Gardeners Grow Together~Week 28 July, 2021:Tomatoes & Lilies & Beasties, Oh, My!
Welcome to my special gardening page for those of you who like to garden yourselves! Each week, I will make suggestions as to what gardening tasks we need to do every week during the growing season. It will help keep you on track--as well as myself!
To keep things simple, I am using the year's weekly number, Week #1 through #52 (example: the week of January 1 is Week #1), instead of specific dates.
So, come on! Let's get our hands dirty!
Week 28:
Tomatoes & Lilies & Beasties, Oh, My!!
Shortly after posting my blog last Friday about attracting wildlife to your garden, I received an email from my neighbor that contained a photo of this little guy who was in my garden earlier that same morning!
Disclaimer alert!! This is NOT the kind of wildlife I was referring to! (: I'm just wondering where Mom is! Yikes!! Needless to say, my horses were not best pleased about our visitor, either.
The next day I also noticed that something had come into the garden and had neatly bitten off all the flower buds on my three foot tall sunflowers...probably a deer. Ahhh, the adventures of gardening and country life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the Vegetable Patch:
Blossom End Rot and Splitting on Tomatoes
In the Flower Garden:
Blossom End Rot and Splitting on Tomatoes ~ the Causes and the Cure:
Blossom end rot in tomatoes shows up as a large sunken brown or black spot at the bottom of the fruit. It is an indication of a lack of calcium brought on by lack of water. Tomatoes need consistently moist soil conditions to thrive. Regular watering is essential to healthy plants. Using a thick, organic mulch, such as wood chips, grass clippings or garden compost will help to keep the soil moist for longer between waterings. Some people add two or three "Tums" tablets to the planting hole when setting out plants. I'm not sure if this helps, but it certainly is worth a try, if it is a recurring problem for you.
Keeping the soil consistently moist will also prevent another annoying condition – splitting. “Splitting” is when the skin of the fruit splits vertically or horizontally around the fruit. This is caused by a long period of dry conditions, followed by a heavy watering. The sudden upsurge in water causes the fruit to swell rapidly, causing skin to split.
The good news is, in both cases, the fruit is still edible. Just cut away the affected parts and use whats viable.
Staking Lilies
It's Lily time!! Lilies are bursting into bloom right now all over the place. Lilies have long stems, topped by large clusters of flower buds. This can make them quite top heavy. A good breeze or heavy rain can send them tumbling to the ground. Asiatic and Oriental lilies really should be staked for best results. If you have a large number of them in the same area, you can “corral” them instead by putting four stakes in the ground and then running string around the outside of your group of lilies. That way the lilies on the outside edges will be supported, which will in turn support the plants on the inside.
If cutting to bring in the house, be sure to leave at least half the stem and leaves behind to be sure the plant can use the sunlight to regenerate the bulb for next year's blooms!
Day lilies are a completely different species, with a different growth habit, and do not require staking.
;
Now, lets get busy!
If you have any questions, put them in the comments below!
~Lee Ann~
Valmont Valley Farm
Where Beautiful Magic is Always in Bloom
If you would like to join in supporting my flower farm and receive beautiful bouquets weekly, please sign up for my Flower CSA!
I would love to hear your comments on my blog posts. Please leave your comments below.
If you find this information inspirational or helpful, I would love it if you would share it with your friends!