Make room for tomatoes!

This week the tomato plants are multiplying at both an alarming and satisfying rate. Beginning with one flat planted with multiple seeds in each of 35 cells, we transplanted the sprouts into many, many plant packs. We must have about 150 tomato plants now representing about 40 different varieties.

But where to put them when it's time to transplant them into the ground? Our ready-made trellises in the raised beds, destined to accommodate the tomato plants after the harvest of peas growing on them now, are insufficient for all of these tomatoes. So, over the past two days, we've created a new planting bed that will hold three new rows of trellises and about 60 tomato plants.

To create this new bed, we hoed the weeds and turned over the soil. Then, all of the grass clippings from the lawn this week were laid down over the bed. We like to use grass clippings (and, in the autumn, leaves) to build new soil through composting. The grass is a good source of composting material because it is clean (we don't use pesticides on the grass) and it gets hot as it decomposes, thus warming up the soil. After the grass was spread over the soil, it was worked into the existing soil to turn the grass into the soil. Then, Perry hauled quite a few wheelbarrow-loads of organic compost (an aged, cured mixture of redwood tailings and horse manure) from the driveway to the new bed, and spread it over the planting area. Finally, the area was sprinkled with a lot of coffee grounds (good source of acid) obtained from the local Peets Coffee. Voila! Add a little chicken wire to create the trellises, and a new planting bed will be ready to go! Here are the photos before, during, and after this process. In a few weeks, when the tomato plants are ready to go into the ground, the ground will be ready to embrace the little plants.