Two-Hour Gardening Project: Stage 3 – Cover Vines and Tomato Transplants

This fortnight focuses on two major tasks: covering unsightly walls, fences, sheds, and oil tanks with fast-growing ornamental vines, and getting tomato transplants into the ground—every day of delay reduces your potential harvest.

Needs List

• 1 packet ornamental hop seed
• 1 packet convolvulus seed
• 1 presown tape dispenser
• 12 peat pots, 3-inch diameter
• 1 length 18 × 6 ft 5 in. bean netting, chicken wire, or trellis
• 5 rustic poles, 7–8 ft long
• 1 ball garden twine
• 1 packet wire staples
• 4–6 tomato transplants + tomato growing mix + liquid feed + tomato bag
• 1 two-pint garden sprayer

Time Budget: 4 hours over 2 weeks

Early May Weather & Soil

May brings true summer warmth. Both air and soil temperatures rise, accelerating plant growth—and insect activity. Traditionally a dry month; watch for moisture stress if spring rainfall was low.

Flower of the Fortnight: Tomato

Tomatoes are the most popular home-garden vegetable by far. Success starts with early seeding and transplanting as soon as frost risk passes. Choose disease-resistant varieties suited to your area. Bush types work well in containers; pole types need staking. Keep them well-watered, fed with liquid fertilizer, and pray for sun.

Groundwork

1. Continue collecting and stacking stones; add vegetable waste to the compost bin.
2. Begin mowing the lawn as growth starts. Set blades high for the first cut, then lower later.
3. Scout vegetation (especially beans) for aphids.
   • Blackfly: Mix 2 tsp liquid detergent in 2 pints cold water in a pressure sprayer. Spray lightly on the insects; repeat in one week.
   • Greenfly: Same treatment. Inspect closely—green bugs on green stems are hard to see.

Project Work: Planting Cover Vines & Starting Tomatoes

Vines (Ornamental Hops & Convolvulus)

Prepare the bed as in Stage 1: remove deep-rooted perennial weeds, incorporate moss peat, top-dress with bonemeal. Fill peat pots with soilless mix, sow 3 seeds per pot, and plunge pots near a warm wall. Cover with a slanted glass pane or plastic tent if frost or heavy rain threatens.

When seedlings reach 2 inches, thin to the strongest one. Two days later, move pots to final positions—4 inches in front of fence or trellis, spaced 12 inches apart. Secure mesh or trellis to mortar or support poles at 4-foot intervals with staples. Tie vines with twine or raffia. Alternatively, sow directly using presown tape and thin to 12-inch spacing.

Tomatoes

Don’t start from seed now—buy transplants from a garden center. Select plants with pencil-thick stems; avoid leggy, yellowing seedlings.

• In the U.S. (virgin soil): Dig a 12-inch deep, 18-inch wide hole. Refill with 50/50 nitrogen-rich compost and soil. Stake after 2 weeks. Tie plants as they grow; pinch the top when they reach the stake top (~4 ft).
• In the U.K.: Use tomato bags (make an X-shaped slit, push transplant through into the mix) or ring culture (whalchide rings on a bed of ashes, filled with tomato mix). Culture as for open ground.

Always place tomatoes in the warmest spot in your garden.