Tag Archives: Gardening

2014 Salsa Garden is Taking Root

ramsgate_garden_01The salsa garden has been planted and is ready for the 2014 growing season here in North Carolina. I planted the garden in late April. I usually do it on Good Friday, but I’d been traveling a lot and the winter was pretty hard. Luckily, I had been preparing my soil a few weeks ahead of time (tilling, fertilizing, weeding, etc.) so it was easy to get the plants in the ground.

I got my plants from Logan’s Trading Company in Downtown Raleigh. Zander went with me to help select the plants. Actually, we made a pit stop at Wise Recycling to cash in our aluminium cans and made $53.00 before going to Logan’s. The plants looked great. Zander wanted to try some pink girl tomatoes, so we’ll see what those are like this year. Unfortunately, they were out of red and orange peppers so we went with more golden peppers instead.

We had a boys-out lunch at Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar before heading back home. After we got home, I did some final garden preparations and got the plants in the ground by the end of the weekend. That was the last weekend in April, so let’s fast forward to mid-May.

Garden update May 17-18

The salsa garden was well-hydrated earlier this week. A cold front came through on Wednesday/Thursday and left us with 5 ½ inches of rain. After that, lots of sunshine and cooler temperatures. I decided that it was time to cage all of the plants and worked in the garden.

I tried a new strategy when planting the garden rows this year. Instead of organizing the plants east to west like I’ve done in years past, I decided to try north to south and group them in rows of two. You’ll see how it looks in the pictures below, but the theory is that it will provide more access to my plants.

ramsgate_garden_03I also planted less plants this year to help with spacing them out and will be experimenting with a few other things as well. Here’s what the line-up looks like:

  • Tomatoes:
    • Better Boy (3)
    • Big Boy (4)
    • Celebrity (6)
    • Early Girls (8)
    • Large Cherry (4)
    • Patio (8 in pots)
    • Pink Girls (2 in the garden / 2 in pots)
    • Roma (4 in the garden / 4 in pots)
    • Rutgers (4)
  • Peppers:
    • Big Bertha (8)
    • Camelot (8)
    • Golden Peppers (6)
    • Jalapeños (3 in pots)

One of my experiments is with the Roma’s. I’ve got half of them in pots and the other half in the garden. I also reduced the amount of cherry tomatoes this year. I had over 1,000 last season which was a lot to deal with. I reduced the amount of plants by half and moved them to the edge of the garden in case they get ginormous again.

I’ve already got a few blossoms on the plants, and most tomatoes are already knee high. Hopefully it will be another great year for the salsa garden.

Red Hat Craft Fair: A huge success for salsa and books

Red Hat Craft FairOn Thursday, December 12, I participated in my first Red Hat Craft Fair. It’s an event held at Red Hat headquarters where the crafty folks or their spouses/family members get a chance to sell their home goods to Red Hatters. I thought it would be a good idea to sell my book and my salsa. It turned out to be a good idea. Continue reading

Garden Report for 2013: Over 2000 Tomatoes and Peppers

garden_03It was a good year for salsa at Ramsgate Manor. It was also the first year for my garden in full sun. Last fall, we had a 70+ year old Oak tree removed that was struggling with a disease. We decided it was best to remove it rather that spend the money to repair it. And the garden reaped the benefits. Here’s the breakdown of the tomatoes and peppers from the 2013 growing season. Continue reading

2012 Garden Results and Notes

The garden this year started in mid April with a variety of tomatoes and peppers. I kept track of the incoming crop, took notes along the way, and tallied up the totals.

I planted a bunch of different tomatoes: Early Girl, Patio, Large Red Cherry, Better Boy, Big Boy, Roma, and Super Fantastic. I also planted seven different kinds of peppers: Big Bertha, Camelot, Golden Yellow, Orange, Red, Jalapeño, and Serrano.

The results are in. Here is what I brought in this season: Continue reading

The 2012 Salsa Garden

I finally got the vegetable garden going. With the wacky weather we’ve been having, I decided to wait until after April 15th to get this years garden in the ground. I took Friday off of work and got the green thumb going.

After a few errands, I made my way to Logan’s Trading Company. My default location for the vegetable garden. They sell a flat of vegetables for $18. I inspected the large selection of peppers and tomatoes. I ended up getting two flats. More plants than I’ve ever gotten for a season. Continue reading

New Knock Out Garden

Knock out roseWe had our work cut-out for us last weekend. The project list looked something like this: weed the garden, mow the lawn, weed eat, edge, trim the pond liner, add protective netting to the pond, re-pot elephant ears, plant new tomato plants, mulch the front gardens, accessorize the upper deck, and plant our new Knock Out® Rose garden.

We decided to document the creation of our new garden with a few photos before, during, and after. We hope you enjoy.

How to create a Knock Out Rose Garden Continue reading

Update on our Outdoor Living Space

Deck and patio projectYou may remember that we started exploring creating more outdoor living space here at Ramsgate Manor. The project is well underway and taking a bit longer than we had expected.

Construction started in early May. We were planning on being out of town for about 3 weeks—which presented the perfect opportunity to get most of the project complete (in our eyes). When we returned from our trip to San Francisco and Honolulu, the deck had been framed and the planks installed. Unfortunately, the railing was not installed and the patio was an after thought. Continue reading

First Early Girls of the Season

Early girlsThe garden is doing well. Despite being away for most of the month of May, my neighbors helped out and kept things watered and growing. Late last week, the first of green tomatoes started to turn a yellowish-orange. I had a suspiscion that by mid-June, the Early Girls would be ripe.

I could have picked the first of the tomatoes on Sunday, but thought it would be better to let them get a bit more vine ripe for the first batch. Continue reading

Creating Outdoor Living Space

proj2011_elevation

Merri Beth and I have been toying with the idea of adding a patio and a new deck on the second level of the home. We like spending so much time outside, we want to create more outdoor space for the family to enjoy. We are currently getting some quotes for the project but wanted to share our ideas with you to get any feedback or recommendations of contractors who would make this a successful project, at a reasonable price. Continue reading