The Life of A Garden

"The Garden Keeps Growing Whether I Have Time to Write About it Or Not.." KHT

Gosh, I can't believe it's been a full week since I last posted and my oh my! How much things have changed since then! I apologize to any subscribers who have been left to wonder what has been happening. In a word: LOTS!

For starters, the Moon Flowers are HUGE:

I did not try to start new peppers because I thought it was too late even after doing all that research (which will come in handy next season), but to my delighted surprise, as soon as I gave up they went ahead and germinated themselves.

I think I over watered them. I hadn't quite gotten the wicking system of the APS working correctly (for whatever reason - the wicks may have been upside down?). Anyway, I was watering the heck out of them and as soon as I let them dry out, the little guys poked their heads up.

We now have six Jimmy Nardello's Sweet Italian Frying Peppers growing as twin companions ala TOFA and the Chocolate twins are doing great...

And there is even some hope reserved for this tiny little King of the North who showed up late and weak but at least he showed up so we're giving him some TLC and we'll see what happens.

And OMG the tomatoes! Yesterday we transplanted the do-over seedlings and they're standing up tall and beginning to grow their secondary leaves:

We're up to twenty-three heirloom varieties that I'll list on a separate post so I can give them their due. I can almost taste them already and am desperately trying to figure out a cheap, preferably recycled way to stake them so that we can maximize their yields, as I plan to go restaurant to restaurant to sell them as they come in.

As a former chef, I personally can't imagine refusing a local, organic gardener with her arms full of heirloom tomatoes still warm from the sun....can you?

XXKHT

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ~ Plato

...or in this case "women who are afraid of the light.."

Today I learned several things...

First, that I most likely planted my tomatoes way too early and that I probably should have started a few weeks from now (screw the two weeks hardening off etc. I was just making excuses to get started).

Be careful what you wish for, because today, in less than two hours, I lost all the sage, and all the Pink Ladies, Striped German and Brandywine, Tommy Toes and one of Joanna's Plum tomato seedlings. They fried like they'd reached the end of the Green Mile (Oh John Coffey, I'm so sorry!)

So much for "can't get the lights close enough." Apparently, seedlings need to harden to the light as well as the cold.

The other thing I learned today was that it's a good idea to plant way more than you need, and be prepared to exterminate the weaklings.

Sound harsh? Well, for some of us, it is; but that's what this boils down to. Survival of the fittest, with a little help from The Goddess in You Form.

Next round, I'll plant six seeds in the hopes of getting two plants, and I will get the light on them as soon as they break ground, and I will not ease them into the light.

Always happy to end on a high note, I have two:

At least now, I get a do-over without having to intentionally destroy viable plant matter.

And... the new tomato seeds arrived today with a bonus packet of Lemon Cucumbers.

We grew them last year and they did well early on but got powdery mildew about mid summer, so we pulled them out because they were an ugly spot in the front of our otherwise pristine oasis of community garden space.

Somewhere along the intensive self study course of the past few weeks, I read about a homemade mixture of baking soda and water...now that I have them anyway... I guess that'll be another fun learning experience to look forward to.

Stay tuned!
XXKHT

"Tomatoes...they consume you before it's the other way around." ~ KHT

I believe I may be going 'round the bend.

I can't stop obsessing about the garden and in particular the TOMATOES.

I was minding my own business today, lurking in the Blotanical Pick Lists and began following a thread of tomato leads which ultimately led to me ordering five more varieties of tomato seeds!

Even without the veggie porn (few pictures), I was enchanted by the names. Besides, I was concerned over the lack of solid red in our tomato patch and they made me buy them...

Cuor di Bue
This Oxheart type Italian heirloom has been a favorite in Italy for many years. Beautiful 12 oz. fruit have a delicious sweet taste, similar to the shape of a heart, great for fresh eating or cooking. Large vigorous vines. Hard to find.

Cosmonaut Volkov
A smooth and attractive, medium-large red tomato that has a full, rich flavor. The productive vines yield well even in hot weather, perfect for canning or slicing. This variety is from Dniepropetrousk, Ukraine, and was named after the first Russian Cosmonaut. In response to many requests, we are pleased to add this variety to the catalog.

Tatar of Mongolistan
We were sent this rare tomato in the late 1970's by Iraqi seed collector, Aziz Nail, who was living in France. Medium-sized fruit are very flavorful, red, and flattened in shape. These have become popular with seed savers since we introduced it about 5 years ago. We are glad to have this tasty type back. Great fresh or dried.

Bloody Butcher
A small 3-4 oz ‘cluster’ tomato. Fruit are deep red in color and have a nice tomato flavor. Production is really good, but where this open-pollinated tomato really shines is its earliness. It ripens in only about 60 days, making it ripen about the same time as Early Girl, but this tomato is much tastier.

So if you don't want to go crazy (like me) whatever you do, do NOT go to visit Rare Seeds.com

If you think you can remain sensible, DO go to visit:

Garden Desk: The Pros and Cons of Heirloom Tomatoes a wonderful and informative post about what it says it's about...

and

Garden Desk: White Tomesol Heirloom Tomato which contains an impressive list of 20 kinds of Heirloom varieties, in addition to 13 hybrids that Garden Desk writer is growing this season.

I'm increasingly amazed at how much there is to know even on the most basic levels of gardening.

This being only my second season, I am truly nuts to try to do this so totally, having no experience, and I am likely in for some huge disappointments; but I can't help myself. The whole process is downright addicting.

Every day I learn about ten new things. Today I learned (don't laugh) the difference between hybrids and heirlooms (thanks Garden Desk). I learned that I should expect lower yields from my heirlooms and that I'm going to have to do battle with the buggers - but I figure we didn't have fantastic tomato yields last year anyway, and I'm growing so many varieties, some of them are going to work and whatever didn't I will have learned from the experience and will try to improve next season.

Best case scenario, I have so many tomatoes, I'll be a slave to preservation and sales - I plan to sell some veg this year at (hopefully) The Old North End Farmer's Market and also (maybe) to some local restaurants.

Worst Case Scenario: I get few tomatoes and I study harder next time and learn from my mistakes. I will still have an exciting array of seed varieties to play with and I can perhaps enlist a mentor for insurance.

All this talk about it has give me the urge to go look at the babies. The kale needs transplant already because it's in the germination tray and not under light. It's leggy and is crying for a different situation.

Also, my daughter is going to sign up for a plot so she'll be on hand to take the stragglers on. With all that going for us, I'm pretty sure we're going to be buried in delicious veggie goodness by July.

Mmmm, mmmmm, good.
XXKHT
*veggie descriptions lifted straight from rareseeds.com

“It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.” ~ Lewis Grizzard

My beloved surrogate mother sent me a care package full of seeds yesterday which has greatly added to our tomato prospects.

We now have fourteen varieties we'll be attempting to grow, as follows:

Three cherries -

1. Blondkopchen - a tiny yellow, very sweet and prolific variety from Germany (I'm assuming)
2. Tommy Toe - a very very tiny red cherry - I noticed Joanna and Daniel's Tommy Toes went crazy in their plot (next to ours) last year.
3. Italian Ice - a white cherry tomato that is supposed to be eaten chilled (rare!)

An array of colorful slicing:

1. Purple Calabash - "ribbed, bulbous and scarred" (mmm!) hails from Mexico - super concentrated flavor - great for sauce and fresh
2. Black Krim - reported as "most reliable black" with earthy, smokey flavors - 10-12 oz.
3. Green Zebra - Golden green with green stripes - excellent flavor - tennis ball sized.
4. Brande's Valencia - (seed saved) incredibly rich orange color all the way through the juicy sweet flesh

Two Pinks:

1. Pink Ladies - saved seeds from last season and our all around favorite for flavor
2. Caspian Pink - Beefsteak variety in pink!

Three potato leafs (supposed to prevent splitting in the sun  must be isolated from traditional leaf varieties):

1. Hillbilly Potato Leaf - gorgeous sunset colors inside and out
2. Micado Violettor - very rare purple slicing
3. Brandywine - grows up to around a pound - legendary

And two plums:

1. Lemon plums - size and shape just like lemons
2. Joanna's plum (saved from last season) ??

I am planting almost all of the remaining starts today. I'd meant to do it on the equinox, but misjudged the date. The alliums have come up and the kale and oregano seeds have cracked and will go in the dirty right away!

Next post, pictures of everything!
Yeeeehaaaa!
XXKHT