It’s almost all in. I say almost because despite the fact that rain wasn’t forecast until tomorrow… it started today. So I got most of my plants in anyways.
The blackberry will have to wait until the rain stops- but at least the tomatoes and the mess of zucchini are in.
The zucchini was an adventure however.
For one thing the root ball was very stuck in.
Yeah, not gonna be able to separate that.
On top of that, the other problem is this bed that has the best room for the squash ball is fairly shallow. I tried to separate the roots so I could have a few plants in different areas- but that dog wouldn’t hunt. Faced with lots of roots… I improvised.
I took a bag of potting soil and mounded it up into a hill. Then I dug as deep a hole I could and put the sure start inside. And then I planted my squash ball and hoped for the best.
I still have to mulch the hill, but as mentioned, we’ve had a rain delay.
Mount squash. It’s gonna be real interesting to see how good a neighbor the zucchini monster is going to be to the romaine lettuce and the green onions. Not so worried about the scallions mind, as long as they have some vertical room they’ll grow. Hope the romaine don’t get squashed.
Heh. Squashed by squash.
I might have to find some sort of trellis system- but I have to do more research.
The tomatoes were much more straight forward.
The Roma mega pot went into the big green pot. Similar to the squash pot it’s three plants in one big root ball, which is also semi-crazy but the plants are super healthy and Roma tomatoes are like the gold standard paste types so I’m affectionately referring to the red pot as the sauce pot from now on.
I put all the soil around the pot while the pot was still on the plants, then removed the mega pot and put down my sure start and planted the big boy.
I mulched it and put some extra stakes in.
I’m gonna string some soft ties around the stakes to support the stalks. it’s a Gerry-rig but I’m known for that!
As for my other tomatoes, it was much easier.
I bought a sweet 100- your bog standard red cherry variety, and a funky heirloom called “black krim’. I chose the black krim because it’s a globe but not a beefsteak and it was developed in Russia. I.e., if we have a cool summer it should still produce since it was bred to perform in an even colder climate than ours.
Also the fruits look SUPER COOL. Like red with black streaks. I’ve also totally bought these at farmer’s markets before, and they are super delish.
I pulled the sassy salad from the green pot- it was going to seed anyways because of the increasing sunshine- and some sure start later- the black krim was in.
It’s a pretty runty plant so far- I have to figure out how I’m going to cage it- but it looks healthy.
The sweet 100 went into my new extra large terra-cotta pot, along with granular fertilizer, sure start and lots of potting soil. I think the old tomato cages will do for this one- on Wednesday when the rain breaks I’ll assess my options.
I’ve got my eye on you miss blackberry- and while I’m probably going to have to buy you a friend in a week- you’re getting planted soon enough- wait your turn!
God I’m so excited about putting in a blackberry.
Stupid rain delays!
The Neanderthal Gardens 
I have not even started my seeds yet (eep!) although I meant to, before. But I am quite enjoying your garden!
We have a little travel coming up, so I’m thinking about waiting to start the indoor ones until after that – it’s still semi cold here in GA anyway!
Thank you! I hope your future planting goes well!
My zucchini are always planted in groups of three in the same mound. The three different plants grow in three different directions . . . sort of. Whatever they do, they naturally take their own space. Sometimes, there are only two. Anyway, I would not have worried about separating them, unless there were just too many for one spot. There really is no advantage to giving them separate spaces. Single plants work nicely too, but just run in circles instead of growing away from the center.