sb country n news-the tomato that could

SB COUNTRY N NEWS-THE TOMATO THAT COULD

see that tomato perched high on that chickens tail feathers
theres a story on how it got there

that chicken made the cut when we started getting rid of stuff before we moved here last year
yes its one of the things we stuck in our cars as we headed west

this chicken is quite heavy
ms b cant hardly move it on the table
my former patient now deceased made this for me to give to my wife she
i told him i wanted a chicken bowl
so
he got a stump of an old mesquite from deep south texas
using his skills with a chain saw and wood chisels and his artist skills
he made this for me

it sits proudly at our condo on our dining room table
like its a hen sitting on a bunch of eggs
it looks so real
you almost expect some baby chicks to come scurrying out from under its wings

last year as i started preparing for my spring summer tomato plantings
i took several tomatoes i bought at the nursery
transplanted them into larger pots
then later
transplanted them again into larger pots
so
by march the first they were ready to plant in my garden
all eight of them

so i loaded all eight of them in the back of my car for planting time
as i unloaded them in the garden
i thought i had eight didnt i
nope looks like it was just seven
so i planted them

as i drove up to our condo garage
there sitting in front of the garage was a squished black pot with a tomato all gnarly looking
broken with half the dirt gone

my wife she said a neighbor had found it in the middle of the driveway
knowing i was a gardener figured it was mine
so she scooped and scraped it off the pavement
put it into the mashed pot
so
i watered it real good
planted it in my garden

it was a cherokee purple
it just seemed to struggle real bad
several times i almost plucked it from the garden
but
i wanted to give it a chance

it only put out a few yellow blooms
deep inside the bush one day i found this small green gnarly looking tomato
everything about this tomato plant has been grnarly

i gave it extra care
extra water
extra fertilizer
i even would talk to it when i was working in the garden
i swear it smiled once and said thank you

it said
i only have enough
enough energy to make one it said
i want to make a good one for you
since you have cared for me when i was all beat up

so
over tirme
that little green gnarly tomato
it grew slowly real slowly
it grew up into that big ole ripe gnarly looking tomato
thats perched up on that chickens tail
proud it seemed perched up there

remember
dont give up on folks or things
they can surprise you sometimes

no
i didnt eat this tomato
i little it get real ripe
real juicy ripe
and
gave it to the lady that saved that tomato that day in march

paying it forward sort of


mr h is stable and still in the unit

the organicgreen doctor

country n news-garden news

COUNTRY N NEWS-GARDEN NEWS

it feels like may around here
looking at the wildflowers and the fruit trees
and the trees and the shrubs that are ablooming
they all think its may also

i must say
that doesnt bode well for this summer
i suspect we will have an early summer
starting in the real may
hitting those hotter temps a month early
slowing down
the garden
the wildflowers
the greenery around here

as i look out around our property
i must say
its about prime for the spring
wish it would stay that way

recently
i took these tomatoes and peppers that i planted
back in the first week of february into large 5 gallon pots
put them in my small greenhouse with its southfacing
open clear wall
those tomatoes went crazy
even making little green ones and some red ones
no
those red ones didnt make it out of the greenhouse
and
i moved them outside under the lacy shade of
my huisache tree
to get use to being outside

so yesterday
i planted them
a cherry tomato
a juliet that produces small ones like crazy
two early girls that are full of green tomatoes
two celebrities that are always dependable

all of these are indeterminate
that means they can continue to produce all year
sometimes based on the hybrid celebrity type
they are indeterminate

but in my experience here at the country n
the juliette is the only one that i have been able to
summer over into the fall to produce tomatoes again
in the fall

the bed i use is about 3 ft x 12 ft
the soil depth is about 2 feet
of pure rich composty wormy soil
that i dig and plant using only my bare hands

no
i dont usually use gloves
i like the feel of the dirt on my fingers
under my nails
it brings me one with the soil

this winter i removed the blackeyed peas that were planted
on this bed
added lots of compost
added organic fertilizer and cottonseed meal and molasses
covered it up with the leaves some of you gave me
then
let it ferment for several months
until yesterday
when i planted my tomatoes

i dug the hole
added some earthworm casting to jump start the tomato plants
planted the tomato plant all of which had several small
green tomatoes on them
well one was red so i quickly ate it

then i watered it in with liquid fish emulsion sea weed molasses
to get the roots agrowing

now
hopefully i will get tomatoes earlier than usual
i already have i thought

i left them unstaked even though they were 3 ft or so long
knowing
that that freeze is coming
all i have to do is put some warm covering over them
then i will stake them up on wire cages

john dromgoole the organic garden guru always says
there is always an easter freeze around here

i agree
having lost tomatoes in april several times

also
here are my green 1015 sweet dont make you cry onions
all 200+ of them
yes
it looks like an early harvest of them
ill know its time when the stalks start falling over

also
here are the potatoes
agrowing like crazy
we definitely will have new potatoes by mothers day
heck
if the weather holds up as warm as it is
we should have all of them harvested by then

if you live around here
you have plenty of time
to prep your garden
and
plant those tomatoes and peppers
just
be ready for that easter freeze

the organicgreen doctor

country n news-late winter plantings

COUNTRY N NEWS-LATE WINTER PLANTINGS

we just finished this week eating our onions from last year
we planted them in mid january 2016
we harvested them in late april 2016
we hung them like onion chimes in our garage
we ate them gradually over the months since

well
if you havent done it yet its time to plant them again
i planted ours about 2 weeks ago
sometimes i wait unitl the end of january
but since its been so warm mostly this winter
i planted them early this year

heck we just had our first peach bloom this week
not good
the blooms will probably freeze
one year i wrapped it good with row cover
put in a warming lamp
it kept them from freezing
even when we got down in the 20s
but
this year ive decided to put my efforts elsewhere

so for my onions
i prep my raised beds
making sure i dont plant where i dd the last 2 years
so
i rotate all my crops

i rake off all the mulch and debris on the bed
i add 3-4 inches of my country n compost
that our chickens make from the leaves some of
you give me
then
i use a garden fork
drive it into the bed
work in back and forth
this allows the compost and fertilizers to get a little deeper
then
i add an organic fertilizer
i use either ladybug 8-2-4 or medinas growing green
both are good ones to use
then
i add a dusting of cottonseed meal
which provides a quick access to nitrogen when the onions
start to grow
then
i add a slight dusting of stuff called rocket fuel
from gardenville
it has a lot of minerals etc the plants need
last year i planted purple hull peas in this spot
so i cut off the plants at the ground so they would
breakdown and leave the minerals stored in their roots
for the onions to use
then
i soaked the bed good with liquid molasses
which provides food for the good organisms in the soil
then
i covered the bed good with a layer of leaves for
mulch
this was allowed to sit for a few weeks to cure

so on onion planting day
i raked off all the leaves
the onions plants i use are 1015s
they well have an almost sweet taste
and
they dont burn my eyes when i cut them

i plant the onions down about an inch or two
one hook em horn sign apart which is about 6 inches
then
i water them in well

i fertilize them about once a month until they seem
to quit growing

we pull the smaller green onions as we need them

we harvest them in late april or may whenever there
stalks fall over

this produces some hand sized sweet tasting non eye burning
onions

then
its also time to plant your potatoes around here
i use red lasotas since they seem to grow well here
at the country n

i use the same bed prep as above for the onion bed
i dig an 8 inch deep trench
in our beds which are 3 ft wide
i make two rows about a foot or so apart
i use uncut potatoes
i never mess with cutting the potatoes and dusting with sulfur
its too much work
i just get the smaller ones and junk them in the hole
scattered 1 foot apart
i put down my organic fertilizer in the trench between the
potatoes
i cover the potatoes with just a few inches of dirt
then
as the plant grows out of the dirt
i keep it covered up
this mounding technique produces more potatoes

each potato will produce about 8-10 potatoes
i planted 22 potatoes
you can do the math

i fertilize them about once a month with my organic fertilizer

they are harvested in later april or may whenever the plants
above the ground start to die

we pick new potatoes when they are smaller
in fact i tend to harvest about a third of them this way
since like the green onions i just cant wait to eat them

then
yesterday i bought my tomatoes
warning dont even try to get tomatoes and plant them
around here right now

this year
i bought i gallon containers of tomatoes
i plan to transplant them to 3 or 5 gallon pots
keep them in my small greenhouse
putting them outside when the days are warm
otherwise keeping them in the greenhouse when
its cold running a heater with a thermostat

i plan on not planting them into the ground until late march
seeing if i can avoid that freeze that seems to kill mine
off each year

oh
for that first early tomato

the organicgreen doctor

for starters

FOR STARTERS
for years like beekeeping ive have said
i want to start my own tomato seeds
but i just never did it
maybe
because i like to go to the garden center
the natural gardener and forage through all the
tomato plants they have
some ive never heard of
some i planted anyway

within a few days of each other
i got these two magazines in the mail
mother earth news had an article about
experts tips on growing early tomatoes
then
the texas gardener had a lengthy article on
growing tomato transplants

the mother earth news article suggested these
three tomatoes to plant
they do well in norther climates
one the glacier does well in northern climates
especially in canada
the other two are whipperwill and sophies choice

they all are determinate tomatoes
that means they only grow so many tomatoes then thats it
they tend to be like a bush
and
do well in pots
and
they mature quickly in less than 60 days

the problem in texas is that when the weather gets good enough
to plant the tomatoes in the ground
you only have a small window to do it and get them growing
sometimes the heat comes early
and
shuts down the tomato production
so that year you rarely get any tomatoes

so the idea behind this idea of using northern climate tomatoes
is first if you plant them in the ground it wont work
the heat will knock them down
but
if you got them growing early
transplant them into larger pots
then as they grew put them in 3 gallon pots
keep them in a greenhouse under a grow light
but move them outside when the weather was warmer than
60 degrees
remember these are canada northern us tomatoes

then move them back inside at night
that
if it all works well
you will have tomatoes the first of april when most
people are just putting their tomatoes in the ground

so
i ordered the three tomato seeds
got a seed starter tray
filled it with lady bug brand germinator seed starting soil
planted those guys carefully
put them under my florescent light
and
now i am waiting

when they get their first true leaves
thats the second set of leaves after whats showing in the picture
i will transplant them into 4 inch pots like you buy
transplants in the nursery
once they have grown roots well
then
i will transplant them into a 3 gallon pot
filled with lady bug brand vortex potting soil
since it has everything a tomato should want

on nice days say like the 4 or 5 day run we are having
this weekend
i will put them outside in the sunlight
then
move them inside under a grow light for at least 12 hrs of light
each day

hopefully just hopefully in april
i will have pictures of red tomatoes to show you

bon appetitt

the organicgreen doctor

moonglow, sliced maters, firsty

MOONGLOW
yes i was up at 230 am yesterday to see the blood moon
i figured the next time it came around i might not be able to
enjoy its beauty
even my wife she got up and went out on our upper deck
and looked at that red moon glowing over our trees

i took an iphone picture which wasnt very good
but
on facebook and on the local news website
i saw this photo which was
i think
the best one of this unusual lunar event
taken by mike mezeul


SLICED MATERS

or
click here for the link to the video
on how to slice cherry tomatoes

since i retired i do a lot of the cooking
one thing i hate to do is try to cut those dang little tomatoes
those cherry tomatoes and pear tomatoes

in the winter thats the only tomatoes we buy since they seem to
be the only ones with any flavor

in the summer we plant them the sweet 100s and the juliets as they
are prolific in their production from the late spring until it freezes
in the late fall

in fact the juliettes those pear shaped small ones are the first ones
that have produced a green tomato in our country n garden this year
sure am hoping they didnt freeze

granted most of the time these guys are just popped in our mouths
chewed then swallowed without slicing

but when i have to slice them for a salad or a meal
they seem to get squished and all the juices stuff runs out
or
i cut my finger

so when i watched this video i was excited since now i can
slice those guys
leaving two intact halves

i sometimes love facebook and youtube sometimes

FIRSTY

click link below to watch
this video called 
hold onto your heart these hilarious grannies are about to fly away with it

one of the reasons i hate to fly is that i get motion sickness
real bad
so i take a medicine that controls that
so
i take it preflight
get on the plane
doze off after takeoff
wake up as we descend
but
feel drugged afterwards for a day

i remember my first flight from la to dallas
flying back home
accompanied by a young girl from la whose grandparents
lived close by my parents
i was her chaperon for the trip
but
it was i think the other way
she chaperoned me
do you remember that ah

yes i was nervous like these ladies
yes i got motion sickness real bad
cause i looked out the window as i was excited
then i had to play board games with that little girl
which made my motion sickness worse
i survived the trip
but
im sorry to say i did not have the fun that these two
elderly ladies did on their first flights

i cried and i laughed until i cried watching this video

it made my day start off better
:)

the organicgreen doctor

tomato planting

the meals on wheels night at the austin toros game at the cedar park
center is friday night at 730 pm
one half of the tickets you buy  goes to meals on wheels
then
there will be a silent auction on several items with 100% of the proceeds
going to meals on wheel
come join us and bid on the items

if you want to donate to the meals on wheels
go to this link and make a  donation

in the designation box write in 
meals on wheels program

or
send a check to
wbc opportunities
604 high tech drive
georgetown texas   78626

include a note that the check is for meals on wheels
thanks
ogd

TOMATO PLANTING
recently i was at the natural gardener in austin texas to buy plants
and
i started thinking about my tomato crop this year

a friend had given me a celebrity tomato plant that i had put in
a 1 gallon pot
i placed it in my green house and man did it grow there

at the natural gardener i looked at their garden where they had
already planted their tomatoes in holes
heres the label that was on their tomato bed

so i decided i would plant my tomatoes in a well or a hole
following their general directions
i did something like this last year and was successful

first i have a 4 ft x 14 ft g garden bed that i decided to turn into an anthill or
a hugelkulter bed

i got these ingredients
old cardboard
old newspapers
old records
shredded stuff from my shredder
my chicken made compost
leaves yall gave me
limbs twigs tree trunks

i dug out all the dirt out of my bed in 4 ft increments down to about 2 ft

then i added cardboard newspapers old records shredded stuff
on top of that i added limbs and old tree trunks
then added some of the soil from the hole
then added your leaves
then added the chicken compost
then added more newspaper
then added leaves
then added the compost
then the dirt
layer after layer until i ran out of soil
then on top i added my compost from my really composted compost

i did this to all 14 ft of the bed

then i raked it all out real well
dug a trench down the middle where i will plant
dug a trench on the sides where my drippers will go

then i dug this hole that would hold my 3 gallon bucket
which i cut out the bottom
thats my shovel handle in the hole

i then planted my celebrity tomato down in that hole
adding some earthworm castings in the hole
watered it well with seaweed
then filled the hole partially with the garden stuff i had just made

as the tomato grows i gradually will lift the bucket out of the hole
until it gets to the top of the garden soil
leaving it in place for a while to provide protection from the wind
and from the cold
later i will use it as a well to pour some of johns liquid fertilizer
which has fish emulsion in it seaweed and molasses as the season
progresses

i then cover the whole tomato with a five gallon bucket
then cover that with row cover to protect it from the cold
opening it to the weather when its nice
covering it when its cold

if all goes well my tomatoes will get a real jump start on the season
our summers can come real early
once the heat hits hard the tomatoes quit producing

the varieties i chose are mostly indeterminate
which means they will keep producing as long as conditions are good
determinates produce only a set number of tomatoes then
thats it

the indeterminates have the chance of surviving and being
fall producers if i am lucky

my varieties im planting are sweet 100s juliets both small ones
early girl as they will produce quicker in the spring
celebrity a good producer
then heirlooms like cherokee purple black krum brandywine
mortgage lifter hopefully arkansase traveler
and porter
adding more as they become available

 if you plant your tomatoes here in cental texas remember
late freezing weather is not unusual in late march
we here at the country n seem to get one in early april
so
be sure and protect them with row covers and blankets
when the weather is threatening

there is nothing like a good juicy tomato

the organicgreen doctor

is this homesteading

IS THIS HOMESTEADING
well not really
its quasi homesteading

in our garden we grow just enough that we consume
most of it and only a little is left over to save
especially after we give some of it away

i planned it that way so we would not become overwhelmed
by the production
like what almost happened when all our tomatoes came in this year
we were eating tomatoes for breakfast lunch supper and snacks
and still had left overs
so we put most up in the freezer to be used later for cooking

the rest of our veggies we can usually eat up as we go
except of course the potatoes onions and garlic which we store
when we harvest them in the late spring

here eg is our garlic chimes
i wove all our garlic together and have them hanging in our
bbq area
when we need garlic we just cut it off these woven garlic chimes
these will last us well into this time next year
its hard to use a hundred garlics in a year but we try anyway

here is a picture of my lunch sandwich i have every day
thats fresh tomatoes fresh squash fresh onions and usually
we will add cucumber and malabar spinach to it
what a delicious meal this is
it will be sad when this hot weather shuts down the cuke
squash and tomato production

this is an eggplant dish from mollies primi platti cookbook

the last two weeks or so we have been pretty much eating
a vegetarian diet by eating only out of our garden
since we are producing cukes beans tomatoes squash
okra bell peppers poblano peppers jalapeno peppers egg plant
malabar spinach arugula swiss chard pursalane and soon to be peas

yes this is best time of the year for our diet here at the country n
and our pocket book
garlic $2-3 a head
onion $2-4 a piece
tomatoes $3-5 a piece
eggplant $3-4 a piece
squash $3 a piece
lots of small tomatoes okra beans
all organic of course
the garlic is worth close to $300
the onions are worth close to $900
so yes this is the favorite time of the year here at the country n

oh this is a mother in law melon
i call it that because my mother in law comes to visit every
summer so i plant her a couple of cantaloupe plants just
for her

reminder if you want fall tomatoes
the next 2 weeks is when you plant them
some nurseries have them
you plant them mulch them well and put shade cloth over them
this protects them from the hot summer sun
keep them watered well this summer
for a good fall crop
if we have a warm fall late winter you can have tomatoes late
into december

you can also if you have an indeterminate tomato take the vine
and cut it off and bury part of it in the garden bed still attached to
the original stalk
when new roots have started then cut the vine away from the original
stalk
then care for this with watering mulching and shade cloth

yes i love this quasi homesteading here at the country n

the organicgreen doctor

trying again, trying early

TRYING AGAIN

this thing in that white cup that ive written about before
is called a monkey pod vine

two years ago my medi school friends friend gave me
some of these pods
it was a bag full
i was worried since they looked so strange
they looked like something from those old science fiction movies
you know where those pods are sent from outer space and
they grow and take over the world
thats what these look like except on a smaller scale

they grow a long vine that is aggressive but apparently produces a
beautiful flower
ive never got to see them but have only heard the stories


two years ago after i planted them they got up on our arbor
which is eight feet tall
then the drought hit and i had to make decisions
on what got the water
monkey pod vines or tomatoes
i went with the tomatoes

our drought lasted 2 years then eased some but im afraid its
returned
we usually average 30+ inches of rain a year but since september
thats 5 months ago for those who cant figure it out
we have gotten only 3 inches of rain here at the country n
and that was in 2 days several weeks ago

despite that scarceness of water i plan to try again to grow these
monkey pod vines

when we were visiting our med school friend he said hey they
have some more monkey pod vines
you want them
yep
im determined to get them to grow

(i wonder if this is one of those tricks that he is known to
play on people you know like those pods dont really grow into
anything)

ive set up a special dripper to the area where ill plant them
to see if i can get them through the drought

ill post pictures if they grow

hopefully my med school friend isnt sitting on his back porch
rocking in a rocker in his overalls
having a good chuckle

TRYING EARLY
for the last several years when i plant my tomatoes some of them
freeze well all of them froze last year
ive usually had to replant them every year
sometimes twice
but i dont give up
since that nice fresh juicy tomato is hard to duplicate from
store bought ones

this year ive tired as i described in an earlier blog to plant a few
tomatoes deep in the ground in a big hole
and
so far they have survived a 29 degree freeze

the reason to plant early is to get good root growth and to get
an early start to the tomato season
since the hot summer can hit early and shut down tomato production

so i went to my favorite nursery
where lucky for me the vegetable garden guru was there working
in their garden
i had him all to myself
asked a hundred questions of him
so
i plan to go ahead and plant all of my spring tomato crop early
 (since these survived the freeze and those terrible 60-70 mph
winds we just had)
by planting in those deep holes hoping to survive the 1-3 freezes
i know are coming before april

heck that wind blew off my top layer of mulch and compost 

i had put on all my beds

always having to battle mother nature arent we

im glad im not doing this for a living

wish me luck

the organicgreen doctor

tomatoes, bridge repair, new chair

TOMATOES

sure love tomatoes
in central texas the best time to grow tomatoes
is in the fall
the best crop that i have ever had here at the
country n was in the fall

the problem is you have to plant now in the heat
of the summer and nurse them through all this
heat for the next 2 months to get those
delicious fall tomatoes

i put down 2-3 inches of compost and work it
into the soil
then i plant the tomato like i do in the summer
except i use some type of solar blocking material
to keep the hot mid day sun off the new plant
if you dont do this the plant wont make it

you can use row cover solar screen cardboard
anything to shade the plant and
keep it watered so it doesnt dry out then
in octoberish you will be rewarded with the best
tomatoes of the year

BRIDGE REPAIR
yesterday i wrote a blog on walking on the golden gate bridge
in san francisco

however i forget to tell you that they were repairing
and painting the bridge

when i saw this truck below sitting at the entrance to the
bridge i almost didnt walk on the bridge that day



NEW CHAIR
my wife she is always looking for bargains
i think its a game she plays to see what she can find and get
the best deal
heck sometimes its for stuff we dont need
i accuse her of buying stuff from goodwill and then later donating
it back to them

its all about the chase i guess

recently she came home with this battered old chair
that she got for less than $5
we have a rustic house so sometimes old beat up things
just look good in our house

this thang this chair set around for several months
i finally sat in it and covered it with an old blanket so it didnt
look so bad
well sorry to say i got use to the chair
its got a metal frame and can pivot in all directions
reminds of one of those exercise machines that can go in
all directions

then i ran across an article online about using duct tape for
upholstering
you know me and duct tape
i had to have a duct tape chair

so i got a roll of black duct tape and began working
it is a work of duct tape art

she will regret this purchase cause i aint getting rid
of this piece of art work

the organicgreen doctor