost matters, not the distance.

On Friday I flew back and would say the best part of flying into Maryland is on the way home Mom and the twins took me to Dinner at a small ma & pa place known for their Crab Cakes.

{ Yum! Broiled Lump Crab Cakes! }

After the amazing food we swung into surprise dad at the bar where he DJ’s, I couldn’t wait until morning to day hi and give him a hug! Later that night all us girls did like old times and hunkered down on the couches to watch a chick-flick. How I miss those nights. BTW- Safe Harbor was great!

On Saturday, I drove down to MD to go to lunch with my in-laws. Then on that evening spent quality time catching up with my Bestie and her Husband at their new place. Loved seeing how they have settled in since their wedding in September.

On Sunday morning I had made plans to drive 2.5 miles North to Chalfont, NJ to visit my good friends from college. I haven’t seen the two of them since my wedding in August 2010. You know their good friends when you can just pick back up where you left off and feel like no time has passed at all. Now the only thing is I miss them even more!

{ Fun Fact }

Did you know that most states in the Mid-Atlantic have passed “Hand Free Driving Laws” which means you can only use the phone with blue tooth's. Well this Mid-West girl spent a lot of time leaving messages saying, “I know I shouldn’t be on the phone but I don’t know how to use the bluetooth and I can’t hear the phone on speaker phone so I have to hold it to my ear so I might as well just talk on it the normal way… so I’ll keep this short…”

{ I-95 South Around Philadelphia: I still love this commute and seeing the City Sights }

On Monday, I returned home and we had a nice little BBQ, then Tuesday morning we were off to Rehoboth, DE for the rest of my stay for some fun and sun.

Dad and mom have a RV that we travel in and have a time share at the beach. We had bay front views and were only 15 minutes from the beach.

View Full Album

The weather was a little over cast so we decided not to go to the beach and instead go to Rehoboth Ave for some food & shopping.

{ Dog Fish Head Brewing: Rehoboth, DE }

{Fun Fact 2}

Rehoboth Beach named in America's 10 Best Beach Towns by Parents Magazine. 2013. View Article. Click Link.

  { Penny Ave: Small shops off Rehoboth, Ave }

On Wednesday we finally made it to the beach! My feet were instantly soothed once they hit the sand. My family laughed though because this body has surely not seen any Sun in quite some time and so I went from Pale-White to White thanks to a little sun bathing.

 

{Delaware Life Guards Training for the Summer}

They trained for over 2 hours… CRAZY people…

 

{ North Board Walk }

 

{Loved seeing the colorful Umbrellas}

So, for those Nay-Sayers out there that are always joking about “Dela-Where?” remember this, Delaware is a beautiful place that has lots of family values and traditions. Growing up going to the boardwalk, riding the rides, playing boardwalk games, and eating Dolly’s candies will always remain close to my heart. I highly suggest Rehoboth, DE as a family get-away for your summer vacations.

{There are some rich people too… but most the houses have been in their families for ever and get passed onto each generation }

On Thursday, mom and I stayed at my Grammy’s for the night outside Ocean City, MD. I haven’t seen her in a year and miss her tons.

Being back in the house brings back memories. Seeing my pop-pop ships was heart warming. He made each one from scratch and put over 1,000 hours on each. I remember watching him in the middle room bending each board and building them from the bottom up.

Of Course Grammy treated mom and I to a nice seafood dinner down by the bay.

View Full Album

And lets not forget dessert…

{Rita’s Italian Water Ice}

On Friday night we returned home and had a happy hour… that turned into Happy HOURS on my parents back patio. My brother and his gf made it along with sisters and best friend + Husband. It was so much fun to just kick back and laugh. {M} and I get a little ridiculous around others but it’s all in good fun!

I can’t believe how fast the week went, it’s like I clicked my heels and was back in tornado alley. I had such a great time seeing everyone and was blessed to have people in my life that could cater to my vacation making it as laid back as can be.

Thank you all <3

{ Fun Fact 3 }

I couldn’t not include this, but as I was making my way to my terminal in the Atlanta airport I happened to ride the Escalator next to Jersey Shore star … Pauly-D. Just to make sure it wasn’t the air travel playing with my eyes I looked up his feed on Twitter and wouldn’t you know, it was him.

No… I’m not one of those people who freak when seeing celebs and ask for photos… instead I stalk and save evidence for my own sanity. And as my husband would say… “Who Cares” . Ha