Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Vegies for fun

Mother's free range chickens, being spoiled and lazy, were always hanging around the house waiting for her. (We also spoil mother because she is turning 82 this April). They are not like the normal native chickens we knew from childhood, that leave the roost early in the morning to look for food in the neighborhood. The normal native chickens were always difficult to see by day, and we have to be patient calling them before they come nearer. These days, my mother spoiled hers, and they become my nuisance. So I decided to put some pots on a makeshift bench. This is to at least elevate the newly planted seedlings sent by my friend blogger from Illinois,  hoping the chickens will have some difficulty reaching the leaves. I also planted petunia to pacify the patience of my mother while waiting for the seedlings to bloom. Or else she might forget to water them. Petunias are sure pacifiers, and in different colors as well.


As the petunias grow bigger, i noticed that the areas below the bench is always moist, so i planted six, yes six tomato seedlings from seeds of the table tomatoes. I also got some goat manure compost from the goat house. I am living in the city so Mother and nephew water them every afternoon as we are already in our dry season. And the tomatoes did not disappoint us. The maximum number of fruits per bunch is normally six and they produced that number in many bunches. Everybody is happy, and the petunia is not the pacifier anymore, the tomato is!


 the seedlings from the Suburban gardener (including the 2 photos below). They are rudbeckia and coneflower, the two dianthus survivor is at the back of the tomatoes which i cannot get for the picture.



the makeshift bench to elevate the foreign seedlings

 the lusciously growing organic tomatoes, originally planted as border plants now become the major actors

 you can see a cockscomb in another pot, its other seedlings were eaten by chickens too

 can you see the tomato fruits competing for space, there's a lot of them 

 another pot of impatiens i put outside the tomatoes as borders to deter the chickens

 organic fruits have premium price, and because these are like pets, I consider these very expensive, LOL

they are almost ready for picking and this time they picked already about 2 kg 


 These are my daily harvest during my Holy Week vacation. I got ~30 fruits per day. Mother already had 2 harvests before these and the fruits are bigger than the succeeding ones. For my 3rd harvest, i got much smaller fruits. The biggest i got is ~30g and the smallest ~10g. You can see at the 3rd plate below the much smaller fruits. Now that the temperature is 34C and still going up, i anticipate the tomatoes' faster death. But we really enjoyed the fruits, most especially the harvesting and photographing!


 Since we already have lots of fruits in the refrigerator, we gave most of them as giveaways for  our relatives who attended my niece's thanksgiving party for her graduation in high school with honors. Everybody is amazed at the productive harvest of my tomatoes considering i only have 6 plants. My mother most of all was so amazed, because her plants a bit away from mine did not show the same prolific growth and fruiting. She was wondering what magic i put to my plants, why hers also died earlier. She complained also that she gave the same style of watering to all the plants! I told her what knowledge can do to make a difference. She cannot fathom what i said, she thinks she is more knowledgeable! 




An eggplant on the ground a bit far from the tomatoes, suffered a lot of chicken intrusion, can you see the tattered leaves. This plant is just one of the very few that survived the chickens.

And the petunia originally planted as pacifier for mother, now forgotten because of the show provided by the tomatoes. She almost stays on the terrace most of the time to shoo away the chickens trying to get near the plants. And hopefully, she will not tolerate them coming closer. 




18 comments:

  1. Veggies or not as long as you enjoy the plants you grow then it's fine :) Love those tomatoes!

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    1. Haha, yes that's right! But because i planted tomatoes just now, it is much favored!

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  2. You certainly have a healthy crop of tomatoes. I'm glad your Mom can help you keep the chickens away from them. It also looks as if you have at least one beautiful eggplant.

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    1. Oh yes, my mother even don't know yet why she waters both hers and mine, but my tomatoes are better than hers. She doesn't know the technique. Even if i am a remote gardener visiting only 2x/mo, mine are still better. That is because i know tomatoes very well.

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  3. Wonderful shots ot the crop of tomatoes!
    Thanks for sharing. And thanks for visiting and taking the time to comment;o)

    ***
    Happy day****

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    1. Hi Mildred, this is your first time here, so please drop by again. thanks!

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  4. you do have the well sought after green thumb. we just planted our tomatoes and salad greens, lettuce mix. i hope we get plenty during harvest time.

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    1. hahaha, i love that phrase "the well sought after green thumb". But i don't believe in that, as when we know the characteristics and needs of any plant, all of us will have green thumbs! I should know my tomatoes, i stayed long years in school to learn physiology (another laughter)!

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  5. You got a wonderful crop of tomatoes. You're lucky the chickens didn't discover how nice they tasted. Our chickens eat any tomato they can reach.

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    1. Hi Missy, actually they know its taste. When the tomatoes finally succumbed to the extreme hot conditions, and the quality is already dwindling, they already stopped shooing the chickens, and they are so happy finishing the last vestiges of the fruits. Even the green ones were not spared.

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  6. Hi Andrea, Wow---what healthy plants you have. I love Petunias also--but they don't do so well for me. SO--I stick with Pansies which seem to do great here.

    Love your tomatoes... WOW---what a healthy crop... Makes me hungry for a good tomato!!!!

    Glad the chickens stayed away from the tomatoes.
    Hugs,
    Betsy

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  7. You have me hungry for tomatoes now. You have wonderful veggies in your garden. I've tried growing tomatoes here in the desert but they never turn out. There's a trick to them. I have lots of herbs and basil though:) As for chickens, they are a funny group of birds:) They get into everything....glad they didn't get those yummy tomatoes:) Kreesh

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  8. Love the sight of those plump tomatoes! Well done and good job. And love to see coneflowers appearing in your lush garden. Have a great weekend Andrea!

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  9. What a well-tended vege garden. I could never produce such healthy looking plants! Lovely to visit you, Andrea.
    Rosie

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  10. Andrea what a great veg garden....mine is just getting started and we do not have a long growing season....I hope to repot my tomato seedlings this weekend and then plant them at the end of May for a late summer harvest....we are getting warm weather again...can't wait to see your foreign seedlings bloom

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  11. That's a lot of tomatoes. My son planted some this year but we had some pests to deal with and it is hard when you want to grow things organically.
    I'm still waiting for the seeds from Lily to bloom. When I left it was just the snapdragon that had bloomed so far.

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  12. Home-grown vegetables and fruits taste so much better than the ones one gets from the supermarket!

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  13. Interesting to read about your foreign plants. I hope they bloom for you. Your tomatoes look fabulous. Like Real Estate, location is one important factor in growing plants well. :)

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