Here is a picture of my tomatoes so far. Yeah, I know, they are probably too close together!

I am an avid bowfisherman and harvest a fair amount of carp. I have some folks who will pick up the carp to eat but last year, I decided to keep some and make my own cat food. I filleted the carp and ran them through my meat grinder but the darn cats would not eat it so I decided to use it in my garden!

When I planted the tomatoes last weekend, I added a handful of "carp burger", then and handful of mushroom compost, then a little dirt and the tomato plants. My garden mentor who gave me the plant told me to plant them real deep so I did. They seem to really be liking their new home! Going to build some tomato cages in a few days out of eastern red cedar that I milled with my sawmill. As you can probably guess, I like to be as self sufficient as possible!

Very nice. You've done a LOT of work. Are you planning to freeze or can the food you can't eat? I think you'll get more than you can eat at once with that many plants. We'd love to see an after photo in a few months too.

Very NICE! Yes, you're going to have lots of good health inducing edibles. I wish I lived next door to you :-)

The carp burgers should make excellent fertilizer if the critters don't decide to dig it up. Planted as deeply as you have they probably won't. Many years ago when Kingfish were abundant in the gulf I'd pressure cook them for the Basenjis I raised and exhibited. They had the prettiest coats around.

You'll have some bug problems, but there's lot of good organic rememdies, row covers, etc. for them including beneficial insects, but it may take a couple of years for them to show up in sufficient numbers. What are you planning to use for mulch when the weather gets hot?

Love it all. Keep us posted with photos of your crops. Having fresh corn sure sounds good.

That's a really nice set up. I think it'll give you a lot of flexibility in the future when you get interested in even MORE vegetables. You probably will anyway :-) And good to get some fencing up- nothing more frustrating than getting mowed down by critters.

When you expand you might want to check out cypress or cedar. I know it's more expensive than pine, but holds up longer so might be worth it in the long run.

I hope you post future pics too. It's always cool to see the evolution.

Lisa

Thanks for the nice comments folks.

Lisa, I have my feeler out to some folks I know along the San Marcos River who have downed cypress trees. I plan to get some of the log and mill it myself to replace the pine in the near future. I had milled 3 Easter Red Cedar logs to use for the beds but just did not have enough and did not want to try to chase down more logs.

I am already planning an expansion to the left side, doubling the garden area! I want to get this season under my belt first, though. I want to put in a much larger corn patch!

My mom lives a street over and is a vegan so she will be able to help us with any over abundance! My dad, when he was still alive, used to have a really nice, big garden to supply their needs. He has been gone for 2 years now so mom has to buy grocery store veggies since she never got into gardening.

Niiiiice!! Wanna come build some raised beds in my backyard? Grin. I don't have the shoulders or elbows left to do that heavy work any more. You and your wife have done a fabulous job!

From your earlier post, I wanted to follow-up and advise that you need to mulch sooner rather than later. The soil is starting to warm up (cool spell next few days notwithstanding) and to keep your soil moist and weed free, mulch is your friend. It'll also break down and keep improving your soil.

Remember too that your mushroom compost, while greatly improving your soil over time, isn't much of a fertilizer, so your plants will need food. At this stage in their growth, I use seaweed liquid feed to give the roots a great start. You'll want to consider some kind of food for your little plants. They'll drink it up!

And you're right- your 'mater are really too close together. Since you've just planted them, you still have time to move them. Ideally you want 36" between your plants. I push the window a bit and place mine on 28-30" centers, just because I want too many. But you'll have a much better harvest and less disease if you'll move every other one to a place where those babies can GROW. Healthy indeterminate 'maters will vine 8-12 feet in a season, so they'll grow up and over your cages and they need a lot of room to get the nutrients they need and to avoid disease. If I have a chance tomorrow after work to take a photo of mine, I will and post it for you.

You're doing great! You're going to have a wonderful garden this year!

Hi - just wanted to follow-up with a photo of how you might want to space your 'maters. These are on 30" centers in my little vege garden.

The mulch there, BTW, is miscellaneous leaves I picked up from the side of the road at someone's house. No weeds and nice and moist underneath. :)

Good luck!

My tomatoes are actually 24" apart from stem to stem. I will just have to deal with them and try to get them to up rather than out! Next year, when I double the size of the garden :), I will plant them further apart! I will probably start on the garden expansion this fall! I really have the bug bad!

Thank you so much for taking time to post your pic for me, Robyn!

Nice ammount of space (I am jealous).My vegetable garden is about 20 x 20 with raised beds. Also I am jealous of the 18" of topsoil, even if it had rocks. Are you planning having frost cloth in the winter?