For us Wednesday is Dome Day. Now that we’re into full summer swing, the Dome likes just a little more attention than winter. This means that instead of going to the Dome once a week, or even sometimes not for 3-5 weeks at a time, we’re heading out to the property to check in on the Dome, Wednesdays and Saturdays. For those of you who don’t know me, I work at Growing Spaces and we own a 26′ Premium Growing Dome (the perfect size in my opinion) on our property outside of town, we have since purchased a home in town and keep the Dome growing year round up on our property (18 miles away).
This summer we have been a bit challenged by a water pump timer that seems to keep eating batteries up every few days. CJ says it’s a small leak shorting out the battery. But the point to this is that our dome has been getting watered really inconsistently for weeks now and continues to grow in spite of that! The tomatoes looked kind of spindly and not all that happy, so chatting with Richard here at work, he encouraged me to spend some time with them and supporting them (literally). So last week I rounded up some old towels and chain to hang from the struts to tie the Tomato plants to. Tomato cages have evolved into supporting big flowering plants, as my tomato plants always outgrow them in no time at all, and then they fall over and break. So this year, I’m copying Bonnie’s idea of suspending chains from the struts above and tying them on with strips of old towels, (so I don’t bruise or cut the stems). It looks like all my tomato plants are wearing blue fuzzy ribbons in their hair, but after only one week of having them supported in this way, they are really on their way. The stems are much thicker and I have tons of new growth, looks like that “supporting them” idea really does pay off. We grabbed a couple of plum tomatoes and ate them still warm from the sun, man, tomatoes that are actually so intense their flavor is sweet!
Looks like my stevia plant is happily established in it’s new spot. Even though I have no idea yet how to use the stevia from the plant, I’m sure I will figure it out sooner or later. I think for this year I will just let it grow and get really established before doing any harvesting. Echinacea is in full bloom (using one of those former tomato cages to keep it sturdy). I harvested again fresh basil, sage, thyme, parsley and rosemary, grilling with fresh herbs is just the best! I am finally managing to grow more than I can use up fresh and starting to dry some for later use or to share. Right outside the Growing Dome I have some random blue flax and some coneflower growing and I’ve begun harvesting seeds everytime I go to the dome, you just have to love free seeds! I’ve started some blue flax in the 33′ Growing Dome at work and can hardly wait until it goes to seed to scatter about in the other planting beds as a little suprise to my coworkers. Udgar’s birthday present this year was some gorgeous strawberry plants from our dome transplanted into the 33′ Employee dome on site. I tucked them in on the northeast corner right near the tank. I know that in summer this is one of the coolest spots and in winter they will stay warm from the tanks radiant heat. We’ve planted some lettuce seed in among them as well, to really utilize every inch of space we can.
I’m thinking about doing small herb packets and seed packets as Christmas presents this year. (How Martha Stewart of me!) But I know it will be used and enjoyed much more than some presents I ‘ve given over the years.
The jalapeno and bell pepper plants are all blooming and some have already started setting peppers. The squash plants are now blooming and I wonder if they are getting pollinated, when I come up wednesday evenings the blooms are already closed for the day, so I’m not sure, maybe I will do a little hand pollinating just to be sure, as I love acorn and spaghetti squash and can hardly wait for it to be ready to harvest. Like many other dome owners I’m a bit behind schedule on some of my plants, but I’m not worried as I’m sure the dome will give me plenty of warmth and a long enough season for them all to come to harvest. Spring onions (I know it’s mid July) are up everywhere and it’s always a debate whether to eat them young and fresh or to let them mature, I guess I can be patient for a while longer.
Well that’s my rather long winded update on our Dome, hopefully more stories soon.
