Planting My Summer Garden Tomatoes Peppers Squash Cucumbers More

Welcome back to More Than Gardening. Today is one of my favorite days of the season. I am planting out my entire summer garden. I've already been out here for about an hour, maybe longer, just staging my plants. I have all of my tomatoes and pepper seedlings all in the beds that they're going to be planted in, all in the exact spots, spacing, everything perfectly laid out. That way all I have to do now is go in and pop them out of their pots and put them in the beds. Friday, May 22nd, so Memorial Day is this upcoming Monday. Here in Michigan, there's two main strategies people do. Half the people that you talk to will say you have to plant after Mother's Day and the other people will say you have to wait until after Memorial Day. I always land like somewhere in the middle and basically after Mother's Day, I just keep an eye on the 10-day forecast and then once it looks like nighttime temperatures are above 50 or maybe even 45 consistently, I go ahead and plant. Today's a little windier than I would like it to be. I'm not gonna lie, this isn't like the best conditions but this is the best day for me to plant. Tomorrow, it's gonna rain all day. Sunday, it's gonna rain and then Sunday, sorry, then Monday, it's gonna be beautiful out but I don't have the patience to wait until Monday. So today is the day. Also, because it's gonna rain tomorrow and Sunday and be gloomy, those are really, really good conditions to have after you plant your garden whether it be seedlings or seeds because the rain will help like welcome those plants in. It'll help the seeds germinate and then the gloomy days with not a whole lot of like sunshine and those like UV rays will really help the plants not be under like too much stress after they get planted. So it's kind of perfect to do it today outside of the wind so that's why I'm doing it. Because I have so many seedlings to plant today and all of my seeds, it's gonna take me a really long time so rather than sit here and like blab on and on, let's just get straight to it and start getting plants in the ground because that is the whole point of the video and yeah, let's not waste any time. I'm gonna start with this bed because this is the first of three Roma tomatoes beds and I am doing just the same as I did last year because it went really well. Last year we were drowning in Romas. We were drowning in tomatoes, specifically Romas, and that is my favorite way to be. I love having a ton of Romas for all my canning projects. We can up tomato sauce, pizza sauce, salsa, chili, pasta sauce, pretty much everything you can think of with tomatoes. So I always plant a ton of these and just like last year, I'm going 24. So I just trimmed off the bottom leaves and now I'm digging a hole that's super deep so I can go ahead and bury some of this stem. If you're new to gardening and you're like, why are you burying like half the tomato plant? It's because tomatoes will send out roots all up the stem and the more roots you have, the healthier your plant is, the stronger your plant is, the more nutrients it can suck up, the more water can suck up, and it's just a better plant overall when you do that. So I always like to trim off those lower branches and then bury just about as much as I can and this is another reason why, yes it's windy today, but I'm not super concerned because this, all the wind is coming from that direction. That pine tree I think you can see over here and then a lot of this hill blocks a lot of the wind from the beds that are maybe a little more sensitive to the wind, like my peppers, where this bed is probably the one that's going to have the most wind hitting it, but I'm burying half the plant in the ground. So it's not going to be like, these are all flopping over right now, but once they're actually planted in the garden, like this one and this one, they're going to be shorter and sturdier and a lot more stable. So I'm just not going to, like I'm not as worried about them falling over. And worst case scenario, I have a ton of extra seedlings this year, just like every year because I start way too beddy, and I'll hang on to those for a few days. That way if any of these do break in half or really get damaged by the wind, at that point I can go in and just swap them out for healthier ones, but I really don't think that's going to happen because these are going to be just fine. I've been hardening them off for like two weeks now, so they've been outside in windy conditions. I've had fans running on them pretty much the entire time they've been inside as seedlings. So they're very nice thick stem seedlings, they're strong, they can handle a lot, and yeah, I trust that they'll be okay. This is my San Marzano bed. I do 10 tomatoes in this bed. This is the only tomato bed that I do 10 in. All four other beds I do eight plants in. The San Marzanos get really, really tall, and I like to prune them to one or two leading stems. And I find them to be just, if you do that, a skinnier, taller plant. So I feel more comfortable fitting 10 in five per row than I do some of my other tomato plants that get like bushier and wider. I should have mentioned this in the beginning of the video. All of these beds have already been worked with a little bit of fresh soil, compost, which is a mix of homemade compost and some like cow manure compost that I got from Home Depot this year. I've also put some slow release granular fertilizer in all of these beds and worm castings. In years past, I have always dropped a handful of worm castings in each hole before I plant. This year I'm not doing that simply because I forgot. I forgot to get worm castings. I forgot to order them. It's literally my fault. There are worm castings in these beds, and honestly I do think there's enough nutrients overall just because of all of the compost that we put in at the end of last season and over the last like couple weeks. So I'm not like worried about the nutrients. I am a little like, I wish I would remember that, but oh well. Can't be perfect. But if you're still planning on planting or you haven't yet, I would recommend getting some worm castings. I'll link in the description of this video the ones that I use, and you can grab those or something similar, and drop those in each planting hole. These ones I have to be really, really perfect because I've got these t-posts on both sides that I use for my Florida weave trellis, and they are not permanent. I could pick them up and move them if I want, but I don't want to move them. And they need to be like, the tomatoes basically they have to be perfectly in a row in line with these. And sometimes I get a little crazy with my planting and I go not very straight with my lines. So I've got to be super, super, so we're detailed right now and make sure that I don't go any wiggly, wobbly, or I just can't make sure. I gotta make sure I don't zigzag at all because this trellising system is very, very important. I probably am not gonna trellis these today. Maybe I will like Monday. No. I told Dylan I wouldn't do any work Monday. Maybe I will Tuesday. I don't know. I don't think it's gonna happen today. I don't think they need it today. Soon, probably my next video if I had to guess, I'll trellis these. I did film last year me trellising these and trellising with cages my romas, my determinate tomatoes. So if you're a little further ahead and want an idea of how to trellis, I'll go ahead and link that video because you can just use that for reference. But yeah, all this is to say these need to be perfectly straight lines because my indeterminate tomatoes, my San Marzano's, and that in the slicing bed we're gonna get to in a minute. Oh my gosh! A worm! Oh my gosh, I'm so happy. This is such a good sign. If you see worms in your garden, that means your soil is very rich and healthy because like what I was just saying about the worm castings because I don't have any to put in the hole, worm casting is worm poop. And here's my little worm friend right now giving me some fresh stuff, which is kind of gross but I'm really happy about that. I'm just gonna let him wiggle on his way. And I have no idea what I was saying before I found that worm. Hopefully it wasn't important. So yeah, I'm just gonna keep planting 10 San Marzano's in this bed. This is my fifth and final tomato bed. This bed I call like my slicers because they're all my indeterminate like round heirloom sandwich type tomatoes. I had a lot of fun with this bed this year because I mixed it up. Last year I did four beefsteak, four Cherokee purples, where this year I'm going with one bronze torch, two beefsteaks, one carbon, two costa luta genovese, I think that's how you say it, and then two money makers. I want to point out that all these beds, I'm just putting tomatoes in them right now, but they will all get compani planted with marigolds and herbs. I like to do marigolds and herbs because they deter pests really well. The marigolds will send out a scent that bugs do not like. And I have heard that they help with deer. I don't know if that's true because I had marigolds last year and we all know what the deer did last year. And then the basil as well should ward off some pests. And it's just nice to grow basil with tomatoes because I cook those together. But I'm going to go, I'll do that like kind of towards the end. I like to just get all of like, like my main crops in first, which is why I'm doing all my tomatoes now. And then I'll do like all of my peppers and then I'll go in and companion plant and I'll show you guys all that too. But yeah, I just wanted to mention that before you're like, oh my gosh, why is she only putting tomatoes in these beds? I promise there will be more. This bed is about to be all of my hot spicy peppers and this bed gets so much sun. So I feel like it's going to be really good for the peppers. I've never planted my peppers here. I planted them kind of in not a great spot last year. I didn't want to talk about it. Half of my peppers I planted with those stupid tomatillos. Oh my gosh, they still haunt me. That was the worst decision I've ever made. If you weren't around last year, basically my tomatillos shaded out my peppers so bad last year that I got like none in that bed. And then the other pepper bed was like, I don't know, it's kind of okay. So this year, all this to say is I'm not messing around with my peppers. I'm giving them prime real estate in my garden. They're in this nice big sunny bed, this bed. And then there's one more pepper bed that I'm doing. And I think this is going to go really well. These are the best pepper seedlings I have ever grown. I don't know what I did differently. I planted them or I started my season February 22nd. Oh, and I'm just removing some of these lower leaves right now. I'm not going to bury these stems the way I do tomatoes, but I don't need those lower leaves are kind of turning yellow anyways. And I don't like too many leaves to be close to the ground because then as it rains and I water, I don't like the soil splashing up onto leaves because that's how disease happens. So I am trimming those up a little bit, but basically these are, like I was saying, my best pepper seedlings I've ever had. I started them. Oh, as I'm saying that, I'm like, are we having some root rot here? No, they're just freshly watered last night. I was worried just now about root rot because they're looking kind of dark. They're not like bright white, but I think it's just because they're really wet and dirty and I'm sniffing them because root rot would smell bad. So I think these are fine. I do my peppers about 12 to 18 inches apart. I actually find that when they're close together, I don't need to trellis them as much because when they're like the wind's blowing and they're waving back and forth, they kind of like hang on to each other. I've heard other people in the industry, the industry I heard, some sort of corporate, I've heard other people in the gardening community call it like holding hands. And that's kind of honestly what they do. They just like lean on each other for support. And then I don't need to stake them as much. I really don't use any sort of stakes or trellising systems for my peppers other than some of my bells and my poblanos as they get really big because those peppers themselves are so heavy. Sometimes I'll add a stake or two or even like a metal tomato cage I'm thinking I might do this year just to support them even more. But these hot peppers like they're going in this bed won't need much. This is going to have my jalapenos, serranos, Thai chilies, cayennes, and habaneros. And I just did cayennes and jalapenos. These beds will be companion planted as well. I'll probably try to throw in some marigolds where I can fit them but they're mainly going to get cilantro and dill. That's what I've done every single year and it works out really, really well. So once I get this bed of peppers in and my other bed of peppers over there and I will come in through with some seeds and do my companion planting. This bed here has all my banana peppers, my bell peppers, my poblanos, and those ones that I cannot remember the name of. It's like chocolate cherry striped peppers. I'm not sure. I'll list it in the description. But I always get asked like how I maintain beds between these trellises and honestly it's not the easiest. Peppers for me aren't really like a high maintenance crop. Once I plant them, I just fertilize them and I harvest them. I do sometimes go in and like prune the lower leaves like I was doing as I was planting them but because I did them now I feel like I won't have to do them later. And there's just like really not a lot of maintenance for pepper plants. So it's kind of a perfect one to put in this bed that I have limited access to and I guess it'd be my advice if you have a bed that's like hard to reach or like kind of an awkward spot they don't like to do maintenance in throw some peppers in there because they're pretty easy and you can kind of be hands-off with them and they'll do really well. My companion planted marigolds, basil, and then Thai basil which is over there in that corner. I did this to all of the tomato beds. I went really heavy in this bed. Pretty much between every single plant there's either basil or a marigold. Same thing with this bed over here and then I went a little lighter on the roma beds just because my romas get so bushy and they get cages eventually that I didn't want to crowd them too much so I went definitely lighter. I just did like a few marigolds on the outside of this bed and then I did a little bit of like Thai basil there, Thai basil there, some regular Italian basil there, and same thing in this bed. So definitely lighter on the determinate tomatoes again because they're really bushy and then super heavy with the companion planting down here in these beds. And if you're wondering what all of this is, it's a lot of eggshells. When we put the compost in this bed some of it was still kind of fresh but honestly eggshells are great. They have a lot of calcium. They'll be good for the tomatoes and they should help with some blossom end rot so it looks kind of messy. It'll get covered with easy straw but it is beneficial and it'll be fine. This is my last bed and then I need to do all of my seeds and I'm a little nervous that this video is gonna be like super long. I hope that's okay. I thought about doing this in two parts and having like one part of the video just be all the seedlings going in and then doing another part for all the seeds but then I was like I don't know. I've never really done a super long video so and maybe when I go back and edit this it won't even be that long. I might be getting ahead of myself so yeah hopefully this is really long. I hope you guys are still hanging in there and enjoying it. Let me know what you guys prefer like long videos, short videos, a mix of both. Oh a little bug on my oregano because yeah I just want to bring like fun good content this year. I'm really really excited to be on YouTube again this season. I've got all this parsley that I started inside that I usually do parsley on the corners of my tomato beds and I companion plant that way but I thought I'm doing the oregano. I might as well do the parsley too and just like I said make this an herb bed. I think I'm just gonna go one two three four five. Let's see how I don't even know how many seedlings I have. Just popping them open popping them open popping them up and then placing them. Oh my gosh this one these roots are getting crazy and they're like tangled. So I'm popping that one putting it in there. Let's see do I have three more good ones. Yeah this is great. I freeze dried all my parsley last year and oh my gosh it was so good. We're still using it. I add it to tomato sauces. I add it to pasta sauce because the pasta sauce that I canned last year I feel like I didn't put enough herbs in it so I always add the freeze dried every time. Oh my gosh the wind is getting dirt in my eyeball. That's okay. Why won't this come out? You guys I am blind. The dirt in my eyes today. Okay that one doesn't want to come out. I'll just use this last one here and that's it. Yay and then I'll put more easy straw in it but maybe this will be a fun little bed. I have to sow all of my seeds now to grow up all of my trellises. This first cattle panel I am doing cantaloupe on one side. I'm growing the hail's best jumbo and I'm doing cucumber on the other side. This next trellis I'm doing my cucumbers. I'm doing a mix of market more for like salads and sandwiches. I'm doing some pickling cucumbers and I'm also trying this new variety. They're like gherkin pickles. They're supposed to be like mini ones to make smaller pickles which I'm really excited about for like snacking on. So that'll be a new variety for me this year growing on this trellis. This next trellis was going to be my green beans. I always grow Kentucky Wonder pole beans on these cattle panel trellises. Kentucky Wonders are my favorite green bean because they produce all year until frost kills them so it's like an endless supply of green beans. My final super big trellis I am doing butternut squash, honey nut squash, and zucchini repicante. I hope I'm saying that right. This variety is supposedly really delicious whether you eat it green as like a zucchini type flavor or if you let it stay on the vine long enough it'll look more like a butternut squash and I have been told it's squash vine more resistant. Other squash I'll be growing on this trellis which is the Waltham butternut. I grew this last year and it was the only plant on my trellis that didn't get destroyed by squash vine borer so it gets a spot again this year and then I'm also trying out for the first time this year honey nut squash which I have been told by so many people is squash vine borer resistant so it also gets a place on my trellis. If you can't tell I am sick of the squash vine borer. I don't even want to put up a fight this year so I'm only growing varieties that are resistant to it and I think that is going to make for a much much easier gardening season this year. That is the entire garden planted. I cannot believe how long that just took. I don't think I've ever planted my entire summer garden in one day. I was thinking back like why does this feel like it's taking eternity because I usually split it up. I usually do like tomatoes one night, peppers another night, seeds another night. No today I got a little crazy and was like I'm gonna do it all in one swoop and I think it's like 4 30 in the afternoon. I think I started at like 10 30. I did go inside twice to feed Charlie and I had I was gonna say I had lunch. I had like a beefsteak but yeah so taking a couple breaks but I went through and I added easy straw to all of the beds. That is just a good mulch option to keep the soil nice and moist. It'll help those seeds that I laid germinate and when it rains and when I water with a hose it'll prevent any of the soil from like um what is that word like back splashing like yeah when the water hits the soil instead of the dirt like flying up and hitting my plants which can carry disease now if anything jumps up it'll be the straw which doesn't have disease so yeah just cover your beds in something. I recommend easy straw. I also went through and watered with my hose. It got a little funky. I couldn't really reach the last beds. The hose I use today is the one we usually have hooked up to the automatic sprinklers which I have to set up very soon so the deer don't come and kill my garden that I just spent my entire day planting um but yeah I had to use that hose because our hose from last year that does reach broke so I need to get a new hose. I ended up having to do a lot of like like I just let the water spray to hit those back beds which I don't love because I actually don't like watering the tops of the plants or the plants directly. I like to just water at the base because I don't like getting my plants wet if I don't have to but that's the only way I could reach them with the hose so that's what we did today. I hope you enjoyed this video. If you have any questions or anything please leave them in the comment section. If you enjoyed this video please leave a like. It helps my channel more than more than I can put into words. It really really helps when you guys like, you guys comment. If you haven't already please subscribe to see more of my gardening content and yeah thank you guys so much for watching. I'm really excited for this season. I think it's gonna be my best season yet. It's getting really windy so I should probably get inside but yeah thank you again so much for watching and I will see you in the next one.