Garden 2020

So I have learned some things gardening this year.  I wanted to grow peppers this year.  We have not had luck with them in the past.  I mistakenly thought the plants could survive as long as it is above freezing.  It turns out anything under 45 degrees will kill them and they don't like to be under 50 degrees.  Don't start them until the lows are over 50 degrees.  We will see if  the tomatoes survived.  they appear to be a little more resilient.  Anything under 45 degrees with them is not a good idea either.  Used old dirt on the very north plant.  Used new mix on the very west.  Not strong and not good.  I placed chicken manure on the very bottom.  I don't like chicken manure.  I read that if it is 90 days old you are ok to use, but then many sources say you have to  compost for a year or you are at risk of samanila poisoning.

For peppers 3 gallons are good.  Peat moss is good.  Need drainage hole in the bottom of your pots.
Growing in the ground should be 1/3 peat moss.
Don't need to feed them until they are bigger.  Only plant peppers at the soil line.
Peppers will need support if growing bell pepper, especially not in pots.

Tomatoes: 16 inches wide and a foot deep.  Space holes two feet apart.
5/15/2020- I buried three plants 5/7/2020 and one week later they look like they have not grown.  The same thing happened last year.  The first two weeks they did nothing.  Then they took off.  Probably takes a while to get over the shock of being buried.

I made a couple of mistakes:  1)  I planted the 4 plants that came into one container in one big pot.  Next time one plant per container.  2)  I planted the garden when it was to cold and killed the plants.  Then I planted when it was unseasonably hot.  Don't plant if it is 94 degrees in May.  Wait for it to cool down.

My tomato plants were not robust until around 6/19/2020.  Some died because I transplanted them wrong.  Also, In May, the weather was cold then hot then cold.  Think about not planting until June 1st.  Peppers are doing well but it is a struggle.  Think about buying a stake that you can stake them to.  Also the clips things seem good to get on amazon.

7/15/2020 Tomatoes starting to form.  They seem to form the most on plants that have been pruned.
7/20/2020 Picked 1 Portugal and jalapeno pepper.  However, some of the plants such as Tabasco are flowering, but no vegetable to date.

Place one 8 foot post in ground.  Do single vine pruning- only allow one vine to grow up post.  Prune everything else. September 1st, stop single vine pruning and let it grow out.

Have a group that get pruned to one or two gauges so they can ripen earlier than the rest of the group.

Tomatoes started getting ripe 8/20;  Have a few 8/27;  tons of peppers;

Tons of f at 8/27, the stuff eliminates all of them, but if you don't have that and working you will get over run.

Tomatoes

I planted two big boy tomatoes and two beef stake tomatoes.  Everyone said this was a bad year for tomatoes.  But we had a ton of tomatoes.  The tomatoes on the east side of the trellis did not have as much sun during the year.  They were slower to start than the tomatoes on the left side.  We probably harvested about 250 pounds of tomatoes.  The plants grew over and down the 6 foot U shaped trellis.  It was most excellent.  The one regret I have is that I was too busy and did not pull all of the green tomatoes off the trellis before the first frost.  I let a significant amount of tomatoes exposed to the frost.  Probably 70 pounds worth.  It's not like I can give them to neighbors because they don't taste as good as an August or September tomato.  Now I'm feeding these to the chickens.  Probably 90- 120 orange size tomatoes.  on the positive side, we canned almost 100 bottles, had fresh salsa every week, spaghetti sauce, and even barbecue sauce.  It was a lot of fun.

I Need to Take Pictures

I just wanted to write about how amazing Lisa is.  I was not going to enroll Lisa in Rec this year but one of the coaches asked if I would help coach and asked if Lisa would play.  I told him that Lisa will miss a lot of games but if he was ok with that I would help.  Well the first few games we lost 21-3, 19-1, 18-2, etc.  Last night we just beat the first place team.  It is amazing how one player can turn a team completely around.  Lisa is the only player I know  of that can do that.  She kills it in four areas: 1) Her teammates love her and she makes them better.  I'm told by the parents that they have an energy when Lisa is there.  2) Lisa killed them catching, making double plays, and other amazing plays throwing girls out.  3) Lisa killed the ball hitting generating a ton of offense 4) Lisa kills it pitching, no one can touch her.  It is fun playing on this team because there are five teammates from the ward, so they are all friends.  Her YW Pres was there yesterday to cheer her on.  The only thing I don't like is the sportsmanship.  Kaysville is ine of the worst.  I take a lot of abuse.  The coach last night kept jawing at me "How is comp going for you" in a real derogatory way.  Finally I said to him " I won't be seeing you at high school next year"  basically stating that his kid sucks and that he is narrow minded making such a big deal about a little league game.  When I said that he lost his temper and chaos ensued.  Parents were yelling, the ump came over to break things up.  Softball coaches are white trash.  If you find a good coach it is important to stick with it.  Kaysville is bush league.  Lisa is lucky she has a good coach on Sting and that her teammates are so nice. 

End of School

So, I have not seen much of Lisa this week.  She has turned into a teenager and is never home.  She was telling me she spent last night with her friends sitting around a fire in Audrey's back yard slowly burning school papers in a fire pit.  She said it took two hours for them to burn everything. Then she was going on about how the previous night the scouts could not get the fire lit in the same pit, but that she did it with no help from adults.  I coach Lisa's rec team and they all go trophies.  Lisa has been fun.  She is about 6 steps in front of the next best girl but it's all still fun.  She only pitches one inning a game and smokes them. Then she plays catcher and at the last game did not throw any one out, but made 3 tags at home in two innings.  She is really fun.

5/4 and 5/5/2018 Orem Tournament

Lisa pitched in three games on 5/4/2018 and saved the team those games.  She hit the ball really hard on 5/4/2018.  On 5/5/2018 she pitched two games.  She is so good and so fun to watch.

Feb 23 24 2018 Tournament

We had a really fun tournament this past weekend.  Lisa is so talented, it is fun watching her play.  The first team we played was from Vegas.  We beat them pretty good.  They were good, they went on to win the Silver bracket.  The next game was windy and snowing.  Lisa was pitching that game.  She did great.  It was two - two until the third inning, and then she fell apart.  It was so cold that I don't know how she lasted that long.  The  opposing team was very good  comprising of players from Ogden to American Fork.  It amazes me that Lisa can shut down that kind of talent.

The next game Sting came from behind to beat the team.  Lisa made plays on third base that kept the team in the game.  She made them look routine but she is the only one on the team capable of making those plays. The first was she was hit a routine ground ball to third and she looked back the girl on third and went to make the throw, and the opposing team then sent the girl on third.  Lisa saw it and changed positions and fired it home and Aspen tagged the girl out.  She had people talking about that play all day.  She made a couple of other hard plays look routine, getting outs for the team.  The game was really fun and Sting came back to win.  Lisa is a play maker and she made plays on third all weekend.

Another game against a very good team, Lisa was pitching.  She did awesome.  Sting were down but Lisa kept the game really close.  The team rallied back from 4-2.  Lisa hit a double and knocked in two runs to tie the game.  In extra innings the Sting came came back and won.  Lisa pitched the whole game and did so good.  The team was elite- they were really good.  One thing that was really fun is that the whole place went bonkers when they were making a come back.  Another fun thing was that Emily and three of her team mates (boy were they loud and can cheer) were there and were routing for Lisa.  They all know Lisa and were saying stuff like " I want to Mentor Lisa"  and "Lisa is so inspiring"  and they were fun.  I was talking with them and they play at Viewmont, Woods Cross, and Bountiful High. (Their team kicked major but and went on to win their tournament)  I think it's cool that Lisa knows all these cool kids in high school but she is too young for high school. 
 
So, David got his Croup/RSV sickness and we had to take him into the emergency room Sunday morning.  That was fun.

Kids