I’m here doing a sustainability gardening channel. I am not thinking I am a cool beans. What I am is somebody who has epically failed at tomatoes multiple years in a row.
I used to love growing tomatoes.
Then the last four years, I have really just hated growing them. I grow them because I love to eat them. And they have a definitively different flavor than the ones you get from a hothouse and the grocery store. But what’s my problem. I have been gardening my entire life? Why have I struggled with tomatoes until this year?
Oh, until the end of last year, beginning of this year, I didn’t realize that there were different types of tomatoes. Obviously, I know that there are different breeds of tomatoes, but there are actually, definitively, two different types of tomatoes – actually three.
Determinate – INdeterminate and Semi-Determinate
I just learned that one while doing more research within the last week! The two types of tomatoes typically are determinate, which just flat out means “Bush.” Why can’t they just say, this is a “Bush tomato (determinate) vs indeterminate – vine” – tall, massive tree-like thing. It would make life so much easier if they wrote these things on the tags. Okay, maybe they do and I didn’t know what I was looking for.
If you try to plant them (determinate and indeterminate) the same way and you try to grow them the same way, you’ll have the epic failure that I’ve had every year.
So this year in my garden I put Amish paste tomatoes, and, um, I put six of them in one bed. There are bushing tomatoes. So I’m going to try to use the age-old theory of caging. We’ll see if that works. I’ll keep you posted.
Well, what I wanted to really let you know about in this video is that there are three types of tomatoes, they’re determinate, which are the short bushy ones. Then there are the semi-determinates, which are the three that I staked into my garden in a totally separate bed from the Amish paste tomatoes. They are a Celebrity tomato and are semi-determinate. So I put massive tree stakes and I’m not joking. I put massive tree stakes in the soil next to the plant so that as they grow up, I will be able to continue to trellis them for lack of a better term to that tree stake and not have it fall over every year.
Now, mind you, none of these, these tomato plants, have I grown from seed? I have not. I have bought them at a local nursery.
IMPORTANT: Um, now the one other thing that I learned about tomatoes is they’re in the nightshade family. Something about their leaves is toxic to specifically chickens and I will do more research and get back to you on that.
The Wrap UP
So to wrap up, there were three types of tomatoes. I am going to be trying different methods this year for different kinds of tomatoes. And I will keep you posted on our progress to see if we are successful or just epic failing.
Keep going and keep trying new things in your garden. Like this year, I’ve never potted tomatoes. We’re going to try something new and it’s making me happy. It’s exciting. You’ve got to find that loving thing for you because sustainability is about what lights you up and makes you happy.
If it’s the sustainability of knowing how to make bread in your kitchen when there’s no more yeast, you can do an awesome sourdough! Rock on! If that’s how to be able to wash your dishes or wash your clothes with a washboard when they decide to actually cut off all the water to your house, because wait, they have to replace fire hydrants.
That’s what sustainability is really – kind of going back to those grassroots skills-based things that we all kind of let lapse because of industrialization and just because of the convenience of things.
But as we’ve learned, hopefully, we’ve learned the resources aren’t always available, and sometimes we need to buckle down and know how to take care of ourselves. So enjoy tomatoes, enjoy gardening. Find that one thing that lights you up, people, talk to you later.
Bye bye.
Between us, we have over 100-years of experience, and Sam’s only 39! If you enjoy our life hacks and simple common sense approaches to sustainability and everyday life, please spread the word.
It’s been way too long since we’ve posted. But we’re back with lots to share.
Make Drainage Far Easier in Pots
We all have plants that we’d like to put into containers. I always try to do a few tomato plants that way. To make life easier, instead of adding rocks and sand for draining, recycle a plastic water bottle or 2 or 3.
Now you may be wondering why I’d even have plastic bottles. Well, I like to keep bottled water for emergencies. A great example going on right now at my house is the water is turned off because they’re replacing a fire hydrant in our block.
Simple hack!
So I’ll take a deep pot and, after rinsing, cleaning, and putting the lid back on, I’ll place 3 or 4 in the bottom of the pot. VOILA! Instant drainage! Excellent reuse of plastic!
Another tip while we’re talking about potting plants. The old soil used for annuals can also be re-used the next year by adding fresh mushroom soil and a bit of worm castings.
Have fun with the plants you put into containers while you reuse and recycle – all to have a sustainable lifestyle!
Between us, we have over 100-years of experience and Sam’s only 39! If you enjoy our life hacks and simple common sense approaches to sustainability and everyday life, please spread the word.
The weather has been awesome here in Maryland this week. So we have been preparing our raised beds for spring.
Every year we get a load of mushroom soil. Actually, we get like five cubic yards of it. It’s a lot!
Here’s our approach:
Bob, my husband, digs down to the bottom of one side of the bed in order to dump the mushroom soil into the side of the raised bed. Then we’re going to mix the soils together, the existing soil with the mushroom soil in order to create a lovely nutrient-rich mixture for our plants.
Actually, the first year we just dumped it on top and spread it around. And we did not have as much success. But this year he had actually spread all the soil in the bed to one side and added the mushroom soil. Then he was able to mix it far more efficiently. The mix is now much more nutrient-dense.
When we go to plant our seedlings in a few weeks, what we’ll end up doing is just put a bit of worm castings and some other little fertilizers right in the holes. It’ll be yummy deliciousness for all of our plants that we’re going to be putting in here.
Between us, we have over 100-years of experience and Sam’s only 39! If you enjoy our life hacks and simple common sense approaches to sustainability and everyday life, please spread the word.
So why am I here with the pitchfork in front of what looks like a pile of dung? Well, it’s because I am!
Mushroom soil is really common where I live and it’s great in my garden. Let’s talk about some mushrooms.
We make raised beds here at our little house and we use the soil that’s already here. But we have to amend it because we have a clay mix.
So in order to do that and not have to pay a ton of money to get lots and lots of fancy soil delivered by a fancy place, we’ve decided to amend our soil with mushroom gold. We’ve used that every year – for about a hundred bucks. Boom! And it’s great stuff. Local companies around where we live take animal manure, animal waste, and mix it with old food scraps, creating this beautiful soil mixture that obviously mushrooms used at one point to grow.
You can see even see some of the straw and the wood that’s in it! In our garden beds, it adds those rich nitrates and nutrients to the soil. It provides luscious food for OUR food to continue to grow. We bought 3 or 4 cubic yards for $100. Every year this guy comes back willingly and this mushroom gold helps us grow abundant crops.
Between us, we have over 100-years of experience and Sam’s only 39! If you enjoy our life hacks and simple common sense approaches to sustainability and everyday life, please spread the word.
The other day I noticed a tree company in our neighborhood. They were there to cut somebody’s tree down, some landscaping. It’s lovely. They’re taking care of something that’s necessary in our neighborhood.
Well, the irony is those tree companies have to pay to get rid of the wet mulch. This is not hot yet. It’s just wood chips that are fresh-cut trees. On an actual garden plot, it can be detrimental.
What I do is I use this wet mulch for around our gardens?
It’s great to use for the walkway between our garden beds and it’s lovely. It’s super easy. We put them around our chicken coop. It makes our yard smell lovely all year long and it’s beautiful. And the kicker, it was free. All I had to do was walk down the street and ask the guy, “Do you get rid of your wood chips at the end of the day? And if so, how much does it cost?”
And he’s like, “It’s free because I won’t have to pay for it.”
Check out this article for ways you can safely use this free mulch (wood chips) around your home and garden.
So the fabulousness is, if you’re looking for cheap effective mulch (that’s not necessarily mulch yet), ask a local person who is having a tree cut down if you can have the wood chips. I’m going to guarantee you that tree service is going to be much happier to get rid of the wood chips on your lawn than to have to go pay to have them turned into mulch, through a drying process and a variety of other methods.
So make sure you click that like, subscribe, whatever social media shenanigans you use. Then check your neighborhood to get your FREE wood chips/mulch!
Between us, we have over 100-years of experience and Sam’s only 39! If you enjoy our life hacks and simple common sense approaches to sustainability and everyday life, please spread the word.
Hi, Sam here. I’m going to actually walk you through this very simple step-by-step process of starting your seeds in this really cheap and effective manner. So like I told you last time, I got these packets from my local grocery store and I had four packs of 24 cells. They were really, really inexpensive. Remember these were super easy. They’re super cheap. And they will last me a couple of years’ time. So we are going to plant our leafy greens, just a couple of varieties to get them started so that when I am ready to put them outside, I will have them ready to rock and roll.
What You’ll Need
Potting Soil
Yes, many people mix their own. ME? I don’t have time for that!
Trays – as described in previous video
Large tray or something to put under your work area for easy clean-up
Spray bottle of water
Seeds
Craft/popsicle sticks or other markers you’re using
Marker
Process:
Add potting soil to your seed tray
Dampen with water (I didn’t have it handy in this video)
The Brussel Sprout seeds I’m planting are very tiny, VERY tiny, so I’m putting 3 in each cell
Cover lightly
Label the sticks with seed name, brand, etc
Use the sticks (or any fancy tags you’re using) to label your cells so that you remember what they are
Lightly spritz again with water
Key Tip: Check your seeds every day so they don’t dry out, which will stress your seeds and hinder growth.
Next time we talk, we’ll talk about other things I don’t like – called the determinant and indeterminant tomatoes. They have screwed me over many years in a row. So until next time, Sam, Sam Groff, from Beyond TP and Milk. Be sure to like, share, join our e-mail list, and start your seeds!
