As a gardener, there are a lot of irritating things about Seattle’s weather, but our mild temperatures ain’t one of ’em. We’re already eating fresh lettuce, arugula and radishes out of the garden, and we’ll be enjoying peas, raspberries, herbs and more in another month. Tomatoes are always a challenge, but that makes them all the more enjoyable.
Anyway, it’s a beautiful Spring day, so shut down your computer and go enjoy it. And call your mother.
JeffB. spews:
Goldy,
For your tomatoes, try the Topsy Turvy. I was amazed at how much easier it was to grow tomatoes, even here in the wet, gray PNW.
David Aquarius spews:
nice looking garden. My dad has one out in the Okanogan that puts anything I do here to shame. I have two tomatoes and a bell pepper on my deck. Wish I had the space to grow more.
My buddy Monkeyfister blogs about sustenance gardening and has some great links. He’s at monkeyfister.blogspot.com.
YLB spews:
Tomatoes? I don’t think we’ve ever had a problem with growing Romas. Well one year maybe.
right wing fiend @ 1 – what are you doing here talking to a “marxist” progressive who as a group excel in “self-destruction”? LOL. The kind of self-destruction that resulted in Nov’s 2006 and 2008.
Marvin Stamn spews:
Damn.
I guess the topsy turvy is codespeak for right wing fiend.
Why so bitter and hateful ylb? Isn’t your party in control everywhere that affects you?
JeffB. spews:
I didn’t think tomatoes were political, but I guess some of the commenters here can turn anything in to a political hit opportunity. Happy gardening Goldy.
Oswald Spengler spews:
A really good sandwich is a sliced homegrown beefsteak Tomato on white toast with a little pepper, salt and mayo.
And while you are enjoying, just reflect on what putzes Republicans are.
ByeByeGOP spews:
For right wing baby rapers like Marvin the Pervert EVERYTHING is political so – fight fire with fire.
slingshot spews:
Goldy, it looks like you don’t have enough slugs. If you’d like a big shipment, give me a call. We’ve got extras.
Goldy spews:
JeffB @1,
I just carefully choose reliable short season varieties. I always grow a couple Stupice, some Sweet Million, and usually Sungold. Then maybe an Early Girl or an Oregon Spring. But I’ve mostly given up on the idea of reliably growing beefsteaks, like the big & ugly Jersey tomatoes of my youth.
I also rotate my beds, usually growing tomatoes in the bed I’ve grown my fall snow pea crop, dig in some chicken manure, add lots of organic fertilizer, and bury my soaker hoses so as not to wet the foliage. Oh, and of course I prune judiciously. And… I’m always prepared to pick my tomatoes green and pickle them if late blight sets in.
There’s not a crop I put more work and pride into… and they’re worth it.
Marvin Stamn spews:
Obviously you mean his garden.
As long as byebyegoober, steve, gbs & ylb are on the blog they’ve got his slug quota filled here.
Goldy spews:
slingshot @8,
Plenty of slugs, and even a few snails. I try to keep good garden hygiene, and occasional go out and pick slugs at night. But mostly I just plant close together so there’s plenty of seedlings to go around, and then thin them as they mature. Once they get to certain size, the slugs just can’t do enough damage to keep up with the growth.
Roger Rabbit spews:
Lovely garden, especially the lettuce! It’s time I paid your yard a visit. Maybe I’ll even bring some of my relatives.
Roger Rabbit spews:
When Republicans are around, the best slugs are the lead kind.*
* Heh! Just kidding. Ann Coulter joke.
X'ad spews:
Is there a pesticide for Marvin the self-important halfwit that won’t harm the beneficial insects?
Marvin Stamn spews:
It must be more than “self-important” if you can’t stop yourself from replying to me.
X'ad spews:
No, you just take up space with pointless whiny drivel. it’s amusing for a while, but….
ByeByeGOP spews:
I agree Marvin that the GOP are nothing but goobers. Glad to see you finally get something right.
Marvin Stamn spews:
And you replied again.
Roger Rabbit spews:
@18 Does that annoy you? I certainly hope so.
slingshot spews:
@11, You definitely should take some of ours. We’re on the edge of forest here…wet, shady and no sun til late morning. Our slug infestation resembles the mongol hoardes. In fact, we’ve intercepted several mounted battalions.
Outstanding looking garden for this time of year-way to grow.
Marvin Stamn spews:
Not in the least. Rather, I am amused by it.
Nothing anyone on this blog says to me bothers me.
I find it fascinating that people say stuff from behind a monitor that they would never say to someone in person.
I also find it mind-boggling that so many people on this blog have threatened me with violence knowing that they would never have to back it up. Why do these people take what I say so personal, why do they so quickly givve up their own power to a troll.
Now if someone talked about the my daughters I might get upset. But what kind of person would do that knowing it would bother me??
Temujin spews:
slingshot: That should be “Mongol hordes.”
You are supposed to capitalize proper nouns, and names of nationalities.
YLB spews:
right wing moron @ 4
JeffB, aka Jeff Boly is a long time right wing nutcase who calls those who deplore his views all kinds of names like “marxist”, “totalitarian”, “leftist” while embarrassing himself by being consistently wrong in his political prognostications.
Like you Stamn.
Kind of proves that the smell carries with you. There’s no escaping it. You can run but you can’t hide.
YLB spews:
I’m not. That’s yet another right wing talking point from you, i.e. next to meaningless – to me anyway.
I could ask what are you doing here after embarrassing yourself so badly last fall. Why don’t you fold up the tent and go home like so many other right wing fools have done?
I guess you’re bitter and angry that you were so wrong.
X'ad spews:
I notice dogshit when I step in it, too.
Marvin Stamn spews:
And again.
Maybe I should change my name from marv to puppetmaster.
X'ad spews:
No one here thinks for a moment that you are capable of reproduction.
X'ad spews:
No one here thinks for a moment that you are capable of reproduction.
JeffB. spews:
Goldy, I agree, the beefsteaks are a bit much. I prefer Early Girl, and a lot fertilizer. I’ve worked up a drip system for lots of water. It’s definitely a crop that takes a lot of effort, but the bruchetta on home made bread makes it all worth the time.
Marvin Stamn spews:
And again you reply.
This time you have to post twice.
Marvin Stamn spews:
So if I have, what would that say about your mental abilities?
Puddybud is shocked SHOCKED spews:
“I feel like Mother’s Day is a man’s holiday. You know, because it was put together, a woman didn’t put together Mother’s Day. A woman put together several other holidays but Mother’s Day was not one of them,” – Whoopi Goldberg, May 8th, The View!
Mother’s Day – Invented by Anna Jarvis! Another dumb libtard!
ByeByeGOP spews:
Puffybutt while I was fucking your mother in the ass the other night she said you were the greatest disappointment in her life – she never would have believed her son would turn into a self-loathing oreo.
YLB spews:
I wonder how David Irons Jr. celebrates Mother’s Day.
Probably by plotting the further destruction and despoiling of critical areas in King County.
Mark1 spews:
YLB:
Did you be sure to run upstairs and say Happy Mother’s Day to Momma, or was she busy doing your soiled laundry? Since I haven’t read any of your mouth diarrhea lately, I’m curious if you are still unemployed…ahem…I mean “between jobs“?
That explains the anger referenced at post #4, along with continuing inept social skills, and mother-son issues. Poor thing.
Marvin Stamn spews:
YLB… if Mark1 is correct about being unemployed, please let me make a suggestion.
Stop wasting your tim on this blog.
Don’t even think about politics when you apply for a job, it would suck if your bitterness came across in the interview.
Smile.
Good luck.
X'ad spews:
I kinda thought Tim was a waste…
Brilliant!
ByeByeGOP spews:
LOL an unemployed, child-molesting, bad musician like Marvin the pervert giving job advice is like WHATADICK Cheney talking about how to fight a war when he got so many deferments during Viet Nam they lost count.
Marvin Stamn spews:
Has anyone noticed that right–wing blogs have threads about mothers day.
No thread here.
correctnotright spews:
Nice garden Goldy.
The slugs are the bane of the northwest gardens. The best tricks are salt, beer in a depressed container in the soil and onions and garlic on the outside of the garden.
Even then you have to go in at night an pick some of them off…
ByeByeGOP spews:
Marvin perhaps you’d feel more comfortable trying to find children to rape on the right wing blogs??? Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Tlazolteotl spews:
Goldy @9: If nobody has told you this trick yet, this is what you do with any green tomatoes you have late in the season. Pick your tomato bushes clean before they are hit by frost. Take the green or partially green ones, and place them in a single layer in a cardboard box. Place a thick layer of newspaper over them; repeat until you have a layer of tomatoes on top. Repeat with more boxes as needed, then place the boxes in a garage or other cool dry place.
Check the boxes every few days, the tomatoes will ripen up over a period of about a month or so. My mom usually has enough boxes of tomatoes that I have to help her can a cannerful or two every year (7-14 quarts!)
And now that I have gardening space of my own, I just started some chard, lettuce and some herbs and flowers. Space is limited right now, so I can’t get too ambitious! I won’t have raised beds this year, hopefully next year though!
correctnotright spews:
@39: Guess you still can’t read Marvin – Goldy’s last line was “and call your Mother”.
I don’t need to go to a right wingnut hate site to figure out that it is mother’s day – but if that is what you need…then go for it.
Marvin Stamn spews:
I can’t read?
39. Marvin Stamn spews:
No thread here.
The thread you reference is “enjoy the day.”
Are you really this ignorant or are you such a hater you are going to disagree with everything I say no matter how stupid you look?
correctnotright spews:
Poor Marvin – it is not my fault that you are a confirmed liar and you can’t read. I simply pointed out that goldy put in the line about calling your mother.
Getting a little touchy, huh Marvin?
Sorry, but I need to actually point out facts. And the salient fact is that you have trouble actually reading. The only things I “hate” are ignorance, liars and people who are so dogmatic they can’t even read or admit they are wrong.
You fit all three.
slingshot spews:
@22, Ok, Mongol hordes..alright already. Geez, Ghangis Khan is a grammer freak?
Pussy.
Piper Scott spews:
Here’s the deal with veggies, especially tomatoes…
At the house I had in Kirkland (sold it in January), I had some 10 raised beds that were a 14″ high. Each was plumbed with it’s on irrigation system – no hoses – such that a flick of a switch watered the lot of them.
I also built pyramids and string trellises for pole beans (Blue Lake green beans love PNW weather) and snap peas.
Also grew spuds (nothing better than reds out of the ground, then on the table that evening), wax beans, beets (tons of them), carrots, peppers, pumpkins, cukes, and the biggest sunflowers you’ve ever seen.
With tomatoes, I think the secret is rich soil, Miracle Grow the snot out of them, gallons of water, then heat, which can come from planting near the side of a white or light-colored building.
With all of it, don’t even think of planting until Memorial Day weekend, cool-weather crops excepted.
I had a policy that if I could get it better at Bothell’s Yakima Fruit Market, I wouldn’t try to compete, hence I gave up on corn.
Now that I’m in the Lil’ Blue House in Lacey, I’m limited to growing in pots and planters, but I’ll make do…
BTW…my Kitty feasts on rabbits.
The Piper