Garden Chat

By Jean Lundquist

Heavy lifting

Time to get in shape for gardening

Ispent a fortune on my garden this year. Maybe I should say “on my vegetables,” rather than “garden.” Or maybe I should admit that I spent a fortune on dirt. I didn’t plant anything except squash in the ground.

I put everything in bags again this year. After consulting with my back, it told me it didn’t want to bend over to plant or weed. They don’t give away potting soil anywhere, so I bought it. My back also told me it didn’t like to pull heavy bags of soil from the back of my car, so I had it delivered. One nice delivery person actually placed it in the shed for me.

A friend gave me some new grow bags, and I had some left from last year that I hadn’t used, so I had plenty of bags.

When I bought my first grow bags, they were advertised to last up to three years. That was four years ago.

The actual bag part of the bags still looked intact, so I used them again. But I discovered that while the bags last, the handles don’t. I discovered this the hard way, of course.

In retrospect, I realize I should have watered the bags when I had them in place, not before I moved them. Wet soil is very heavy. I was carrying one heavy, wet bag out, when the handle on one side gave way, suddenly putting all the weight of the bag in my left hand. I face planted.

My knees haven’t been this scuffed up since I was a kid.

A few weeks later, I decided to move all my bags, with beautiful full plants in them, outside. My back said, “No.” So I recruited my loving husband to help me move them out. His back also said, “No.”

With his infinite wisdom, he suggested I leave the remaining bags in the greenhouse. After all, he reasoned, that is the point of having a greenhouse.

So there are still over half of my tomato and pepper plants in the greenhouse. I grow indeterminate tomatoes, which means they never quit growing. I imagine by the end of the summer I’ll need a machete to just walk through the greenhouse.

Another friend, moving to New Mexico, gave me her homemade tomato cages. They are quite tall. She told me every time a tomato branch peeks over the top, to snip it off, and they will work fine for me. I will do that. Unfortunately, she had only four tomato cages, and I have way more tomatoes than that.

I’ll make do – I guess I’ll have to.

I decided to top some of my pepper plants to see if they produce more peppers with the tops snipped off. They are looking bushier than the others; now we’ll see about production.

I emailed the University of Minnesota Extension office to ask if they had any advice to offer on the subject. They did not. However, the person answering my email asked me to let her know how it worked if I did top some peppers. If you have also experimented with your peppers like this, please let me know how it turned out for you, and I’ll report back to her.

I know several years ago the Extension Service experimented with topping Brussels sprout plants and determined it was a good practice. According to Extension, when the sprouts in the lowest part of the plant are about an inch in diameter, cut a couple of inches off the top of the plant to get bigger sprouts and encourage the topmost sprouts to enlarge as well.

I hope what’s good for the Brussel sprouts is good for the peppers!

Sometime ago I found a YouTube video with exercises for gardeners to get in shape for the growing season. I’ll have to revisit that video and hope that next year I’m actually in the garden.

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