Tomato cages
Yay! I arrived home today to find a giant package from Gardener’s Supply Company. I could easily spend way too much at Gardener’s so I try to focus my purchases on “infrastructure” items that should last many seasons. Out of the package I unloaded the six tomato towers that I ordered. I’m glad these arrived when they did because the tomatoes are starting to grow much faster now and it would be problematic to try to put the cages over the tomatoes once they are too big. These cages are quite popular and were back-ordered (I had to wait three weeks to get them), but they are here now and all set up. Yay!
Tomato blossom
The tomato cages are going over tomatoes planted in a raised bed in the greenhouse. Tomatoes need warmth and they’ll get that in the greenhouse. They look quite happy, growing quickly now, and are starting to blossom. The rapid growth does bring up on area where I keep having problems: tomato pruning. Here’s a general Fine Gardening video about why to prune and how and a second that covers early pruning specifically. I’m going to try to stay on top of this this year!
Orchard mason bee house, May 9
- Orchard mason bee house, May 17
In just a bit over a week, the orchard mason bees have filled many more of the egg tubes. I believe these will be completely full in the next few weeks.
The 10 Year Challenge 
Having a reason to sit in a lawn chair, read a book, and soak up some sun – sounds pretty sweet to me! Sorry you lost the one chicken. Aren’t the Gardener’s Supply tomato cages nice? I love all of mine ( and I have quite a few!).
wow! your site looks great!! I used to check it quite regularly but then life got in the way and my blog reading dropped off. I’ll have to get back into the habit! You have been a busy bee with all your projects and posting. I am way totally beyond jealous of your greenhouse. A girl can dream. I will have one someday, rest assured. Until then, my planties will just have to brave the elements and be behind yours! I am jealous of the tomato towers too…I think I’m going to stake mine again this year, as it worked much better than any regular cages I’ve ever used, but the towers seem like they’d be perfect. I’m excited to see how you do with them. OK, I gotta get back to work, so I can’t catch up on all your posts now, but thanks for stopping into Lisa Has Chickens and saying hi. It is nice to hear from you. As for the the pumpkins in the strawbales… I’m just making this up as I go, based loosely on various things I’ve read. Your guess is as good as mine with the soil on top. Plus, if you are not direct-seeding (I didn’t read all the way through, but I think I caught a glimpse of pumpkin starts in seed trays), then you don’t need any soil on the straw, so I’m sure you’re good. It will be fun to compare results come late summer/early fall!
~Lisa
Laura, I agree! Doesn’t sound too bad at all!
Lisa, looks like I forgot to post the picture of the pumpkin plants in the straw bales. They are indeed started plants, not seeds, so hopefully it will work out without the extra soil. I’ll let you know how the tomato towers work out. Laura, from http://www.modernvictorygarden.com, says they are great and she should know!
The chair solution is a great idea to keep most predators away, but forget the book…the chichis are so fun to watch and interact with you won’t get much reading done!
Tomato tower envy!