Just can't wait

[SPLASH]

I have 28'x25' of the garden ready for planting. I will be adding on to make it 40'x25' in the next week or so. A little over a week ago I had 4 bean plants that were about 15" tall/long (never should've started them so early) and eventhough I doubted they would survive outside, I planted them (not in the garden, but in an old overgrown landscaped area) and they are doing great! I never would've thought they would survive the lows we've had, but they not only survived, they are growing.
With that said, I have my first round of tomato plants that I didn't potup deep enough so they are kind of leggy. I'm not selling them due to the leggy look, but have read up on deep or trench planting tomatoes. It sounds like they will thrive will these methods and have extremely strong root bases. So since the first experiment was a success and I have tons more tomato plants (smaller) I'm going to plant 6-8 of them tomorrow in the garden.
I know it souds kind of crazy for my area this early, but if they die it's no loss to me. I've been watching the posts on the gardening forum I'm on from the southeast of the country and they had a cold snap that brought them down to 35-38 degree lows and the folks say their tomatoes have made it just fine. Looking at our local extended forecast I think with any luck, I'll be the first around here to have tomatoes in the ground and not lose them. I'm not trying any cukes, melons or peppers yet though.
Here's the forecast-
Regional Forecast for Genesee
Rest of Today
Increasing clouds. A chance of light showers after 2 PM. Highs 62 to 66. Light and variable winds. Chance of rain 30 percent.

Tonight
Mostly cloudy early...then becoming partly cloudy. Lows 41 to 45. East winds 5 to 10 mph.

Sunday
Partly sunny. Highs 65 to 69. East winds 5 to 10 mph.

Sunday Night
Partly cloudy. Lows 43 to 47. East winds 5 to 10 mph...turning to southeast late.

Monday
Partly sunny. Highs 67 to 71. Southeast winds 5 to 15 mph...increasing to 10 to 20 mph.

Monday Night
Mostly cloudy. A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows 50 to 54. Chance of rain 20 percent.

Tuesday
Mostly cloudy. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs 72 to 76. Chance of rain 40 percent.

Tuesday Night
Partly cloudy. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows 54 to 58. Chance of rain 30 percent.

Wednesday
Partly sunny. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs 79 to 83. Chance of rain 30 percent.

Wednesday Night
Partly cloudy. Lows 53 to 57.

Thursday
Mostly cloudy. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs 75 to 79. Chance of rain 30 percent.

Thursday Night
Mostly cloudy. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Lows 53 to 57. Chance of rain 40 percent.

Friday
Mostly cloudy. A chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs 64 to 68. Chance of rain 40 percent.

Anyone have any comments? Am I crazy or do you think it will be a success and I'll be eating fresh tomatoes before anyone else around here?

[OJ (Original Junkie).]

Good luck. I've had my topsy turveeys hanging with tomatoe plants in them for a few days now. Thought maybe the frost wouldn't be as apt to get them hanging. If it don't work out, remember your good friend when them early tomatoes start ripening over there.

[cp]

No pictures no proof...

[SPLASH]

CP, it's "No pics, didn't happen" and I have a few, but will take more tomorrow and post. OJ, Topsy turveey? seriously? ;D
I kind of made a mistake. I only planned on selling a few tomato plants to coworkers, but now I have others buying and reserving. I only planted 4 Better Boys in my garden and if they don't make it, I'm not gonna be far ahead of anyone, I may be behind. I still have a lot of younger plants, but those are the ones being reserved. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks I can get rid of cherry tomato plants since I have 2 dozen ready by then, but I'm keeping some of the plants that are close to selling size for myself now.

I first planned on building an A frame trellis for cukes using lattice I aquirred for free and buying the wood, but I changed my mind and wanted to go completely free. I achieved my goal by using the pvc piping from last years' melon trellis. Cukes will be much lighter than melons so I'm not worried about the pvc bending like last year. I'm using the rebar to secure/hold it up again since it worked last year just fine, but instead of it being long horizontal like last year, it's tall verticle and not very wide. Using the pieces cut from last year, it ended up being 10' tall so I will be be trimming to 7' to match the lattice and make it able to harvest without a ladder lol.. I built it to be a square with the 2 pieces of lattice on the outsides. I may still chickenwire it so I can grow lettuce and spinach inside of the trellis.
Next project/ ideas going in my head is what I will use for my pole beans to climb. Btw, the bean plants I discarded in the old landscape planter looked great today! Historically we should have one more frost to kill them though.
As for the pole bean project, I kind of want to go with the theme of FREE materials this year like the cuke trellis. I have some old metal posts in the old ladscape planters that look like what a stop sign would be hung on. That is the backup plan though. I will be paying attention to trash infront of houses and if all goes well, I will have a different style trellis made for free. Second backup that I will be doing no matter what is to grow more pole beans in the old landscape planters. they can climb the brush, bushes, and trees in there. My goal is to harvest more tomatoes than anything, but I bet I'll have more pickling cukes and beans.
Nice weather has me thinking, planning, and working on this years' garden.

[SPLASH]

One more update. Friends, family, and coworkers keep asking if I'm going to try to grow corn. I've said that it takes up too much space for the amount of harvest, I've worried that if the farm field accross the creek ( 40-50 feet away) which is winter wheat now, will be planted field corn this summer and I can get cross pollination and ruin my corn, but I decided that with the extending of the garden I can do it. I will be trying 4 25' rows on the west side of the garden. recommended planting spacing is 6-10 inches apart in rows with 2-3' between rows. If I was to plant a foot apart I will have 100 corn plants with 2 ears average per plant which is 200 ears of corn. Now in reality my goal as a first time corn grower is to get fullsize ears (8-9") and will be happy with 20 ears. Last year when I first got into gardening I decided to go big by growing melons instead of peppers and maters like most first timers and I succeeded, so with the corn I stuck with the "go big or go home" and chose Silver Queen sweet corn. It's a late harvest 6-7' tall plant white corn variety.
there are many earlier shorter plant varieties out there, but I chose to take on the challenge. If I get crazy and extend the garden a little more than 1,000 sq foot like I plan, I may try an earlier variety.

[gbrebory]

corn is tough.... i grew an edible red corn one time and my ears only got about 2-3 inches before the frost came

[SPLASH]

Well, the garden is no more.........
Had to move out of that house and am back in an apartment so container gardening it will be for me. selling off almost all of my plants and will just have a few on the balcony. Maybe next year.

[gbrebory]

what happened?

[SPLASH]

Just didn't workout.

[andymaviglia]

You already rototilled didn't ya? That sucks man...ill let ya come get some veggies.

[OJ (Original Junkie).]

May 13, 2011 16:53:50 GMT -5 andymaviglia said:

You already rototilled didn't ya? That sucks man...ill let ya come get some veggies.

Or you can get all you want at Kroger. ;D I'll hook ya up when you need something man. Or you can just come plant and take care of my garden so I don't have to.

[SPLASH]

Whatever survives (seeing that the plants were put outside for good) I told my Mother she could have. She told me to rototill her garden and I can plant it. I'll have some buckets to do some container gardening on the balcony, but it's not quite the same.