Gardening

[Emkay]

Geraniums finally outside today for the summer. I didn’t have the heart to throw any away last winter as they were still flowering in November. Having never successfully kept any over winter in our garage or shed, they got shoved into various free corners of our house. Just need to watch for the Eisheiligen weather thing in May. Never really understood what that means?

[kiplette]

I think the Eisheiligen thing is no longer a real marker what with climate change and all. They are Saints Days in the middle of May, associated with the last frost, but for example this year, I think that's what stung us 2 weekends ago, and this week planting out seems safe to do.

A brilliant thing in our Kleingarten is that the pond which sadly sprung a leak about 7 years ago and has just been an embarrassing wart on the landscape since, has suddenly sprouted newts in droves, so we have carefully investigated (giving all deference to the Naturschutz of the newts), found and mended some leaks and hopefully re-invented the ehemalige fishpond as a wildlife pond. It is so exciting - newts are so cool, it's like a mini Jurassic park in there
If anyone has ideas for covering/protecting the liner on the steep sides of the pond, that'd be great. The shallow half is easy - fleece, under-soil, rocks, plants, gravel, looks fab, but the original shape has the other half pretty steeply sloping and that's harder to do.

[Tap]

I think the Eisheiligen thing is no longer a real marker what with climate change and all. They are Saints Days in the middle of May, associated with the last frost, but for example this year, I think that's what stung us 2 weekends ago, and this week planting out seems safe to do.

You are right, the Eisheiligen is just a name given to a week in the middle of May, but it’s a fun old farmer’s rule and this year has shown us that it’s not a bad rule to follow. We had lovely weather at the end of March and some nice days during April, but that’s still too early to plant out the more sensitive plants. There’s always the possibility of a frost before the middle of May, some years we have it, some we don’t, so the Eisheiligen, or the middle of May, is a good guide. The weather does indeed seem settled now, so I’ve moved my tomato plants outside.

Hope you manage to sort our your pond.

[Fietsrad]

Eisheiligen? Schafskälte!

The Schafskälte, sheeps cold, is a possible period of cold weather in June, the old farmers knew about it, their grandparents told them, so they sheared the sheep later when the risk of cold weather was negligible. Oftentimes the poor beasts suffered in the normal warm weather, but if the Schafskälte occured they could die of cold.

Old sayings* are great, they are the result of long experience of weather, animals, people.

* Contentment is found oftener in cottages than in castles.

[Alberto]

Guys, do your tomatoes grow?

I'm pretty frustrated because, same as in past years, the tomato plants I started from the seed are very promising at the beginning, but soon after that they stop growing and die. Different types but generally almost same behavior. Not all of them, but most. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

The few that seem to be doing better are moving outdoor (some real outdoor, some in the mini-greenhouse I'm getting today)

Chilies this year are doing well, though.

[kiplette]

Thus far, no problems, but I am way behind you, so that's not necessarily meaningful.

You have had massive crops in the past - were they bought plants, or your own grown from seed ones?

[PandaMunich]

Guys, do your tomatoes grow?

I'm pretty frustrated because, same as in past years, the tomato plants I started from the seed are very promising at the beginning, but soon after that they stop growing and die. Different types but generally almost same behavior. Not all of them, but most. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

The few that seem to be doing better are moving outdoor (some real outdoor, some in the mini-greenhouse I'm getting today)

You are using 500ml yoghurt pots for the seedlings, aren't you?
Did you make enough holes at the bottom?
Because tomatoes do not like wet feet, if the soil becomes too wet, their roots begin to rot:

You cannot move the tomatoes out completely, you first have to harden them, i.e. 1 hour outside on day 1, then 2 hours outside on day 2 and so on: https://plantura.garden/uk/vegetables/t ... f-tomatoes

And move them into the shade first, or the leaves will get sunburned, i.e. turn white: https://mattmagnusson.com/tomato-leaves-white/

[Robinson100]

Agree with Panda, but also, do not water from above - they don´t seem to like getting their leaves wet.

[Alberto]

Thanks for the tomato answers.
Yes, I did do plenty of holes at the bottom of the 500ml yogurt pots.

Good news: they now got their first step onto the property ladder

IMG_20240511_121109_697.jpg (3.92 MiB) Viewed 230 times

IMG_20240511_121058_446.jpg (3.25 MiB) Viewed 230 times

[kiplette]

Nice.
I have repurposed an old rebar obelisk thing which has been hanging around for about 5 years doing nothing in particular, and put my Berner Rose tomatoes in a big pot with that as support. I'll make it a rain hat at some point, I guess, but they are a way off flowering.

The ones in the bus shelter are already flowering. The tumbling patio ones which I just have a lot of seeds for are in a particularly nasty IKEA tower of pots thing which is round a corner and out of view. Only after planting and setting up with the help of kid#2 (all very heavy) did I realise I'd put them in Muttererde rather than topsoil, so I'm now making compost juice for them to try to make up for that faux pas. Muttererde is dug from below the topsoil and is generally lower in nutrients - great for the pond we just revamped but a bit crap for greedy tomatoes. Hey ho.

First time I have made this much effort. Hoping for millions

What I actually came on to post is this:
https://visdeurbel.nl/en/the-fish-doorbell/
not actually gardening as such, but hopefully interesting to you folk. The fish are not queuing up as I'd hoped, but you never know what's just swimming upstream.....