The garden hoses have been pulled out of storage. It's a task for sure. We require about 200 feet or so of garden hose to water our garden.
Our very first garden was pretty small. Our farmhouse had zero water spigots outside. None.
We hauled water cans, and buckets in a wheeled cart to water it, and the garden flourished.
We have also unpacked the garden tool bags I take out to the garden, watering cans, solar chargeable motion sensor do-hickies that send out a high pitched noise to deter the squirrels etc. The first year we put them out, we never saw one squirrel until we took them out for the season. Some stopped working, but most are still solar charging.
The gardens are tilled now, and one garden area fence is back in place. Fencing has been acquired for the other garden (although it will not keep deer from jumping).
We have successfully planted all of the tomato plants (about 4 varieties, but mostly San Marzano). A few are not staked yet, and about 6 may or may not make it. You never know, as the good ol' mother nature can revive just about any sad looking plant.
(note: it takes about 50 pounds of paste tomatoes to make one full batch of canned tomato sauce).
Paste tomatoes are the type of tomato needed for canning anything "sauce" related. I'm talking about Tomato soup, tomato sauce, pizza sauce, taco sauce, ketchup, etc. They are a meatier tomato. They are the best for also canning stewed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and for canning tomato paste. The are the better choice to freeze as well, for chili, stews, or other recipes.
The beef type tomatoes are planted for enjoying fresh mostly. We enjoy them on salads, sandwiches, just eating alone, topping toasted bread, BLT's, etc.
Cherry type tomatoes are planted for simply enjoying fresh, adding to summer salads, and even dips. They can be used for focaccia bread and a lot more. If we get an abundance, I can also dehydrate some.
Rain is possible, but the remainder of the garden is being planted, and fenced.
If you are new to planting a vegetable/fruit garden, hardening the plants is a bit of work. The plants are moved from indoors to outdoors daily, to adjust to the mother nature (wind, rain, sun, etc.)
The plants go out an hour the first day, then back in. They go back and forth each day, increasing the time they spend outdoors, and by the time the plants are in the ground, they have acclimated to growing outdoors.
I have planted one new cilantro plant in the herb garden. My feverfew seeds I planted early, may have been planted too early. I plan to drop more seeds before the next rainfall.
My resident herb garden snake does not look like it's moving on. It seems to be very interested in staking it's claim to where it's currently located. Until I have to weed that area, or harvest, we are letting it be (there must be some tasty bugs or rodents it's consuming).
We are praying that the tomato plants were not planted too early. We now see that our evening temperatures could dip to about 44-47°F all weekend. However, the forecast looks like it will be the end of the cooler evenings, and summer is starting to move in.
Garden Season Officially Begins © May 2025 by Kristina at Pioneer Woman at Heart
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