Life With Hammy

Growing up, one of my memories of summer time in Oklahoma and Kentucky is my Dad growing tomatoes in a small garden. I know a lot of people who do not like tomatoes. I think if they got the chance to try a vine ripened tomato fresh from the garden, then they might change their mind. They are sweet, juicy, and delicious.

I have done my best to carry on the gardening tradition with tomatoes and even tried expanding to some other plants. One of my all time goals with gardening is to grow my own cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions that I can add to pickle mixes. I also love making cucumber, tomato, and onion salads. My mouth is watering just thinking about all of this!

One big problem with growing the tomato plants and other vegetable plants in Kentucky is that we get lots of rain and that our soil here has lots of clay in it. I’ve worked through several years and it seems that somehow my tomato plants always get some disease or fungus that kills them. So, I decided to try controlling some of the conditions for a few of my tomato plants to see if this improves growth and protects from disease.

On Amazon.com, I purchased a small, inexpensive, and portable greenhouse (see image below). It looks like these are currently out-of-stock at Amazon. I wanted to get something that could be put together relatively quickly, that would provide protection for a few plants, and that was easy to deal with and easy to access.

I put together a small, simple slightly raised garden bed that would fit within the frame of the bottom of the greenhouse. So far, it seems to be holding up OK. The greenhouse came with some teeny, tiny, and weak little anchors. So, I went to Wal-Mart and bought some longer, steel tent stakes to firmly secure it in place. I also placed river rocks around the outside fringes of the greenhouse. Hopefully, this will be enough to keep wind from damaging or moving it.

Initially, I wasn’t going to plant much more in my garden. However, a trip to Rural King caused the green thumb bug to bite me. I’ve gone and bought 6 early girl tomato plants, 6 green sweet pepper plants, 1 jalapeno plant, and a bundle of about 20 sweet onions. I got them all planted out in the garden this weekend. I also got really dirty and a bit of a sunburn as well.

I am praying that we have a wonderful summer without too much rain and that my little garden flourishes. I’ve found that the soil holds so much moisture out here in Kentucky that I don’t even think I really need to water my vegetable plants.

Do you plan on planting a garden this summer? If so, what are some cool tips and tricks for making your garden a success? Please share in the comments.