RL Gardens: Who has one?

[Anhaga]

Just looking for a few people to gripe with when the hornworms start eating my tomatoes!

I have a solid 3 weeks before I can plant even the earliest stuff outside (we have freeze danger into May), but I've got little tomato, pepper, eggplant, and leek seedlings going inside right now. Asparagus crowns will arrive in about 2 weeks and we'll plant them and potatoes before the end of the month.

This will be the first year we'll have a garden in our current house, and we lucked out . . . there's a guy with a tractor who charges just $75 to come till up gardens for people, so my husband and I don't have to hurt our middle-aged bodies trying to dig up the back yard.

So who else grows things IRL and wishes that it were as easy as in Stardew?

 

[Lew Zealand]

We used to have Tomatoes that grew as easy as Stardew as we would just toss out tomatoes into the garden patch if they went bad more quickly than anticipated and we had bought some tomato plants at a school garden fundraiser. We'd end up with too many tomatoes to eat by July or August so a boatload would fall and go to seed, springing up on their own the following year. All we'd need to do is thin them out to favor the best dozen or so plants, but by Year 6 or 7 (lol sounds like SDV) they stopped coming up on their own. I guess they gave up or we need to treat the soil some more? There are a few leetle bebe tomato plants this year, we'll see if they make it.

Don't get me started on tomato hornworms. I see them and know that thing should be a freekin tomato but instead it's got legs and a head and that's gross.

 

[Anhaga]

We used to have Tomatoes that grew as easy as Stardew as we would just toss out tomatoes into the garden patch if they went bad more quickly than anticipated and we had bought some tomato plants at a school garden fundraiser. We'd end up with too many tomatoes to eat by July or August so a boatload would fall and go to seed, springing up on their own the following year. All we'd need to do is thin them out to favor the best dozen or so plants, but by Year 6 or 7 (lol sounds like SDV) they stopped coming up on their own. I guess they gave up or we need to treat the soil some more? There are a few leetle bebe tomato plants this year, we'll see if they make it.

Don't get me started on tomato hornworms. I see them and know that thing should be a freekin tomato but instead it's got legs and a head and that's gross.

I'd guess that you'd probably need to re-compost the area well in the fall, given how heavy of feeders tomatoes are? We had loads of volunteer tomato plants a couple of houses ago (in Virginia)--they started coming up after we had dropped a bunch of tomatoes that were going soft into the chicken pen. We moved the pen (the coop was on wheels and we had a electronet fence that we moved with it) and the next spring had a tomato jungle! It was pretty amazing. I can see the same thing happening here; this house backs onto a creek and the yard is currently a really beautiful, thick meadow.

Tomatoes are one of my favorite things to grow; they're always so much better from the yard than from the store and they are so much cheaper. Since two of my three kids are tomato junkies, that tends to matter. I can give them each a plant or two that is their designated plant and sometimes there are tomatoes left for the rest of us.

 

[smellincoffee]

I need to get started with mine. I grow spring-summer vegetables and always try flowers.

 

[astatine210]

I wish I could do it this year but I'm gone on a family trip for most of the growing/picking season (5 weeks).. last year i grew tomatoes, cucumber, parsley, chives, oregano, basil, sweet peppers, and yellow beans. I did plant some tulip bulbs in the front of our house and i have couple of lavender bushes in our back yard but the snow is still kind of covering all of it so i'm not sure when they'll peek out. Maybe when I get back from our trip I'll buy some fully grown ones from the garden place and take my chances that some fruits will pop out. If not I'll set things up so I have a bunch of things for next year ready to go (plant some garlic chives and garlic bulbs somewhere between some existing flower plants).

 

[REtroGeekery]

Have you tried planting borage near your tomatoes? I used to have a huge hornworm problem until I tried that and now I don't see any until the borage dies from heat, months after I used to already have a problem. I don't get nearly as many when they do show up either.

I have tomatoes indoors that I'm waiting another week to transplant. I've already planted peas, lettuce, amaranth, several herbs, nasturtiums, and marigolds. My onions, potatoes, and sweet potatoes have started coming in early. The irises have spread and are blooming already. My boysenberry canes are covered in leaves again and my grape vines and strawberries are starting to come back to life, too. I need to wait a couple more weeks to plant my peppers, squash, eggplant, gandules, melons, and culantro.

My apricot tree, fig tree, and tiny blueberry bushes are already setting fruit. My nectarine, apple, and cherry guava trees are looking good! The pecan trees are usually a source of disappointment but I cleared some extra space around them last year so hopefully they'll fare better this year. They were here when I moved in and I'm not sure what their deal is.