When to take off the wall of water....

He're a note with some ideas from a local gardening friend:

Dave,
The instructions that come with the WoW's imply you can leave them on the plants all season if you wish, and I suppose that would be possible if one selectively prunes the leaves that get too big (such as your situation) inside the WoW. Theoretically, the plant would then grow out the top and prosper. I don't do that, however. When the plants get big enough to crowd the inside of the WoW, I remove the WoW and put a larger protector, such as a 5 gal plastic bucket with the bottom removed (free from any painter, they want to get rid of them) until the plants become sun-adapted. After a couple of weeks, you can remove the buckets. If you simply remove the WoW, you risk sun-scalded plants. They can survive it, but it "sets them back" a bit. The danger of leaving the WoW's in place, in my opinion, is that the very warm, moist environment creates a perfect climate for disease, especially the fungus diseases known as alternaria and septoria, or early and late blight. Bottom line, yes, I have seen this problem but I deal with it by removing the WoW.
r, Chip

Spring assassinated my tomatoes

Tomato with Wall 0' Water

Tomato without Wall O' Water

Any Questions?

It was 80 degrees out when I planted my tomatoes. I protected most of them with Walls O' Water that insulate from the cold, but left two to fend for themselves. The next two days there was a snow and a hard freeze, and now I have two less tomatoes. Meanwhile, the ones in the Walls O' Water are large and lush.
These little teepees of water are cheap and obviously effective. I haven't met anyone yet who has had a bad thing to say about them, so you might want to pick some up. They are available at most gardening stores.

For other tomato growing tips, (organic, no less) click here.

To send news of your own garden to my blog, email me: dave.philipps@gazette.com

By the way, my cold weather crops are doing well for the most part. The greens are kicking ass. So are the radishes. I had both last night in a salad.
The beets are much slower to start, but are getting established now. And the carrots are just sprouting after being in the ground about a month. I guess they wanted warmer soil.
This weekend I'll plant some squash and cucumbers to round things out.

Before, and after

What you're looking at is radishes, with pictures taken yesterday, and two weeks ago. The plants seem to be getting exponentially bigger all the time. I planted them April 4 and hope to harvest them in a few weeks. Then I'll have room to plant some warm weather vegetables, such as cucumbers.
My raised garden plots in the strip between my front yard and the street have been a success so far. No one, not even the squirrels, has disturbed them. Of course, we'll have to see if that's true later in the season when the beds are packed with produce.
I also just planted my tomatoes. Can anyone give me hints on what I can do to give the tomatoes an early season boost?

A note from a reader

I just got a note from a reader.

Dave,
The crocuses are done and most of the daffodils, too, but the hyacinths look lovely and some of the irises are starting to unfurl in my Manitou garden.I'm trying to identify species planted by previous owners - looking at leaves and trying to match them to photos in books. Any tips from garden experts?

Hopefully, we'll have pictures, and answers from the experts, in a few days.