Dreaming of Tomatoes

I'm finding myself dreaming of tomatoes. I don't think I have had a good tomato for over 13 years. Growing tomatoes here will be a bit of a challenge and I know I might not get any but it won't stop me from trying.

There is nothing like a fresh tomato. Sometimes I wish I had never had one as it spoils you forever. I buy them at the store but unless they are smothered in dressing or in a sauce they are horrible rubbery things. Even the so called "field tomatoes" that you can buy in the summer still taste like rubber. Nothing compares to a warm tomato fresh from the garden sliced and put in a sandwich with a little dressing, salt and pepper. Heaven! It would be sacrilege to put these tomatoes in a sauce. Fresh salads or just eaten with a little salt are all they need.

Last year I grew a few patio tomatoes on a long hanging basket in full sun the back yard.



It worked pretty good but I found that when the fruit was setting it needed more water than I could give it. I watered it at night but by the time I got home from work it had wilted and I would have to give it a drink twice a day. It really needed water in the afternoon. As a result the tomatoes weren't bad, actually they were quite nice but the skin was a bit tough. In my opinion the flavour just wasn't as good as when they are grown in the ground but the next best thing.

The best place I have ever grown tomatoes was under our bedroom window at our house in Calgary. They got the afternoon sun and were protected right under the bay window overhang when the hail came and ruined my entire vegetable garden. The tomatoes were beautiful. My poor vegetable garden which was doing so well looked like a blender had gone through it. The tomatoes helped.

Apparently there is always blight at the community garden and it tends to spread. A lot of people have small greenhouses at the garden specifically for the tomatoes. I did buy a small little plastic pop up greenhouse but it won't be big enough once they get big so I will have to rig up some kind of contraption to protect them later. There doesn't seem to be much you can do once blight hits the garden so I will just hope that it doesn't happen. The rules seem to be to warm the soil a couple of weeks before, plant deep, keep leaves off the soil, mulch, water from underneath and try to protect them from the heavy rains.

A lot of trouble I know, but oh I'm dreaming of tomatoes.

Raised beds

Early Sunday, John called from the garden and since the weather was good (for a change) he had decided to get going on the frames. He was lost as he had only been there the once and with over 250 plots it is easy to lose your way. I gave him directions over the phone and said I would head over in a couple of hours.

My hubby and I headed to the garden a while later to hopefully see him but just missed him and his helper. My little garden was full of almost all of the boxes neatly assembled. There is still some work to do but it is a wonderful start.

The fence I was a bit surprised at. Different than I had envisioned and larger. I knew when I saw it that it was too big and I would definitely get in trouble unless it was shortened to the size of the others. When I spoke to John he said no worries, he would fix it and bring it down in size. What a nice man, he understood and didn't complain at all. I think it will look great when it is all done and as long as it doesn't shade the neighbours it should be fine. The only shade should be on my own plot and I don't mind a bit of shade. The lattice will be wonderful to grow sweet peas on. It is pretty fancy but time will weather it and make it part of the garden.

The fence and gate can wait and as long as the boxes are done I can get them all prepared next weekend as long as the weather holds.

The Waiting Game

Typical Vancouver weather means rain rain and more rain.

My raised bed frames have to wait a bit more to be installed. The weather just hasn't cooperated so all I can do is wait. I'm trying to be patient and just do more planning. I found out that no cedar can be used in the garden so I'm hoping that John didn't use cedar in the gate he built. It is too late now so I will keep my fingers crossed. Faith sometimes is a hard thing.

It was a bit misty today so we just dropped off our my veggie peelings from home for the compost and headed out. It is a pretty cool place. I took a few pictures of a few interesting things in the garden. It was pretty quiet. In a month I'm sure it will be very busy.

A few interesting things.....

Fingers Crossed

Since last weekend it has rained every day. Not your little sprinkles kind of rain but cold miserable downpours.

It was such a beautiful weekend last weekend and I was hoping that the weather would hold long enough to get the frames for my raised beds installed. My fingers are crossed that tomorrow (Friday) will be the day. The weekend promises to be nice although in Vancouver it can change in a heartbeat.

I'm itching to get the boxes topped up with compost and manure and get a few early things planted.

I'm also looking forward to seeing what John has come up with for a gate for the front of my little plot.

I keep making lists of things to take with me and tomorrow I must remember to stop at Starbucks to pick up some coffee grounds that they sometimes have for gardeners. I hear that you should sprinkle it around your carrots to discourage root maggot. The rest will go in the compost. Hopefully I can find some leaves for the compost as well. It looks to be a busy weekend!

Work Party

When you think of the words work party you think of dinner drinks and depending on where you work a possible good time.

All members of the garden are expected to put some time in the public part of the garden helping maintain it to keep things running smoothly. It is a pretty well run little garden. For a small fee you can even purchase composted manure from a big pile that is replenished as needed.

I am getting frames built for my raised beds and was to meet up with my girlfriend's father who is a handyman and does small jobs. The work party started at 1:00 so I thought I would get in a couple of hours before I met up with John to measure the beds.

There was a long list of things that needed doing and you pick the things that you think you could do. People take turns to bring treats and there is water available as well for the workers. One of my tasks in July is to bring treats for an evening work party. I decided that I should be able to do some weeding, easy right? Well, it was quite the weeding. It was an area on the outskirts of the garden that had been used to plant buckwheat. What a mess. I had to dig to get the weeds out and it was in a pretty sorry state. Not an easy job and I am very stiff and sore today. The others didn't have it much easier. The huge compost pile that people were wrestling with looked a challenge as well.

It is such a lovely little spot, while I was weeding I could hear the birds singing and see the swallows swooping to the houses. I'm going to have to get a little house for them I think...



I was glad to take a break and talk with John about what he was going to build. He had an idea that shouldn't cost too much to build a gate and fence for the front. I'm not sure what he has in mind but he is sure that I will like it.

I'm hoping it will be ready by the weekend but if it rains as forecast it might not happen. I'm anxious to fill up those beds and start planting the early things like potatoes, peas and a few lettuce and radishes. Oh and sweet peas. Can't forget the sweet peas.

My map is drawn and figuring out what goes with what, what doesn't like what is a bit of a challenge to figure out. You can't lime the area where the potatoes go or put manure where you plant carrots. Tomatoes hate potatoes but everyone seems to like peas the Miss Congeniality of the garden. I am probably sinning by planting potatoes where tomatoes grew last year but in a small garden I hope I will be forgiven. Maybe if I throw in lots of manure and compost it will work out...

My dream garden...

Fences

I spent a couple of hours at my new plot last weekend, turning the one bed that was planted with rye and putting lime on the other plots. I also planted two of the dahlia tubers that my sister had given me.

There is a fence on two of the sides and I'm sort of thinking that it would be nice to have a little enclosed garden. I have been trying to figure out how I can do the front in a creative way and found this cool gate on the internet and that is what I am thinking of for the front. How cool is this.



I'm heading to the garden tomorrow and hopefully going to do a couple of hours of community garden work (weather permitting) Afterwards I am meeting with my girlfriends dad who is going to build my raised beds for me. I have to get them in place before I can do much else. I am taking a few flower seeds with me and hope to get them in. Can hardly wait!!

Score!

Who would know that a little community garden plot could make me so happy. It was an exciting time last Saturday. I was number eight on the list to pick a garden plot.

We were all e-mailed detailed maps of the gardens and I took full advantage by walking and looking at each one and picking my preferences, all eight of them.

My number one pick was a lovely one all dug up and neat, complete with a little fence and gate. I knew that it was the number one pick.

I had my number two choice which was what looked like raised beds without the frames. Not sure what happened there but it was clean and there was a fence on two of the sides. I would need to build frames earlier than I was planning but it was pretty sweet. There were more terrible plots than nice ones and my next three choices were all side by side and no fences. It was rather stressful waiting until everyone had picked. My first choice was picked right away and despite my disappointment I realized that I must have known what I was doing to have picked the number one plot. I was pretty excited to find that I got my second choice, the raised bed plot without the frames.

Here it is in all it's glory. I feel blessed to have it and it has given me much to dream about.

 My Garden!

 So very glad I didn't get this one!

It's been a rough year

Do you ever get so depressed that you can't seem to get motivated? It has been that kind of year for me.

With some family issues and my husband losing his job at 58, I just could not for the life of me think of one single thing to look forward to.

It was like a lifeline to me that my number was finally called out to receive a garden plot. I have been dreaming about it ever since.

We all need something to look forward to and this is it for me. I made a trip to the garden center and picked out some veggies that I would like to plant. A little early for some I know but when you see that life line you have to grab it.

I drove out to look at some of the plots and was pretty horrified at the state of some of them. I am hoping next week when we get to pick I get one that I will be able to manage. Now I'm wondering if perhaps I should have waited on buying all those seeds...

but I couldn't resist.