S/O Gardening

SnShne322 · August 2013

When is a good time to start planning a garden? For the gardeners here, what's your planning/schedule look like for the year?

booknerd226 · August 2013

Also, instructions please for growing those tiny tomatoes?

ChristyDM82 · August 2013

I usually plan mine sometime in winter, but after the holidays are over. I don't do cold weather crops, but I do grow some plants from seed and them transplant them outside when it warms up, so I need to plan mine early.

I've never grown tomatoes, so no help there!

SnShne322 · August 2013

Second question. Do you think 18-20 months is too young to start having Wes "help" with gardening? I don't know any children at that age, so I don't have a good guess. Could he help pick the veggies with me, pull an occasional weed, or water with my supervision?

duxcaelo · August 2013

We have a container garden, so we bring in some of our plants when the frost hits in the fall. They stay inside until about May. That is also about the time when we pick up starters for some annuals, like basil, and plant them in containers. We bought our cherry tomato plant fully loaded with about thirty green tomatoes for about fifteen dollars. I think it has produced well over a hundred tomatoes, so it was worth it in my book.

RevJen · August 2013

We generally use after Mother's Day as a guideline to start planting. There's little chance of frost after then. I think you're in the same zone I am so you could use that as well. If you want to start from seed in the house, do it in March just so your plants overtake your house.

Kate&Mark · August 2013

I start planning in February. It seems like the seed companies all do promos around then.

And I totally think Wes would be able to help in some fashion. The preschool I volunteer at has a garden and there are kids as young as two that rotate garden duty. They're awesome little helpers.

84Lauren · August 2013

I can't help you on the timeline as I'm in the desert, but Ally started "helping" in the garden before she could walk. She LOVES playing in the dirt and follows DH around the yard with her little watering can every day. It's a great thing for little ones to be involved in!

jlq2005 · August 2013

If you're going to plant from seed, you'd need to start those earlier then if you're going to get starter plants and use those.

We used starter plants this year, which the exception of our potatoes, which we used seed potatoes for. We didn't plant anything until we were sure the chance of a frost was gone, which was around the end of May/very beginning of June.

If you're going to plant potatoes, I would suggest looking for your seed potatoes early in the year. We waited too long, and had a hard time finding the kinds we wanted.

@booknerd226, are you talking about cherry tomatoes? Or you want to plant regular tomatoes and just have them be small in size?

booknerd226 · August 2013

jlq2005 said:
@booknerd226, are you talking about cherry tomatoes? Or you want to plant regular tomatoes and just have them be small in size?

I don't know how to notify you back. But yes, cherry tomatoes! I'm near the mountains in SC if that helps any.

jlq2005 · August 2013

booknerd226 said:

jlq2005 said:
@booknerd226, are you talking about cherry tomatoes? Or you want to plant regular tomatoes and just have them be small in size?

I don't know how to notify you back. But yes, cherry tomatoes! I'm near the mountains in SC if that helps any.

You'd need to either start a plant from cherry tomato seeds, or from a starter plant. It would also help to use some tomato food. You just need to make sure that you pick the cherry tomato plant/seeds, and not regular tomatoes.

booknerd226 · August 2013

jlq2005 said:

booknerd226 said:

jlq2005 said:
@booknerd226, are you talking about cherry tomatoes? Or you want to plant regular tomatoes and just have them be small in size?

I don't know how to notify you back. But yes, cherry tomatoes! I'm near the mountains in SC if that helps any.

You'd need to either start a plant from cherry tomato seeds, or from a starter plant. It would also help to use some tomato food. You just need to make sure that you pick the cherry tomato plant/seeds, and not regular tomatoes.

That sounds easy enough. When should I plant? Any special tips about growing them? Do I need one of those tower things for the vines to grow on?

krispy83 · August 2013

We have a large variety of tomatoes. We usually plant between Mother's Day and Memorial Day. I would suggest having some sort of tower or cage for the plant to grow into because once the plant gets to be a decent size, the vines can get pretty heavy, so the tower/cage helps support the weight.

We use organic soil and DH fertilizes with fish oil once a month. We start with small starter plants and get a TON of tomatoes and they are delicious! I also usually wind up chopping a bunch and freezing them to use for tomato sauce or various soups in the winter too.

And @snshne322, A likes to "help" garden already so I'm sure Wes would be able to help. Granted, he does need some coaching about which tomatoes are ready to pick and which ones aren't (green, red, they all look ready to him lol!) but he does love helping!

jlq2005 · August 2013

booknerd226 said:

jlq2005 said:

booknerd226 said:

jlq2005 said:
@booknerd226, are you talking about cherry tomatoes? Or you want to plant regular tomatoes and just have them be small in size?

I don't know how to notify you back. But yes, cherry tomatoes! I'm near the mountains in SC if that helps any.

You'd need to either start a plant from cherry tomato seeds, or from a starter plant. It would also help to use some tomato food. You just need to make sure that you pick the cherry tomato plant/seeds, and not regular tomatoes.

That sounds easy enough. When should I plant? Any special tips about growing them? Do I need one of those tower things for the vines to grow on?

I would definitely get a cage or some sort of structure for them to grow on. DH built one using some wood stakes and plastic wire, but you could buy one, too. Other than that I'm really not much help. DH really is the one who does most of our gardening. We've been really lucky with this being our first year for a garden how well it's done.

AshleyT121 · August 2013

It really depends on the climate you're planting in, what you're planting and how (from seed, from seedling) you're planting it. There are some great planting charts on Pinterest based on climate zones.

As for your second question, Adelaide already "helps" with gardening and did even this spring when she was about 10 months old. She doesn't do much other than play in the dirt, but I talk to her about what I'm doing and why, and she helps pick the veg when she can.

booknerd226 · August 2013

jlq2005 said:

booknerd226 said:

jlq2005 said:

booknerd226 said:

jlq2005 said:
@booknerd226, are you talking about cherry tomatoes? Or you want to plant regular tomatoes and just have them be small in size?

I don't know how to notify you back. But yes, cherry tomatoes! I'm near the mountains in SC if that helps any.

You'd need to either start a plant from cherry tomato seeds, or from a starter plant. It would also help to use some tomato food. You just need to make sure that you pick the cherry tomato plant/seeds, and not regular tomatoes.

That sounds easy enough. When should I plant? Any special tips about growing them? Do I need one of those tower things for the vines to grow on?

I would definitely get a cage or some sort of structure for them to grow on. DH built one using some wood stakes and plastic wire, but you could buy one, too. Other than that I'm really not much help. DH really is the one who does most of our gardening. We've been really lucky with this being our first year for a garden how well it's done.

Okay I'll do that for next year. Thank you!

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