The Tomatoes Are Sprouting! Well, some of them...

So it looks like I'm having a dramatic demonstration of germination rates declining as your seeds age. I have some quite old seed packets - 5 yrs, maybe? - and some of them haven't come up at all. Others are starting to germinate. Sungolds, Yellow Pear, and Amish Paste are up. No sign of Red Cherry Large Fruited. Today I planted San Marzano, Rutgers, Brandywine, and 4th of July. Also Ping Tung Long eggplant and Husk Cherries.

Hello Sungold!

That time again...

Tonight I planted some tomatoes in my basement.

• Roma
• Amish Paste
• San Marzano
• Yellow Pear (a pear shaped cherry)
• Red Cherry Large Fruited
• Sungold

Just a few favorites so far, and I will no doubt regret packing them so close together soon. I only had 5 Amish Paste seeds and those did well last year. I'll see if I can get a few more. Also need some black cherry, loved those.

It's a start!

Last year I was swimming in tomatoes from the Quaker community garden. Literally hauled out coolers full, made sauce, gave some away. I'll update with more pictures later. Maybe. Probably.

Oh, exciting news, I have a 20' x 25' plot this year! Room for loads of tomatoes. As before I think I'll grow the full sized tomatoes at the community garden and the cherries at home, they seem to do fine in huge pots.

Coming right along

So I cleaned up the area near the house where I normally have peas. The groundhog cleaned out the peas for me - what a helpful fellow. In their place I put 5 tomato plants - Super Beefsteak, Cherokee Purple, roma, Tigerella, and Black Krim. I had tomatoes there one year before and they did pretty well.

I also have 19 spots out in the fenced in garden tomato'd up.

• 2 Super Beefsteak
• 2 Taxi
• 1 San Marzano
• 3 Rutgers
• 1 Brandywine
• 4 Sungold
• 1 Cherokee Purple
• 2 Fourth of July
• 1 Tigerella
• 2 MYSTERY! - these sprang up from last year's dirt

I also have a couple buckets ready to receive tomato plants. I'm going to start some Yellow Pear (a cherry variety) from seed, with hope of getting something before they die off. I'm very disappointed that Black Cherry didn't come up (thanks kitty). Next year they're back in the rotation. So all told I have 40 plants in 12 varieties. 

Some pictures:

Community garden plot - June 2

My volunteer potato from the previous gardener

Zucchini! Grow fast little guy, beat the bugs.

These pictures are a bit outdated, I need to get a fresh crop of pictures. See what I did there? "crop"?

Almost done planting

A few weeks back I bought a rototiller at a yard sale for $25. Sadly, it didn't work. Happily I have a friend who does small engine repair. He worked his mojo and I now have a functional Craftsman tiller. It may be 30 years old, but it's in good shape after the tune up ($45!). The back third of the fenced in garden in the backyard was seriously overgrown. Had to mow first - the tiller is not happy with chewing through tall grass. And it was no small task getting the mower maneuvered through the narrow confines of the fenced in garden.But I mowed and I tilled and I now have about a 10' x 20' area read for planting. Well, mostly ready. I think it might require a little more work. But it's in pretty good shape. Tomorrow I turn that back area into cucumber city.

The community garden is doing well so far. Except the cucumbers who did not appreciate the abrupt transition from the basement to the garden. Here's the current set up.

Community Garden

The whole plot is 10' by 25'. The potatoes aren't very accessible but I only really need to get near them to harvest, so that works. The brown areas are walkways. The numbered spots are tomatoes. The tomato rundown.

1. Super Beefsteak
2. San Marzano (teensy tiny little seedling currently) [06-14-2013: Added another slightly healthier San Marzano, will snip the weaker when they've grown a little.]
3. Super Beefsteak
4. Cherokee Purple
5. Yellow Short Vine Taxi
6. currently occupied by a sad little YSVT (same as 5). Not sure it'll even survive, may be replaced. [06-14-2013: Replaced by Rutgers]
7. currently unoccupied - likely Rutgers [06-14-2013: Replaced by Brandywine]
8. currently unoccupied - likely Brandywine [06-14-2013: Replaced by Taxi]
9. Tigerella
10. Black Krim
11. Brandywine
12. Fourth of July (not 100% sure, labelling mishap...)
13. Amish Paste
14. Amish Paste
15. Amish Paste
16. Roma

Not 100% certain what I'll use to fill in the blanks (6-8). This leaves me with 20 spots for tomatoes and 39 plants left. Since the groundhog wiped out my peas, I might try tomatoes in the spot near the house, that would give me 4 or 5 more spaces. Here are the top contenders for those remaining slots.

1. 2 Cherokee Purple
2. 2 Black Krim
3. 2 Tigerella
4. 3 Super Beefsteak
5. a few Brandywine (have six small seedlings)
6. a few Rutgers (have 7 small seedlings)
7. 2 Fourth of July (Are they really Fourth of July? Not certain)
8. a few San Marzano (have 4 tiny, somewhat sickly seedlings)
9. maybe 1 or 2 Roma (have 6)

Community garden up to speed

I've just about got the community garden plot planted for the season. Garlic, potatoes, zucchini, asparagus, cucumbers, and 16 tomato plants. The plot before weeding...

So many weeds!

 And after!

Far fewer weeds, yay!

I bought an action hoe. It's a little D-shaped bit of metal on the end of a long handle. You use it by sliding it across the ground. It's cuts off the tops of weeds very effectively. I thought it was going to take a helluva long time to get all these weeds up, but action hoe really did a great job.

Sad cuke

The cucumbers I put in yesterday did not look happy today. I guess that's why you harden off your seedlings. At this point I think I might just sew some new seeds directly in the ground.

Green and bean

The green beans in the basement that I haven't put out yet have gone nuts. Here's the first green bean of the season, in the basement. I gotta get them planted outside.

Taking Stock

Some of my starts are off and running. Others... not so much. Decided to take stock and see where I stand. It's pouring right now, so I can't speak to the plants in the fenced in garden, but in the basement I have:

• 4 Sungold Cherry Tomatoes - These are looking happy. They survived the cat incursion.
• 0 Black Cherry tomatoes - They did not survive the cat incursion. These are kind of a must have, will need to get some going if I can.
• 0 Red Cherry, Large Fruited tomatoes - These were either laid waste to by the cat or never came up. No one will ever know which.
• 3 pumpkin - The boy's pumpkins came up, he is pleased.
• 3 Bush green beans - Got a number of beans popping up outside as well from seed I saved.  
• 19 Jalapeno peppers - I think they all came up. I shall have many glorious buckets of jalapenos in the back yard.
• 9 Serrano peppers - These did great too. Not all sprouted, but a good number. I guess these will serve as my "hot" peppers this year. Hot enough for me anyway.
• 0 Anaheim peppers - That is a tragedy. 
• 0 Mortgage Lifter tomatoes - Only had a couple seeds, no sign of them.
• 10 Amish Paste tomatoes - Yay! Going to plant several of these.
• 2 Brandywine tomatoes - I got two coming up out of the same hole. I might try to separate these and grow both. Delicate surgery, that!
• 5 Super Beefsteak tomatoes - Maybe plant a couple and give a couple away or something. Or possibly find space for them somewhere.
• 4 Cherokee Purple tomatoes - These are too danged tasty not to make room for all of them.
• 4 Tigerella tomatoes - I was real pleased with these... was it two years ago?
• 5 Roma tomatoes - Ok Roma, we had our little falling out. We both said things we regret. I said you don't produce enough, and your fruits are small. You said I gave you poor growing conditions then let the weeds get established. This year let's bury the hatchet and make a real go of it you and I. I'll give you a spot with plenty of sun and you show me what you can do, deal? PS, this may be your last chance Roma. Amish Paste is just too awesome to put up with inferior paste tomatoes. 
• 0 San Marzano tomatoes - So much for the three way paste tomato challenge.
• 3 Black Krim - These are a nice enough tomato. If I'd never had the sublime pleasure of a Cherokee Purple I might even be pretty excited about them.
• 4 Fourth of July tomatoes - Got the seedlings going late so they probably won't live up to their name.
• 0 Steak Sandwich tomatoes - Too bad, the picture on the seed envelope looked really nice. Old seeds though.
• 0 Hungarian Wax peppers - Hmmm, this is a problem, I need these for pickled peppers.

Some pictures.As I said, the jalapenos went bonkers.

Jalapeno pepper seedlings

The two Branywines that came up came out of the same hole. Doh!

Brandywine tomatoes

More tomato seedlings.

Super Beefsteak tomatoes

Roma tomatoes in the foreground, Black Krim center, 4th of July back.

Things are looking good at the community garden. The asparagus I got as a gift is pretty happy. Well, one of the crowns, the other two have been eerily quiet. The garlic seems relatively happy. also have 5 zucchini mounds that are looking pretty good as long as we don't get a frost. And a leftover from the last tenant, either a potato or a tomato. I'll grow it out and see what comes up.

My new 10' x 25' plot at the community garden

Next report - how are the buckets doing? The buckets in the backyard inside the fence with the seeds planted in them, not the buckets with  unwholesome looking rusty colored water in the last picture. The ones in the last picture are just to hold water for plants. And the water may look a little iffy, but it's fine, even potable, though probably don't taste too yummy.

CURSED BEASTS!

The cat decided it would be a great idea to explore one of the big seedling trays. Remarkably some seedlings poked up after the catastrophe. So far green beans, pumpkins, and Amish paste tomatoes have come up. Tonight's plan is to plant eggplant, a few tomato varieites and a few peppers in 2 gallon plastic buckets loaded with compost. I think danger of frost is past and I can bring the plants in on cold nights.

At the community garden I decided to take a chance and plant zucchini. Way too early to do so, but I figured for the cost of an envelope of seeds ($0.89) it was worth a shot. Made a line of five hills and an extra hill in the back of the garden. Be nice if I got a few zucchini before the bugs go to town.

Time to get serious about getting the back garden ready and planning how to support the tomatoes. I think for the plants in the back yard I'll stake them. I'm tempted to do something more elaborate at the community garden, but I may resort to staking in the end. I've also decide to make room for some cucumbers at the community garden.

Oh, and the gooseberries are flowering.

Gooseberries

UPDATE: I planted 10 two gallon buckets with various tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and beans. Oh and dill. The weather forecast shows nothing below 40 for the next ten days. Hopefully no frost, but if there's a risk I can haul in the buckets for the night.

Bucket brigade

Oh, so still need to plant some potatoes, starts some cukes and zucchino rampicante (the zucchini with the solid stem immune to borers). Also need to start some ground cherries. Lots to do!

Oh, and a groundhog ate the few pea plants that came up. CURSE YOU GROUNDHOG! I caught him in the act. He ran off. Jerk.