Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Here he sits waiting for us to go on our morning walk. The junk behind him was found in the old barn ruin I´ve shown You before.



It´s been an sunny and rather cool morning here by the Cranelake. The temperature dropped to -6,4C (21F) and it has taken a long time for the sun to raise it. This is quite normal here in the middle of the country this time of year. But by the coast it would be very strange. The ocean levels out the temperature during night. Now the clouds are comming and later on today they say we will get rain.





Bertil sat and waited for us by the stable today also and we walked into the forest this morning. More and more birds are moving in to the bog now and many of the sounds they make are actually rather strange and if hearing them at night, scary :-) I´ve heard that many old (and perhaps new) horror movies used those sounds to make the movie even more scary :-) :-) My favourite of them all is the sound the Common snipe makes. I have friends that thought flying saucers were comming in :-) :-) But to be honest, it sounds more like a goat making noice in a tin can :-) :-) :-)






Do You know how to make a lot of tomatoe plants from only one? In these days when many people have troubles with the economy it could be a good thing to know. Perhaps one only can afford to buy one plant but would like many more, I mean tomatoes are soo good in any way You´ll have them. If You have a tomatoe that only will be allowed to have one vine (this morning I learned that they are called Indeterminate) one always takes away all new branches (or should I write vine?)that grows on them. You do that because to many vines and the tomatoes gets to small  (and to be honest, I think the tomatoe plant will collapse after a while).


It actually took a long time for me to realise that Bertil isn´t striped as I thought, he´s spotted!

All those new branches or vines works great as cuttings. Just let them grow to a size of 5-7 centimeters (2-3 inches), cut them (or pull gently) of from the tomatoe plant and put them into a pot of soil. They´ll get roots very fast and can be placed where they will grow directly as soon as they got those new roots of their own. These new plants will soon be as big as the one You took them from. This should work really good for those of You living in a much warmer climate with a longer season than I do, but it works good here too.



Suddenly clouds started to come in over my little village and it almost looked like evening outside :-)


Well I have to many tomatoe plants as it is this year, so I woun´t be needing to do that :-) You can do similar things with potatoes, but that I´ll tell You how to do some other time :-) Now it´s time for a cup of tea and then I think I´ll go out to enjoy the sunshine before it´s gone for today :-)

Have a great day now!

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good post today Christer but for those of us who live in tropical climates our tomatoes have to compete with bugs. We lose so many on the vine that it sometimes makes it annoying to even pay again for new plants. I will try the hanging tomatos this year because I can bring them indoors in the evening, take them out in the morning. They get full sun all day and hopefully I can control the bug problem. Enjoy your tea!

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Z&M!
Thanks to our colder climate we seldom have problems with bugs on tomatoes. I think in that perspective they are one of the easiest plants to have.

I think it´s a good idea to bring in the tomatoes during the night. There are so many insects that uses the dark night to get around so I belive You will get rid of most of them then.
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Sharlene T. said...

Okay, you guys, bringing those hanging planters in at night might get old -- really fast! They weigh about 60 pounds each with just the dirt and water in them, and then the plants add even more weight. I did find that fewer bugs, if any, actually attacked my hanging veggies and there were no, NO, nasty squash bugs! So, you might want to rethink the labor. Just sayin...

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Sharlene!
Well, sort of didn´t think of that :-) :-) :-) I have only had hanging tomatoe plants when I had my gardencentre and those hanged outside all the time. It was a fantastic place, I could have all plants outside the entrance door all hours of the day without anything getting stolen!

Squash bugs? I have too look that up on the net, sounds rather nasty to be honest :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

Perovskia said...

Z&M - Have you ever tried (hanging) upside down tomato plants?

Christer - The second picture in the forest reminds me of something. I'm not sure what, but it struck something familiar in me. It made me smile :) And seeing Bertil is always nice :)

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Perovskia!
It´s funny sometimes how places one never been to can look familiar :-) I got told that one of my photo´s looked like a place in White Mountines :-) :-)

Have a great day now!
Christer.

NinaH said...

Great you teach us how to get more tomatoes... to!!! I love those "lessons"!
A big hug to the spotted one = Bertil!;-) He´s so cute!!! And funny! (...or is it perhaps his "daddy" that is?;-)...)

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

Hi...I think Joyce is right. Bertil does not know he is a cat..rather thinks he is more akin to the dogs than his brother. Talk about your different personalities!

There is a lady who is following along your blog who is from Maine.
She wanted me to tell you that she had not got a blog or nor is willing to sign up on blogger so cannot comment on your posts.
She is my sister in law and says she loves your photographs etc.
Just wanted you to know she is a fan. If she will just sign up she will be able to comment..but so far I think signing up makes folks fear they will be charged for something or will get trash emails etc. Eventually your "fan" might be able to comment. I hope so.
She just wanted me to be sure and tell you that she admires your blog and is the "woman from Maine." I told her you had other fans from Maine as well. :)

Our skies are getting darker and darker and it is getting colder outside by the minute. Big storm of the coast of California..
Th wind has picked up steadily and feels like the roof is going to blow off. We just took in all the cushions and took the umbrella down a bit ago.
How to propagate more tomatoes was interesting! We all learn a lot from you. Thanks.
Mona

I'll be sure and be there for a nice hot cup of tea when the weather warms up! LOL
Oh...and snow is expected in our mountains. GOOD HEAVENS!! I thought that was all over.

jaz@octoberfarm said...

hi christer...that is such good advice about the tomatoes! i think i will try that. i planted lots of lettuces today. tomatoes can go in soon! joyce

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Nina!
It is easier to only have to care about a few tomatoes in the beginning and if the economy is tight it´s a great way to save a few pennies.

Bertil is cute and very funny in his own little strange way :-) He jumps around like the dogs does when he meets us outside :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi MOna! I´m glad if You get the rain! and strong winds usually comes with heavy showers. But it is good if one has the chance to get all things inside before they blow away :-) :-)

Thanks for telling me about "Woman from Main" :-) The good thing about blogger is that our E-mail adresses doesn´t show unless we want it to do so. So I haven´t gotten more spam mails since I started here. It´s also possible to stop people look at any profile too. So if signing up one only gets a name, but stops blogger to show ones profile and stopping from letting people being able to send mails.But one still can comment here if one wants to :-)

I thought that now when so many people have problems with the economy it can be good to know how easy it is and then save some pennies.


It snowed in southern Sweden yesterday but not here by the lake :-)
I always have a pot ready! :-)
have a great day now!
Christer.

The cottage by the Cranelake said...

Hi Joyce!
It´s a good way to prolong the season to. Usually we stop the tomatoe plants to grow and just concentrate on growing the toamtoes after a while. By doing like this one can have new tomatoe plants that continues a bit longer.

I think it still is at least a month until I can plant my tomatoes outside :-) :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.