Growing grapes and making wine in Bellevue
Posted in gardening, tomato wine on Jun 25th, 2007
I noticed the first flower among my gold nugget tomatoes a few days ago, and that marks another milestone on the path toward tomato wine. I took this photo on 6/21/07, and since then one or two other flowers have bloomed. These tomatoes are a lot more patient than I am. I’ve done my part. [...]
Posted in gardening on Jun 18th, 2007
A disappointing harvest delays my rhubarb wine experiment
Posted in bonsai orchard, cherry wine, gardening on Jun 14th, 2007
Surefire is one of four cherry trees growing in my bonsai orchard, and the only one that will produce fruit, if just a handful, this year. It’s a tart cherry with red skin, flesh, and juice; I can’t wait to make red cherry wine and liqueur from it. I bought the tree this year, so [...]
Posted in gardening, tomato wine on May 31st, 2007
I transplanted more Gold Nugget tomatoes last night, six more to what I’m calling the “east block.” That’s to distinguish them from the four in the “north block” that I transplanted on the 29th. I did it the same way: deep planting hole, pinched out the lower leaves, added a ground up antacid tablet and [...]
Posted in gardening, tomato wine on May 30th, 2007
I’ve been reading up on blossom end rot, and it turns out that there may be something to the old (I would have called it a “wive’s tale”) practice of putting some powdered antacid in the planting hole of each tomato. The rot is caused by a calcium deficiency in the fruit, and the calcium [...]
Posted in gardening, tomato wine on May 29th, 2007
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Posted in gardening, tomato wine on May 25th, 2007
When I wrote about cluster thinning to improve wine grapes, it got me thinking about tomatoes. Could the same technique improve the quality of tomatoes (and wine made from them)? I always have a problem with blossom end rot on my Romas, and I think that may be clue. This rot occurs because the plant [...]
Posted in gardening, tomato wine on May 24th, 2007
I used to write software for a living, and one thorny issue never far form anyone’s mind was the release date. This was the result of changes, unexpected problems, negotiation, compromise, tests of will, overtime, threats of violence, and – ok maybe not threats of violence. Not explicit ones anyway. The point is that the [...]
Posted in gardening on May 20th, 2007
An important part in rejuvenating the rhubarb patch and preparing the tomato vineyard, is to fertilize them. Steve Solomon is my favorite gardening author, and this organic fertilizer recipe is from his Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades: The Complete Guide to Natural Gardening: 4 parts (by volume) seed meal (I use cottonseed meal) 1 [...]
Posted in gardening on May 18th, 2007
Rhubarb is hardy, but you still have to water, weed, and fertilize to get a good crop.