Tomatoes in the ground - and fun with drip irrigation

Some may think it's a bit early, but like many farmers, I like to take risks, so I planted a bunch of my tomato seedlings into the ground last week. I was actually running out of space in my hotbed and they were running out of nutrition, so it seemed that the threat of cold temperatures was a lower risk than the threat of overcrowded circumstances. Plus it's been very warm and summery here this past week. Risk of frost my foot.

I planted the tomatoes in one of my favourite gardens, that of Eileen Delehanty Pearkes'. In the past she has observed that her garden space stays very warm in the summer, and will likely be an ideal spot for tomatoes. I took her up on it, but as the space was a little large for just tomatoes I decided to combine it with herbs: cilantro, dill, parsley and basil.

I had rye and clover coming up this spring, which I had planted in her garden last fall (much like I did in Denie's). After tilling a section of it and leaving it to decompose for a bit, I shaped beds.

Nice and workable! For the tomatoes, I dug pits every two feet, filled it with a couple handfuls of alfalfa meal (compost would be best if you had it), watered them and plopped tomatoes in them. I also planted a few rows of dill and cilantro where I didn't have enough tomatoes to fill a bed:

Now, since it was only early May, I realized it wasn't quite the time to leave tomatoes in the ground unprotected. Until the May long weekend, there is still technically a risk of frost. So I built a little tent over the tomatoes using bamboo trellises and Reemay™ (also known as white row cover). White row cover protects crops against frost down to -3ºC, as well as creates a moderate greenhouse effect when it's sunny. It also helps the soil retain moisture and speeds up germination in the early part of the year. In other words, it has many wonderful uses. It's very light and can be laid right on top of the soil and small seedlings, but since these tomatoes were rather large and a bit lanky, I thought it best to keep the cover supported so as not to crush the fragile plants.

What's most exciting about this garden this year is the type of irrigation I've chosen to set up - drip! Well, drip and spray, to be more exact. This is a system of plastic pipes that wind around the gardens, into which you poke holes and insert little thingamajiggers to gently emit water into the soil. There are all kinds of emitters out there, from simple drippers to sprays to misters to miniature whirlygigs.

The reason I'm trying this system out here is because tomatoes don't really like to get watered from above. It's best to keep tomato plants dry to keep late blight at bay. The other great thing about this type of watering system is that it's much more efficient than a sprinkler. After setting it up and trying it out, I noticed that I only had to have it on for 10 minutes or so before it seemed like the soil was getting flooded. Since the water is emitted so close to the soil, much less is lost through evaporation. The water droplets are also highly focused to hit the specific area of soil that needs watering and don't get blocked by the leaves or end up outside the boundaries of the garden. It's a very ecological means of watering your garden because it conserves a great deal of water.

But it isn't as cheap as a sprinkler. Alas.

Anyway, I used 2-GPH (gallons/hour) emitters for the tomatoes, and inexpensive little green sprayers for the beds of herbs so that the whole width of those beds would receive moisture. Here's how it all looks:

There are other drip irrigation systems out there, such as drip tape, which is what I have experience using at Everdale. That stuff is cheaper than the stuff I bought, but isn't nearly as fancy—or as cute.