Tomato planting! I can't believe no one here is interested in my tomato starts. I've posted on other forums and will probably bump my GW thread down in the next day or so since I've managed to sell most of them. Oh well.

Mary, I'd be very interested in your tomato starts if you weren't in NW Phoenix :(

oh darn. I travel a bit....am in downtown Phx often.

I want to plant some tomatoes as well. Will there be enough time for harvest before the cold sets in?

if so, what kind of tomatoes do better in the cold?

It all depends on the weather.....I've started some varieties that will set fruit in cooler temps. If we have a mild winter, we could harvest till spring. If not, the plants will have to be protected. Search Tomato Growers Supply for: Polar Baby, Glacier and Kimberly, also search TomatoFest for Oregon Spring Bush.

I have all of these going right now. The cooler temp seeds do not want to germinate right now, they are struggling, except Kimberly, which had 100% germination. Running 25% (or less) on Glacier and Polar Baby.

September is such a fun, transitional time in the garden isn't it? I'm definitely enjoying the cooler nights and the fact that the high temperatures don't last as long as this time of year as they do in June and July. Aaaah--relief, even if just a bit, LOL.

I'm planting some heat loving plants like palms and oleanders, and will plant out some others like lantanas etc too. I'll wait until the end of the month to really plant out some winter stuff like geraniums and petunias etc. It's just a bit too toasty still. I'm doing some trimming too (citrus, hop seed, oleanders) just to tidy things up, and I gave the citrus their last dose of fertilizer for the year. I'm enjoying not having to water as much too, LOL.

Activities will increase as the temperatures decrease, heh heh. Below is my photo album (so far) for plants and blooms in my garden this September if anyone is curious, or bored, LOL.

Take care, this is a fun thread!
Grant

Here is a link that might be useful: September pics (so far) from my little garden

Replacing dead plants with orange jubilees and bouganvillas.

Love those pics Grant, especially the Grandpa Otts mg. Nice. And I have that same 'Down-Under' clay pot, mine has a cherry tomato in it. Love that pot.

I went to Pioneer Landscape last week and got a load of garden soil. Potted up a bunch of the tomato plants into large containers, then added the fresh soil to one raised bed and turned it in well. It's ready for the few remaining tomatoes and the other raised bed will get beets, carrots and some other fall/winter crops soon. (Pulled a tendon in my rt upper arm yesterday so that arm needs to rest a bit, darn it.)

I added some amendments from Planet Natural to the soil from Pioneer....some 'Glacial Dust' (rock dust/volcanic dust) and shellfish broken up shells. Both dogs had their noses in the air, sniffing around like mad trying to find what that fishy smell was. So far, no digging in the raised bed.........fingers crossed the cat doesn't discover it. :-[

I need to visit turtleman's nursery soon, I'm looking for a small lime tree. And the Metro-Tech Master Gardner sale is Oct 22nd. I usually find some good stuff there.