Hey Everyone...or Both of You

[Geezerette]

I'm Numero Tres. Will this someday be as presitgious as being the third Apple employee?

I wanted to help jumpstart this forum. I'm in Collin County, Texas. What I call my "farm" is a couple of raised 1' x 6' x 17" planters and a handful of pots. I'm actually a sorry excuse for a gardener. Last year's "crop" was pretty unimpressive. But I will try again this year. I've been at it for a good 15 years. I'm pretty much giving up on all but Spring/Summer veggies. It was too hot for a fall crop although I am growing some spinach right now. The other things withered away under the sun. It's January 8 and it's cloudy and we're still 79 degrees, over 20 degrees above normal.

I may just start some tomato seeds now. Maybe I can repeat the miracle of several years ago when I had a 16-ounce tomato.

 

[Mike]

Welcome aboard @Geezerette! Glad to have you (re)join! Whether it's a single raised bed or a 5-acre plot, it's still a garden! How's your spinach doing? We tried to grow a little in the fall of 2024 but the rabbits, and/or other critters, at it all up way before we could get any off it. We figured then it's gotta either go in a raised bed, or we just ain't doing it!

Will this someday be as presitgious as being the third Apple employee?

I mean, one can dream, right? Might have to settle being compared to the newest hire at Tractor Supply.

I'm actually a sorry excuse for a gardener.

That makes two of us but I dang sure give it my best!

Maybe I can repeat the miracle of several years ago when I had a 16-ounce tomato.

Got any photos of that still laying around? I'd love to see what that behemoth looked like! I haven't had much good luck with tomatoes since I started my first garden. Always have really nice plants and lackluster amounts, and quality, tomatoes. I'm assuming my fertilizer mix is off. Come blooming season this year I plan to switch it up a bit, but we'll see how that goes.

 

[Geezerette]

You know, there should be a rule that you don't brag on anything unless you produce the photo. I just realized that I don't have a photo. I remember taking a pic, too. A lot of good that does me. I weighed it at my house at 16 oz, then my neighbor re-weighed it and I believe her scale read 1.1 lb. But I might as well say that it was a 6-pounder...

Planting larger tomatoes in Texas. The hope. The anticipation. You'd think I'd learn from Charlie Brown's attempts to kick that darned football. But I don't.

My three spinach plants are kicking butt, thanks for asking. They're in one of those 7-gallon cloth bags. We've gotten very little rain and I rarely remember to water them.

I live across the street from a very large park/wildlife preserve area. I suspect that my location is closest to where the predators live because I rarely see rabbits and never in my fenced little back yard while I have friends who live around different parts of the park who are constantly cursing those cwazy wabbitts. I even had a Napoli tomato (smaller than Roma) that I put in my neighbor's front lawn among her flowers a few years ago. So there, out in the open, we got around 40 tomatoes from that 18-inch plant and only had a few tomatoes at the bottom that were gnawed on by some pest. My visiting friend, whom I will just call Elmer Fudd, could not believe that we were able to grow these tomatoes out in the open while his rabbits got through two layers of barriers and ate up his plants. I feed birds maybe ten feet away and they leave my stuff alone. They probably feel sorry for me.