Tomatoes and Your Kitchen Gardener

So, what do you think of my tomato plants? This picture was taken today, 19th of May 2010 by my kitchen gardener.

After so many years of dreaming of juicy, delicious tomatoes off my own plants, the last few years it has become a reality!

Now I purchase plants in pots from a nursery.

Our growing season is not long enough to wait 90 days for the fruit to ripen.  These plants have blossoms and within a month of setting them outside, beautiful servings or stealings of the fruit is right on my kitchen counter.

Of interest to others, I do not transplant them any more. The process is difficult for the plants to handle and sets the time of harvest back quite a bit.

The bottom is cut off the container and lots of bone-meal and fertilizer is added ... carefully I may add.

Purchased in the beginning or so of April, then kept inside during the nights and chilly weather, set outside in the warmer periods for the sunlight until the second week of May.

Try it if you like. Then maybe you would appreciate some very popular and helpful advice here.

My Garden and the Kitchen Gardener

Worm Castings | Your Kitchen Gardener

 Strumelia's blog

Worm composting....it's vegetable Reincarnation!

Written by Strumelia

Sun, 05/16/2010 - 8:20pm

I keep a bin of red wriggler (Eisenia fetida) composting worms in my basement.  All the very choicest discarded tidbits from the kitchen such as fruit and vegetable peelings and scraps, egg shells, tea bags, banana peels, and used coffee grounds with filters, and shredded brown paper, all go to the worms, and the rest of the kitchen and garden scraps just go into our regular outdoor compost bins. In return, every few months I get a nice big 10 or 15 pound tray full of pure black earthworm castings for my garden.  For free.
I hadn't harvested from my worm bin since the Fall, and today I refreshed their bedding and rotated out about 25 lbs. of wonderful rich castings.
I purposely harvested today because today I prepared the tomato patch.  After deep digging the whole bed, I pounded in the stakes.  Into the ground around each tomato stake, I hoed in about 12 cups of earthworm castings.  Tomorrow I am going to buy the 16 tomato plants at my favorite local growers' stand.  Tomatos are the one vegetable I buy already potted as plants....everthing else I direct seed into the ground in my veggie garden.  I just don't want to get involved with starting seed indoors under lights, and our short growing season doesn't really give enough time to start tomatos from seed outdoors. I've already put in the stakes and planted my cucumber seeds. So now the tomato bed is ready as well.
I like to think about how so much of what we used to throw into the garbage to eventually wind up in landfills now instead gets re-cycled back through our two simple home composting systems and helps us grow our vegetables. And how amazing to think that some of the scraps from those vegetables will yet again go back to the worms to travel another cycle.  It's vegetable reincarnation!

Kitchen Gardener and Organic Fertilizer (2)

Many organic fertilizers can be found at your local garden supply store or on the internet. But you can make it at home! Some organic fertilizer recipes require you to buy some items from garden supply or feed stores. One recipe uses 4 parts seed, 1 part lime, 1 part bone meal, and 1 part kelp meal. This mixture is then added to the soil or spread around plants.

Another great organic fertilizer recipe for houseplants mixes 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon household ammonia, 1 teaspoon Epsom salt, 1 teaspoon salt, and one gallon of water. It is recommended to use once a month.

How often you should fertilize will depend on what plants or vegetables you have in your garden. Most gardeners will fertilize their gardens once when planting and then once every month or two. Lawn fertilization is generally less frequent, occurring usually at the beginning of the growing season and once or twice throughout the growing season.

You can generally feel free to experiment with organic fertilizers to see which is best for your garden as organic fertilizers usually cause little or no harm to your plants and soil. Over time you will develop a favorite method of fertilization and even your own recipes. If you are feeling ambitious, keep a gardening journal and try experimenting on the same types of plants using different organic fertilizers. By controlling the things you put in your garden, you can control what you get out of your garden. Using organic fertilizers can satisfy your craving for getting your hands dirty and help save the environment at the same time!

From            http://howtokitchengardener.com

Kitchen Gardener | Organic Fertilizer (1)

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary. How does your garden grow?" She uses organic matter and fertilizers to supplement her soil, what else? Organic fertilizers, although not specifically regulated related to their composition, are essentially any organic matter that can be used as a fertilizer or soil amendment.

Organic gardeners prefer organic fertilizers to inorganic ones (those manufactured) because they are less harmful to the environment and are far less expensive. Most organic matter used to make organic fertilizer can be found in your home, thus repurposing something you would otherwise throw out.

There are almost as many recipes for making organic fertilizer as there are gardeners who use them. Many have been developed over time, and each gardener will swear by their results. One of the commonly used fertilizers is animal manure, specifically from cows or chickens. Another commonly used fertilizer is compost, which requires you to create a pile of leaves and household food scraps (like banana peels and egg shells). This pile is continually turned and mixed as it decomposes until ready to use.

People prefer organic fertilizers also because they are not adding potentially harmful chemicals to their food supply. By using materials that come from the earth naturally, they are continuing the earth’s cycle of sustaining itself.

By using organic fertilizers, you can create a better soil structure and one that has better water retention capabilities. By activating the enzymes that occur in soil naturally, nutrients from the fertilizers are absorbed more easily and your plants are better able to adapt.

http://howtokitchengardener.com