Hello Everyone..
Wow did that last week of my time out west get busy, sorry for not answering emails or getting anything up on the blog, this daughter, sister, aunty and cousin was takening time off from the online world to make lovely memories in real time 🙂
After a long (rumbling, that was some awesome rocking on the plane) flight home I took my first day to get settled and to adjust to the heat (ah) and I am slowly making my way across the farm checking on so many things, and as I did a ton of posts came into my head, I love that my farm does that for me.. for example, my elderberries are so loaded that I will need to help the branches or they will break under the weight, which is why hubby should have taken more of the flowers off to dry..
I was surprised (and not in a good way) to see the effects of limited rain and overwhelming heat is doing to my garden, we have good looking crops on many staples but not so good on a number of my “extra’s”..
Now on to what I really want to talk about today and that is sometimes the books are all wrong..and life will find a way..
Let me explain that a little bit.. in every single composting book I own, they talk about fowl, pig, sheep and cow manure all needing at least one full year to compost down enough that they won’t be “hot” to the point of killing plants, and that things won’t grow in straight compost piles and that has been my personal view, when we do our big high piles, the steam rises, the piles heat up to the point, nothing grows and the first year, its just a big ol compost pile..
However last year we did something a little different, when we cleaned out the big barn, I decided that we would put the deep pack cleaning into “no mans land” and we would do it in long rows of about 30 feet long and about 3 feet or so high, it make a space about 30 by 60 feet or so of this rolling compost pile, well, it had sat out for the winter and didn’t seem to have done much at all over the winter and spring, which didn’t suprise me to much as I figured it would not compost at the same rate because of the way we made it.
What I was not Expecting! at all was that over 40 plus tomato plants would self-seed after passing though my piggies, and that by the first week of july, we would need to be staking tomato plants that are already in bloom and in at least a few case have small green tomato’s on them.. they are in the sheep pasture area, and they have not been touched, I would not trust the cow or the pigs to leave them alone if given a chance but they are self-sown and thriving in straight hot compost.. I’m doing a Huh here..
First, plants should not be growing in staight compost, never mind the hot factor
Second, tomato seeds can live though a pigs system? or did they end up in the bedding?
Third, everything I have ever read says that tomato plants that are allowed to self-start in our area would not produce and set fruit in time for harvest (that is why we all early start in the house or the greenhouse?)
Fourth, how is it possable that self-sown, never watered, in the middle of a black bare compost pile are out flowering my carefully done garden ones that have weeks of lead time on them?
Fifth-? I can’t help but be interested to see which one or ones of my hertiage tomato plants did this?
Welcome the extra crop that’s coming, will keep you posted..
Just another Day on the Farm 
how cool is that!! we always have volunteer tomatoes from our compost, but ours is mostly kitchen scraps and only a little chicken manure. I can’t say how they would grow as we always cull them since they sprout in random and unwanted places. I’ll be waiting to hear how these do!
Will keep you posted, I have had them pop up in the garden compost as well but like you that is mainly greens, scraps with a bit of rabbit poo mixed in, so things should be able to pop in it, its not a “hot” compost.
Ha! Welcome to the wonderful world of super-tough tomato seed. I remember pulling seedlings out of freshly potted cuttings at the greenhouse. When asked, my boss told me how tomato seeds could pass through the soil steriliser unharmed; guessing you’ve just proved her right?
This year is NOT typical: my clematis bloomed (the first time) in March and right now I have a heritage cherry tomato, come from last year’s fruit/seed, in the flower bed out back with fruit started already (so I can only guess how much better yours are doing on a hot compost pile: )
Glad you’re back – was starting to get a little worried. Hugs, Deb
Sorry Deb, I thought having my mom kept me busy enough LOL but add in my delightful neices and their “aunty”? and I found I barely had time to turn around and think, let alone have time to write or post but I so rarely get to see them, and I got to have one each night share my room, and hear all kinds of special and interesting stories but they never stop talking, and then my favorite cousin came to visit, and we had a night out with Big Brother, both sister in laws and my cousin and a few to many mudslides later and we was singing up a storm at the karaoke, (while Big Brother aka the Driver :P) was very bad and got us on I-phone..
It is so not your typical year, but then I believe that we are in a ten year cycle and we have another couple years of ?? before it starts to settle down, from what I have seen out there, you are so right they can indeed pass though the soil steriliser unharmed..
Hey no worries!! Just concerned that your Mom had taken a turn, that’s all… Really glad that all is well (and you had a bit of a HOLIDAY too; )
Speaking of heat and the weather; don’t know if you heard it or not, but yesterday’s CBC “The Current” had a piece on its (immediate and VERY obvious) effect on the butterfly population – everywhere on the globe this year… Canary in the coal mine anyone? On originally at 08:30, they’re repeated again that night at 20:00 and early in the morning (@ 01:30?) the next day or available online or by podcast…
http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/
Hah!! A DDesignated driver with an iPhone and not afraid to use it… Photographic evidence? Look out Facebook, here I come!! (Boy, it’s a good thing for those privacy settings, eh?? ; )
Oh say, just out of curiosity; what’s in a Mudslide anyway? Sounds kinda dangerous. LMAO. Giggle giggle…
I know! It used to be, what happened at the bar, stayed at the bar! LOL well stoires could be told but , it was a he said, she said.. now you can just show it…
Mudslides are milk, kalula/bailey’s, so smooth going down, its like drinking a milkshake but what a punch they have! I think I had a total of eight over the course of the evening..I so rarely drink or go out for that matter but when you can get a driver, and have a fun ladies night out, take advantage and firgured go girl! LOL
Ja! Been there, lol!! I’m thinking it’s pretty close to the “Velvet Hammer effect”… SO yummy, downright sly (and REALLY packs a wallop!; )
Btw, might’ve been the hidden extra that really gotcha… One recipe says 60ml Vodka, 60ml Kahlua and 60ml Bailey’s shaken and served over crushed ice (at least yours had the milk to slow it down, hey? ; )
Oh jeepers, here’s an even better (kiss that diet goodbye/but summer’s so darned short) recipe that serves 4. Okay, now to go along with this, just picture Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers gliding across the ballroom dance floor while he’s crooning: “Heaven, I’m in heaven and my heart beats so that I can hardly speak…. while we’re sipping on a Mudslide cheek to cheek!”
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/9521/mudslide
I know, so silly, sorry:D Now pardon me, I’ve got to go check the liquor cabinet…
I’m glad to see you post! I’ve been checking, and wondering where you were.
I don’t have personal gardening experience, but I’ve heard a lot of stories of people finding hardy tomato plants in their compost. I hope you’re keeping those seeds (and mailing a few to your favourite Doomer friend? LOL). Those sound like strong, adaptable plants.
It’s funny – we had dinner at a Mennonite farm last night and she was showing me their garden and the 100 tomato plants. I noticed the ground around the tomatoes was parched and asked if they ever mulched or put anything under them, and she said they didn’t. I think, based on what you’re saying, a layer of compost or mulch might be a good idea.
Lets see what they turn out to be, for all I know right now they could be a real mix.. but if they turn out to be good tomato, sure, I will save some and send to whoever would like some.. Speaking of mulch and cover, need to finished my coffee and get back out at doing just that in the garden, then I want to harness girl and haul in ditch cut hay down to the big barn.. later!
Hi CD, Been reading about no-till/”lazy” gardening/composting for years but finally got forced into it last year. Our garden had been left fallow for quite a while (like years):, weeds were rampant and, in spite of tilling several times, I just couldn’t catch up; but, as soon as that 3″ of straw went down we went from plants wilting every day to AMAZING growth, weeds/seeds that were either no longer able germinate or really easily pulled, A LOT less watering and a great harvest with CLEAN veggies… (and I am never going back to the old way: )
Well thankfully you grow heirloom tomatoes so you will have goo fruits on those ‘compost ‘maters’ that obviously did not ‘read the book’ on where they were supposed to be growing 😉 Every year here there are volunteers of one sort or another. It’s like a fun experiment. One year we got a bumper crop of gourds laced through the lilac bushes. Glad you’re home and your mom is doing better. Sounds like you had a grand old time.
*anna
I have a couple ‘volunteer’ tomatoes this year too- one that started indoors in the winter and it’s in a container on the roof. It’s loaded with tiny cherries and already ripening! The other grew in the (totally neglected) garden and it too is loaded with fruit- it appears to be a tumbling cherry so I have no clue of variety.
Very interesting that they are both cherry tomato’s, sounds like they are both doing well, that’s great!