Here's a video of one of my favorite gardeners on Youtube.

In this video she gives some tips on growing tomatoes that may help some of you.

Be aware: Jess lives in South Carolina so her talking about harvesting her second planting of tomatoes in October obviously does not apply to us. Nor does the concept of the first planting ending before mid summer when temperatures become too hot.


But overall she is a master when it comes to growing tomatoes.



She loves to grow MANY different varieties every year so she prunes to have one or two leaders. That way she can get more plants into each garden bed.

In a previous video, she mentioned that she is growing 25 or 30 different varieties this year, from big beef-stake slicers down to a bunch of micro-dwarf varieties. She is mostly growing in raised beds, but she also has some in no-till beds and some in containers.

Enjoy.

Great video, thanks CookNThyme! Thanks

I like how she uses t-posts to raise the cattle fence and prunes everything off below the fence. I have used cattle fence in the past but set at the soil level, worked great until the plants became taller than 4 ft. Leaving 15-18 inches clear under the plants also makes the space available for other crops such as lettuce or herbs. I think I may try her method this year if I can find some tall posts in our pile.

I'm glad you liked it!
I've learned a lot from her over years, even though she gardens in a completely different climate.

I've learned a lot about chickens from her too. She has quite the homestead with all sorts of animals. Her kids and husband are awesome too.


I tried to start on the outdoor beds today, but the drizzle and 45 deg temp drove me back into the house. Getting the greenhouse watered was all that got accomplished in the garden today. Oh well.

Is it to early to put petunias in containers on the deck? I usually don't plant this early but I got a really good deal on petunias and I bought a boat load of them. They are ready to be planted.

We're at 9300'

It is not too early IF you can protect them from the frost/freeze at night by some type of protective covering or moving them indoors.

The town of Bailey (elev ~7,800 ft) currently has a prediction of freezing temps in the 10 day forcast. But not a super cold hard freeze.

Gardening at 9000+ ft in Bailey, I personally use the Leadville forecasts for estimating my night temperatures. Leadville is approx 10,000 ft.

For example, Leadville's forecasted low for last night was 32 (but it dropped to 31).
Bailey's low was 39.
My low was 33.

Leadville's last freeze for this year is predicted to be ~June 27th.

Ok I changed my mind. I think it is too early. I didn't realize that petunias don't like cool weather at all.

I found this online:
"Petunias thrive when nighttime temperatures are in the 55 to 65°F range, and daytime temps are between 61 and 80°F. They will succumb to sub-freezing temperatures in a hurry, and anything below 40°F may kill them, though Wave® petunias can tolerate temperatures as low as 35°F."

For me, my nighttime temps never warm up to the 55 to 65°F range

Thanks CooknThyme for your most excellent advice. Our night time temps never get much above 55 during the summer but the Petunias seem to thrive up here. Right now night time temps are hovering around 35 so I will have patients and wait for warmer temps hoping that they don't get too scraggly. For now they're living in the greenhouse and should be happy. Finally got the greenhouse ready for planting veges and got some in this morning before the rain.

Happy growing!

CT, that was a GREAT tomato video. So much packed in to less than a half hour. I gleaned some great tips, especially about pruning. Pretty amazing.
It has been SO cool and rainy this month. Holding off as long as I can before putting the tomato plants in their final spot. I thought I started them from seed late enough this year ( early March) but they are still WAY too huge for my liking. Will start even later next year.
Thanks for the video.

It has been a beautiful weekend for spending time in the garden! What have all of you been doing in your gardens?

I have been doing a bit of cleaning up, rearranging, and planting. Used some old hog fence and 6ft t-posts to build a new tomato trellis, similar to the one in the video CookingNTime posted, hopefully it will work well.

Also started adding another tier of wood on my raised beds, bringing them to 16" tall. Much easier on the back. Two down, 6 more to go.

Got carried away and planted my tomatoes too. Will cover them at night until the night time temps warm up a bit.

WTG Conifer4!!


I've started with cleaning up my outdoor beds, however I still have tons to do.
I'm so very far behind this year, but better late than never.

Well I am 95% done with getting everything in the ground etc. I find comfort knowing you put your tomatoes in their final spot, Conifer4. I did exactly the same, for better or for worse. I'm covering at night. Once again, it seems I started them from seed too early as they are GIANTS now and so difficult to transplant. Next year, I will start them in later March! Ugh.
I am putting some asparagus I grew from seed in the garden container today. I did buy about 8 crowns a few weeks ago and they are already in their own tub. we will see how that works out this year and next. All seeds are in the ground and everything is coming up, albeit slowly. Yesterday was the first WARM DAY to really get out there and do stuff. A chipmunk has decided he likes my cauliflower plants, which I am having a fit over. It is now all covered with mesh. Anyway, today is mesh tarp day to protect from hail, which has already appeared once. Ugh.

Wow, all your seeds planted! Good for you!


Personally, I think it is a bit too early to set out frost tender plants up here. Freezing temps are still in the forecast for Bailey. But if you can successfully protect them at night then you'll have a nice head start.

You might want to consider adding walls of water jugs around your frost tender plants. That's an easy DIY hack to help protect against frost and light freezes.