Pruning Tomatos



I noticed as I do more and more research that no one can agree about whether or not to prune or pinch back tomato plants of useless branches and/or "suckers". Personally I think it is a good idea to get rid of the branches that are not going to produce in order to save the nutrients for the branches that are going to produce. Suckers are called that because they suck nutrients from the plant before they can get to the fruits.

Suckers are like little branches that begin to grow between the main stem and a branch stem. These little defective branches will not give you any added fruit and can actually take away from the rest of the plant. I would recommend getting rid of these suckers to offer more nutrients for the fruit bearing branches.

Do not go overboard and take off a ton of branches, but if they look "sick" and are not growing any larger, remove them. Do this by using either your finger nails or a sharp knife, and pinching or cutting the useless branches at the base. The plants will heal relatively fast and grow even better than before. There is no need to be too picky. If you miss a couple here and there don't worry, the plants should continue to grow, just maybe not quite as well.

Remember, Mother Earth smiles when you garden!

Canning Green Beans

About 1/4 of one day of harvest.

The green beans are growing like crazy and I find myself harvesting more every 2-3 days. I am already canning them even though it is only July. I will have to do this now for the next month or maybe more. I will pickle some and can some plain so we can enjoy them later just as if they were fresh. Much better home canned than factory canned. Here is a guideline of how I go about canning my beans.

First get lids into warm water, sterilize jars, and all the other fun preparations for canning. Cut and clean beans then follow below. (I do not use a pressure canner, ever.)

To Pickle About 4 quarts:

Pack beans into jar, adding spices of your choice. ( I do red pepper flakes, garlic, and dill or any combination of them)

Boil 5 cups of water with 5 cups of vinegar and 2-3tablespoons of canning/pickling salt.

Fill jars with hot liquid leaving an inch of head space (to the bottom of the ring threads)

Cover and finger tighten the ring.

As long as the liquid was at/near boiling temp when cover is added, the jars should seal without hot water bathing, but you can hot water bath for 15minutes if you want to be sure.

Let sit for at least 2 weeks and then enjoy. Sealed they will last 1 year plus in the cupboard.


To Can Plain:

Prepare jars and lids as normal.
Mix 6 cups of water to 1 cup vinegar and 2 tablespoons canning/pickling salt.

Bring mix to a boil and add beans. Boil beans just for 2-4 minutes.

While the liquid is still boiling, add the beans to the jar, and fill with brine you boiled them in leaving the 1 inch again.

Put lid on jar and fingertip tighten.

As long as the beans and brine are very hot when adding to jar there is no need to water bath, or you can hot water bath for 15 minutes just to be certain.


Make sure not to mess with the hot jars for at least 12 hours to prevent a bad seal. Then store them for up to year in a dark cool place. Always be sure to start with clean and sterile jars. Check seal after 12-24 hours by pushing down slightly on cover. If it doesn't move up and down it is good.

Shingles Explained

In the video above I explain why and how I used the shingles in the garden, and also show you the results. After the shingles did their job, I moved them to another area to start the process again.

Remember, Mother Earth smiles when you garden!

Shingles Moved

This morning I pulled up the shingles I laid a few weeks back to keep the weeds down in between the rows of plants. As I planned, the weeds were dead and gone leaving behind just nice soil. So, I moved the shingles to another area of the garden to kill off some more weeds.


To understand why I do this, you need to understand why weeds grow. Your plants do not grow naturally, you had to plant them(in most cases). Weeds seem to grow anywhere at anytime without being planted. That is because weeds are natures way to protect the soil. The sun beating on bare soil is actually very harmful to the soil. So, the earth grows weeds to shade the soil and keep the suns rays from beating down on it. To keep the weeds from growing all we need to do is protect the soil from the sun's harmful rays.


After I moved the shingles to another location in the garden, I laid compost mulch where the shingles used to be. The compost will keep the sun from beating down on the soil and I will still have my nice walking path in between the rows. At the end of the season, all I will do is till in the compost mulch I laid and it will increase the quality of the soil in the spring. It is really a win win win situation.


There is one downfall to this method. It does not bother me on bit, but it does have an earthy farm-like smell to it. Typically this only lasts for a few days after, but it can last for a couple weeks. So, if you have a smaller property where the garden is near your house, you may want to try another method like newspaper or some black tarp or garbage bags.


If you are willing and able to use this method I would choose this one over the others. Newspaper will decompose quickly and you will need to lay more down every week or two. The tarp or bag method requires you to pick it up at the end of the season because they will not decompose, plus they both cast money. Compost is basically free. Your going to need to cut your lawn anyway.
Hopefully this can help you control weeds in your garden naturally and cheaply.


Remember, Mother Earth smiles when you garden!

Planted too much, now what?

My belief is that is you have the room and the time to care for your garden, there is no such thing as planting too much. Most of your veggies can be stored for long periods of time after you harvest them. There are only a handful that do not store very well, but still, you can never plant too much.

Quickly, if you planted too many of something that does not store well, like radishes, you can give them away to family members, friends, or maybe try to sell them at a farmers market or something similar. I found that giving them to friends and family helps encourage others to start a garden, which is always a goal of mine.

Now, when it comes to storing your produce, you have a couple options to choose from. Many people will simply freeze their produce. This is a good way to keep most veggies for up to one year. I will get more specific in a later post, but there are ways to keep the freshness for several months or even a year when freezing.
Maybe you already knew this, but things with a tougher skin can actually store without any preparation. One good example is squash. Squash can be kept in a dark cool place for 6 months to a year and still be very fresh tasting. Actually, we just cooked a squash from last year that was kept in the pantry for about 9 months now. It was delicious.

My favorite way to keep my produce is canning. It is a bit more work than freezing, but the time it will last is increased greatly, maybe indefinitely. I will cover how to can fresh veggies when the harvest season gets a little closer.  

I was trying to find the article I read a few months ago but was unable to locate it for a link. Somewhere in the U.S. there was a home canned mason jar of mushrooms found from the 1920's. I can't recall who or why they did it, but they had scientists test the canned fungus to see if it was still safe to eat. Surprisingly, it was reported that there would be no harm done if they were consumed. That's 80+ years later and they are still edible.

I don't think I would have the guts to eat something that old, but it goes to show that canned goods can stay for a very long time. I am sure they would lose some flavor over all the decades, but what are the chances that yours will be stored that long?

Don't worry about planting too much because you can enjoy this years garden for years to come, if you have enough. I know they wouldn't last that long in this house. Plant away and just store the extras for later.

Remember, Mother Earth smiles when you garden!

Bean & Pea First Harvet

The first few sweet peas that I picked today (7-2-12). They are super sweet and delicious. Even the pod itself is as sweet as the peas lurking within. I want to point out one thing regarding the peas and their harvest. You can see in the picture that I left the flower part and just a little stem on the pod when I plucked it from the plant. By using a sharp knife or some scissors, I cut them off of the plant about 1/4"-1/2" above where the flower was. The reason I do this is to slow the post harvest ripening. If you are going to eat them right away this is not so important, but you will notice the sweetness will start diminishing just hours after harvest if the stem is not left partially intact. 

I also harvested about 1 pound of beans today (there are a lot more than pictured). We were going to eat these right away so I cut the ends and rinsed them off immediately after harvest. I also do this before canning them, but don't do it too far ahead as they will begin to dry out.Trim the ends and rinse them to be sure no dirt particles are still on the beans and then either can, freeze, or enjoy.

Remember, Mother Earth smiles when you garden!

Water, Water, Water

We need to talk about watering the garden. I have been reading different areas on the web about gardening. One big disagreement I have with many gardeners is the amount of water needed to have a plentiful garden. I read a few articles that said once per day was plenty, and then another that said something about making sure the soil dries out between watering.
Depending on the weather, once per day may be okay. If that's all you have time to do, don't worry your garden will still grow, it just may not produce as well as it could. I know not everyone can spend as much time as I do in the garden, so if I tell you I water 3 times a day, you may think I'm nuts. But, 3 times daily is my routine unless it rains or for some other reason I feel it doesn't need it.
The statement I read about letting the soil dry out in between came from someone that works full-time at a chain home improvement store as a garden specialist. I was astonished when I read to let the soil dry out. I do not let my soil get "dried out" ever. Vegetables need a lot of water to grow properly.
Why so much water? Let's consider what a vegetable is made of. Vegetables are made up of anywhere from 80-95% water. Cucumbers and other water-logged veggies are something like 95-97% water. They need lots of water to grow correctly because that is what they are, water.
So, the moral of this post is not to be stingy with your water. Your veggies will love you for the water and you will love them back once harvest time comes. No one wants to eat a dried out cucumber or a tomato with no juice in it. Keep your soil moist, just don't flood them out.

Remember, Mother Earth smiles when you garden!