I picked the first cherry tomato today! Hoping this will be the beginning of an endless supply. This is a couple of weeks earlier than last year. I picked some of the bolting Pak Choi last night and fried it up with onions and mushrooms. I should be able to get 1 more meal out of the rest. The Romaine is ready to pick, and the spinach has completely bolted. I’ll try some of the Oak Leaf lettuce and see if it is edible.
Sitting on the front porch tonight I saw a few fireflies making their first appearance of the year. They are 10 days earlier than last year and about 15 days earlier than 2019. Not surprising, as we’ve had temperatures in the eighties for the past 4 or 5 days. We had a couple sprinkles of rain today but the predicted showers and thunderstorms missed us. It’s been a very dry spring. I guess watering is the first thing on my agenda tomorrow.
I went to Goebbert’s in beautiful mid-80s weather yesterday afternoon to get my remaining plants. I got up early to 55° weather this morning to do the planting.
So, first of all, I bought a large Jalapeno plant (actually there are two in the pot) for the container garden. There’s a couple Jalapenos on the plant ready to pick. THey had large Roma tomatoes for per $4.50 per plant, but I’m not in a hurry for the Romas so it would have been a waste of money. There were no small Roma tomatoes so I bought the last 15 San Marzano tomatoes – three paks for $2.50 each. I’ll plant these over the weekend since I want to add compost to the bed before I plant.
So this morning I planted 4 pots of basil, 3 romaine lettuce and 3 Chinese cabbage (should have been 6 Chinese cabbage, but they mixed up the flats again. I should know better.), a red chili pepper to fill out the hot pepper bed, and 6 mustard greens behind the compost barrel. I also planted the Swiss Chard that I had bought a few weeks ago. I had a tray of sedum that I had pulled out of the front bed that I planted between the walk behind the porch and the dry creek. Finally, I moved four 18″ pavers to the east of Bed 3 where I had cleared out some horseradish, so I could easily reach that side of the bed for planting and picking. It was a productive morning.
Besides the San Marzano tomatoes, I need to construct the cucumber bed and trellis and plant the cukes. Then I need to start the mint garden and get the mint planted, even if the borders of the garden aren’t finished.
Looks like we’ll be eating salad for awhile.
I cleared the area behind the barn and planted the three tomatillo plants from Countryside. No one had the purple tomatillos which I prefer. I enriched the soil, which is mostly clay, with soil from under the old compost pit.
The Shishito peppers were from Bonnie plants and Home Depot since Goebberts were out of them. Made the mistake of shopping for plants on Sunday. The larger pepper plants, Bounty, Gypsy, and Cubanelle were from Countryside, the rest from Goebbert’s. The two hills of Spineless Beauty Zucchini were from Goebbert’s. The Eggplant from Countryside.
Here is the list and layout of the tomato garden this year. I started planting last night in an unusual burst of after-dinner energy and finished up this morning. I enriched the soil around each of the plants with a mixture of MooNure and mushroom compost. I added more on the South and West sides of the patch as those are away from the old compost pile and tomatoes did the worst there the past two years.
| German Johnson – Late (Countryside) Low acid, potato-leaf foliage. | Mr. Stripey – Late (Countryside) Yellow with red-streaked flesh. | Cherokee Carbon – Mid (Countryside) Big pink fruit with Outstanding flavor | Boxcar Willie – Late (Countryside) Excellent Flavor. HY |
| Early Girl II – Very Early (Countryside) Tasty fruit, first to ripen | Mortgage Lifter – Mid (Countryside) Pink variety with meaty fruit and great taste. | Cherokee Carbon – Mid (Countryside) Big pink fruit with Outstanding flavor | Hillbilly – Late (Countryside) Heirloom, big pink fruit, juicy, exquisite flavor. Beefsteak type. |
| Champion VFNT – Early (Countryside) Great for sandwiches. Best early type. DR | Mortgage Lifter – Mid (Countryside) Pink variety with meaty fruit and great taste. | Arkansas Traveler (Countryside) Tolerates hot weather. HY | Brandywine Yellow – Mid (Countryside) Intense tomato flavor. HY |
| Champion VFNT – Early (Countryside) Great for sandwiches. Best early type. DR | Lemon Boy – Mid (Countryside) Tasty, sweet, juicy, low acid. HY | Black From Tula – Late (Countryside) Rich, salty, smoky flavor. | Gold Medal – Mid (Countryside) Flesh is streaked with red and flavorful. |
Tonight is the fourth and hopefully final frost warning that we’ve had this week. Tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers from Countryside have been sitting on the back porch since last Friday because of the warnings. Despite the warnings, there has been no visible frost in the mornings. I am covering the potted tomatoes each night and the unplanted sensitive plants are spending their time in the back porch. I did lose two small potted cucumber plants, but that was all. I hope to start planting tomatoes and the other warm-weather crops tomorrow.
Picked the first greens for a salad tonight. Oak-leaf lettuce, red romaine, spinach, kale, and sorrel. The lettuce was a bit tough as was the spinach. The kale and sorrel were, too, but that would be expected. In any case, the garden is producing.
