The Modern Victory Garden

Fall has definitely arrived this past week.   The days are overcast and damp; the sun sits much lower on the horizon now; and the temperatures have returned to a much cooler range.   As a result, the garden is looking a bit shaggy and ready for some fall attention.                      

I was home on Monday and made use of the time to get caught up on things after being away the entire prior week.   Some of the things I attended to were in the garden.   There is quite a bit of work to be done in the garden this time of year to get the beds cleaned up and prepped for winter.   I intend to spread the fall garden work out over the next several weeks, but I got a good start on it on Monday.   One of the chores is to get crops that are spent removed and the beds not holding winter crops amended.   I have several items that need to be cleared out but the most immediate need was the bush bean patch (Royal Burgundy) which has virtually quit producing.   In addition, in an adjacent bed I have the sugar snap peas (Cascadia) growing on a slanted trellis that have been allowed to die back and mature the pea pods for the purposes of producing seed stock for the 2012 growing season.   The return of the fall rains required that I get the peas removed and inside to dry down or risk having them mildew and rot on the vine.            

I pulled the bush beans out and composted them and also pulled and composted the sugar snap pea vines after first removing the best of the matured pods.   Here’s that same area of the garden as in the prior picture but with the beans and the peas now removed.                        

The peas were hulled and the largest and best were kept to be dried down and used for next year's seed stock.   The smaller ones were given to the hens as a treat.   The seed peas were then placed on a large plate with several layers of absorbent paper towel under them and set in a warm and dry room in the house to begin drying down.   They will be "swished" around occasionally to ensure they properly dry for storage.                   

In addition to pulling the bush beans and pea vines, I also pulled three of the zucchini plants that were badly infected with powdery mildew.   You can see the powdery mildew on this large zucchini plant.                 

The cucumbers next to it also have powdery mildew but not nearly as badly and are still producing some cucumbers (at least for the moment).   Here’s that same bed after I removed that particular plant.              

I left one of the healthier zucchini plants in another garden bed and will keep harvesting from it until it either quits producing or gives in to powdery mildew too.   I also pulled up the pepper plants growing in large containers in the greenhouse.   There was only a few remaining peppers and I wanted to make room for some direct seeded greenhouse crops.   After I pulled the pepper plants, I loosened up and amended the soil in the containers and then planted them - three containers with carrots (2 containers of Mokum and 1 container of Bolero); one container with napa cabbages (Tenderheart); and one container with lettuce (Bon Vivant). The carrots will not have sufficient time to get much growth on before winter hits, but they should get a good start before going dormant and should launch quickly back into growth mode in early spring - providing fresh fare during the lean season of March/April.      

Since the fall rains have arrived and appear to have settled in for the duration, I went ahead and harvested the larger of the tomatoes off of the plants and brought them indoors to begin slowly ripening off the vine.            

I will not include these in the harvest totals until after they have ripened.   There are still more fruits on the vine and lots of cherry tomatoes but the odds are high that the plants will soon start moldering and dieing from the effects of the cooler temps and heavy rains.                     

There are still lots more tasks to be done:

• There are more crops to be removed as they wrap up their production.
• The emptied beds need to be spread with compost.
• Soaker hoses and other garden equipment needs to be properly stored for the winter.
• The overwintered crops need to have their protective covers put in place to keep the hens out of them after I open the garden up to them for winter foraging.
• In just a few weeks it will be time to plant the garlic.
• The greenhouse panes need to be cleaned to ensure as much light availability as is possible during the dark days of winter.

While there is much yet to be taken care of, I got a good start on it Monday and if I pace myself over the coming month it will all get done before the weather potentially turns more severe.   What fall preparations are you working on?                    

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

It’s the middle of the workweek and early in January.   This translates into “it’s dark as a mud pie when I finally roll in at night and the garden is covered by a pile of wet slushy snow at the moment”.   There is a lot going on in my gardening life right now though despite the darkness and cold wet stuff.           

First up, the seed orders have largely all arrived.   I have a few odds and ends still in transit but the bulk of my seeds are on hand at this point.            

Included in this treasure trove of seeds are a couple of small packets of Red Shiso, Yard Long Beans, and Garland Chysanthemums aka Korean Ssuk Gat (edible chrysanthemums) that were very generously sent to me by one of my blog followers (Julie) who as it turns out lives very close by in a neighboring community.  The Red Shiso was featured by Mr. H at Subsistence Pattern (one of my favorite blogs).   Ssuk Gat is an item I must confess I know very little about, but I look forward to learning more about it.   While I am glad to have the seed inventory on hand, I am particularly happy to have the onion seeds arrive earlier this week.   I need to start them this weekend and was getting worried about whether they would be here in time.                    

To make way for the fresh seed stock, I offered up the surplus items I had from last year that I did not need and within just a day or so of posting the offer – they were all taken!   Sharing seeds with one another is a great way to try different varieties.   The last packages were mailed out today and I hope they all make it safely to their destinations.                          

Last Saturday the temperatures were well above freezing and it wasn’t raining or snowing for a change.   I took advantage of that fact and cleaned the greenhouse panels inside and out because they were quite dirty and had a thin film of green slime forming on them.   It took several hours to do the job properly but the improvement in how much feeble winter sun was able to reach the plants inside was ample reward for the effort.   This is a chore that needs to be done at least once every year and it is nice to have it done so early in the year.                            

Have a shop project this winter to create the second generation of my horizontal pea trellis.   I need some specific PVC fittings to complete my design, but as soon as I get them purchased I think this will come together very quickly.   I am excited about the upgrade because I love how the horizontal trellis has performed for me the past two years but have identified a couple of things that could be improved upon.     Here’s the old design in use:         

Stay tuned.   I will have a blog post about the new design soon.                

That’s about it for things going on this week (so far!).   I will close by sharing with you that I received an email this week letting me know that an article was published on the Masters of Public Health of the Top 50 Urban Farming Blogs and The Modern Victory Garden was included in it.    What I found particularly fun about this list is that so many of my favorite blogs were also included in the list.   It’s nice to be included with such a great crowd!                 

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Harvest Monday Recap                            

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what everyone else is harvesting from gardens in so many different regions.    Check it out and join in!                                

Even though the fresh harvests are fairly light right now, the garden’s produce continues to feature heavily in our daily dinner menus.   This week we used frozen young snapped runner beans, frozen broccoli florets, frozen diced peppers, frozen garden peas, storage potatoes (lots of them!), garlic, onions, and fresh harvested lettuces and kale.                                 

I generally keep track of the harvests and our evening meal menus on The Calendar along with other items of note happening in the garden.   I don’t try to keep track of everything we cook and eat, just the dinner prep.   The point of it is to chronicle how the garden fuels us during all seasons – even winter.   The garden certainly does not feed us entirely as we are true omnivores, but it does provide for our vegetable needs virtually 100%.   The occasional meal eaten out keeps us from being entirely 100% but we are close.  We must purchase (locally where possible) meat, dairy, a good portion of our fruits, grains, a large portion of dried beans, but the garden provides the vegetables and a sizeable amount of fruit and of course our hens provide us with all the eggs we could ever want!                   

Harvest totals for the week of December 20th through December 26th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).          

• Lettuce & Greens 0.25 lbs

Total For Week 0.25 lbs

Total Year To Date 446.75 lbs                        

Eggs harvested this week - 38                                

Greenhouse Crops                                         

The greens growing in large containers in the greenhouse are healthy but largely stopped in growth for the time being due to the low sun strength and short day length.    Now that we have hit the bottom of the solar cycle (December 21st) and starting the long slow crawl back to greater sun availability, I can look forward to the plants starting to respond by a resumption of growth.    They are poised to do so as they have good root systems developed.    Growing in pots are some corn salad (mache), swiss chard, and some young chinese cabbages.                             

In addition, Sunday afternoon I transplanted into two other large containers in the greenhouse some kale, cabbages, bok choy, and pac choi plants that have been growing in the shop under lights.   In the coming weeks they can settle in and establish good root systems and similarly then spring forward with new growth once the day length and sun strength starts markedly increasing.   In a short while, I will start some more greens in the shop to come along right behind these.  

We had a lovely Christmas but it was very quiet for us. This is the first year for us without our daughter at home and it was a strange sensation to celebrate the holidays without her.   Her absence was felt more keenly the last few days as a result.   The good news is that she will be arriving home soon for a visit (barring flight cancellations due to the crummy weather back east).   I can hardly wait!   Happy Holidays to all of you and I wish for all of us a new year of good health, laughter, and bountiful gardens!                        

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Whether I am ready or not for it to happen, fall is about to arrive.   Today was a beautiful summer day, temperatures climbed to the low 80’s and the sky was clear and bright.   But I am not so easily fooled, as I know that the progression to fall is already well underway and today’s brief respite from what has been a remarkably cool summer was just a last teasing kiss goodbye from that elusive lady - summer.   The days are rapidly shortening and our regional forecast is calling for an extended period of cool, showery, and overcast conditions – starting tomorrow.   While we certainly will get periods of sunny weather in the weeks to come, it is highly unlikely that temps will climb above low 70’s again until next spring.   At some point the persistent and cold fall rains will arrive and when they do, it will quickly finish off the heat loving crops such as tomatoes, peppers, and beans.   Knowing this, the race is now on to try and salvage as much of the summer harvest items as possible.   

The peppers are well fruited and healthy and I expect the peppers that are formed already will finish ripening without any intervention on my part.   What I cannot expect, is that the current flowers will go on to set fruit at this point in the season.   If it were a warm late summer/early fall season then that would be a possibility, but totally out of the question this year.             

If the heavy rains do not show up for a while, then the dried bean crops (Pinto and Dark Red Kidney) stand a very good chance of ultimately maturing and drying down – as they are a little more tolerant of cooler conditions but not so tolerant of overly wet conditions.   The bean pods are thick and well developed already so the odds look pretty good that they will make it to the finish line successfully.                        

The corn has been struggling all summer and while there are some ears maturing that we will soon enjoy for fresh eating, there is not nearly enough in the patch to provide corn for the freezer.   We have done without in many other years so I do not find this unduly concerning – just a little disappointing. 

The cucumber patch is poised to give a last big flush of cucumbers soon and I should be able to get enough to process a batch of our favorite dill pickle relish.   We have been enjoying lots of refrigerator dills lately too.   Considering how cool this summer has been, the cucumber patch has been performing admirably.   Go cukes!               

So that leaves the tomatoes. We have been getting intermittent small amounts of ripe and semi ripe tomatoes from the Siletz plants for several weeks now.    

They have provided some fresh eating fare but nothing has been coming along in sufficient amounts to even think about doing any preserving.   The likelihood of any of the tomatoes ripening is decreasing dramatically with the big chill moving in so I need to take more aggressive steps to bring in as much as possible while the small window of opportunity is still open.   First step is to start bringing in any fruit that has broken any color or appears to be on the verge of doing so.   In the warmth of the house they will move on to ripening.   Tonight I picked all the Siletz tomatoes that met those criteria.                    

I will keep doing this over the coming days to try and pull in everything possible so it can potentially ripen.                

The other action I need to take is to start buttoning up the greenhouse at night and reopen it during the day.   I have five Celebrity tomatoes in the greenhouse that are healthy and bearing good-sized fruit.   They need warmer temps at night to finish ripening so closing up the greenhouse will help hold in the heat at night and push that envelope a little further.   I cannot leave it closed during the day though because ventilation is a huge problem particularly when the greenhouse is full of lush vegetation and condensation that builds up from the cool night time conditions.   So my morning and evening routine will have to be modified to add this extra little step for a while.                    

I am confident I will squeeze out some reasonable tomato harvests yet, but it will take some effort on my part.   This cool summer has certainly put a dent on this year’s garden season, but there are some positives that came from it too.   The peas (shell and sugar snap) , lettuce, broccoli, spinach, and potatoes flourished.   I have not dug into the parsnip patch yet, but I think it will prove to be a good one this year too.   And the crops I have recently planted are rushing along nicely to maturity.   Just look at this broccoli and swiss chard plants I transplanted approximately four weeks ago on July 18th.         

Those are happy plants.   So not everything in the garden is sad to bid goodbye to summer.   I would have preferred to have her be with us longer and with more intensity this year, but I am content to work the hand that was dealt me this year as hard as possible and just keep moving forward.    Farewell summer.   I look forward to your return again next year.                   

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Tomorrow I will be flying to Pennsylvania to spend some vacation time with my daughter.  I will be returning home afterwards alone, as she will be staying on with a friend until it is time to move into the dorms and begin her first year of college life at Lehigh University.   In order to avoid thinking about this too much, I have kept myself incredibly busy over the past several days getting things taken care of ahead of time as much as possible.    

I was off from work today to do some required shopping and errands and to get the garden in good order so my husband (who is staying behind to take care of the homestead and animals) won’t have to worry about it.   Throughout the afternoon and this evening, I have managed to get the entire garden and the container plantings thoroughly watered. That is quite an undertaking to water the entire garden in less than one day.  It is supposed to be reasonably warm all weekend and on into next week – so I wanted to be sure all of the plants were set to grow unchecked in my absence.   The other chore I got completed was the planting out of the kale and chinese cabbage transplants.   I tucked the chinese cabbages in and around the basil plants that are growing in the longest vertical grow bed.   This bed gets partial shade so hopefully the cabbages will grow well and not bolt from heat.   The kale was planted up in the retaining wall bed in the spot where the garlic had been growing previously.  

I have not shown you the tomatoes in the greenhouse for a while.   These are Celebrity tomatoes and they are growing quite well.                               

I lopped off the top most part of these plants last weekend because they were pushing up against the ceiling of the greenhouse.   At this point in the summer season, I don’t want these plants to continue vining, instead I want them to concentrate all energy to setting and ripening fruit.   Which is what they are doing.                      

Out in the main garden area there are two varieties of tomatoes that are racing ahead of all the others – Market Miracle and Siletz.   Daphne of Daphne’s Dandelions gave the Market Miracle seeds to me and I had some high expectations based on her glowing reports of this tomato.   It looks like those hopes were well placed as they are forming nice clusters of really good-looking fruits!                                      

The really heavy and early producers are the Siletz tomatoes.   I started these ultra early, coddled them through late winter, kept them in the greenhouse until the weather really settled down, and they are growing in big black pots which adds additional heat around their root systems.    All of that extra effort is proving worth it as the plants are loaded with fruit …                          

…. and today I picked the first ripe tomato from the Siletz plants.                  

I sliced it up and ate it still warm from the vine.   It was so good!   There are more coming along right behind this one and I am so ready for the tomato season to get underway.                                                   

I am not taking a laptop with me on my travels, so I will not be posting a “Harvest Monday” recap this week.   I will however be back mid week and will post an update on how the garden fared in my absence.   The zucchini is pumping out the fruits right now so I expect to have some monsters waiting for me when I arrive home.   I may have to break down and make some chocolate zucchini cake to use it up.   Have a great weekend, and I will catch up with all your comments when I get back.              

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

Originally posted (May 30, 2010) with only Parts 1 & 2 due to connection problems to You Tube.  Problem resolved itself and this blog post was updated (May 31, 2010) to include Parts 3, 4, & 5.  

Spring Garden Tour Part 1                                   

Spring Garden Tour Part 2 

 

Spring Garden Tour Part 3                                       

Spring Garden Tour Part 4                           

Spring Garden Tour part 5 (Final)                        

My primary task this weekend was to transplant the tomatoes and (if possible) repot many of the remaining tomato plants into bigger containers.   I used up all the potting soil mix I had on hand before I could complete transplanting all the container tomatoes in the greenhouse and as a consequence I was also not able to do any repotting as well.   I will need to purchase some potting soil before I can complete those two items.   Hopefully later this week I can pick some up on the way home from work.      

Saturday morning was spent doing errands and grocery shopping, but when I got home in the afternoon I spent some time in the greenhouse doing a little rearranging to make room for the large tomato planters.   I harvested the last of the late winter container grown kale and pac choi and removed all of the mache as it was going to seed.   I then removed about 1/3rd of the soil from the three half barrel containers and recycled it into the garden beds.   I added a comparable amount of sifted finished compost and then mixed and aerated it into the rest of the soil using a pitchfork.   I then brought in two very large and two medium/large black plastic containers and filled them up with the potting soil mix I had on hand.   In the two smaller containers I planted up two of the five super early Siletz tomatoes.   These plants are super stocky and healthy looking!   I noticed that there are some flower buds formed on one of them already.   The remaining three Siletz plants will have to wait to be planted up until I purchase some potting soil.

I then planted up five Celebrity tomatoes in the three half barrel containers and the two large black containers.   The Celebrity plants are also quite big and sturdy but are small in comparison to the huge Siletz tomatoes.         

That was all I could get done on Saturday due to the late start.   The weather was glorious on Sunday (got up over 70 degrees), which made it a perfect day to do the big tomato planting for 2010.   In the first bed I planted all the indeterminate varieties; two Fantastics; two Cherokee Purples; four Market Miracles; and four Early Girls.   I did an alternated planting this year so that more light and air circulation would get in to the plants.   The 24 foot long bed had 6 plants down each side as a result.                                         

Because I am planting the tomatoes less densely this year, I had to use a half of another bed to plant the rest of the tomato patch.   I put all six Oroma paste tomatoes (determinate) into this bed.                                                   

You may have observed that the full bed of indeterminate varieties have both a cage and a ladder support for each plant.   I find this double support system works really well for all but the tallest plants.   For those, I add another cage on top later in the season.   The determinate plants are only supported by one cage.   Each tomato plant had 1 cup of organic all-purpose fertilizer, 2 tablespoons of Epsom Salts (magnesium sulfate), 1 tablespoon of finely crushed eggshells, and 4 plain aspirin tablets mixed into the soil at the bottom of the transplanting hole.   The plants were set much deeper than they were in their containers so that roots will form along the lower stem area.   I used a large watering can filled with rainwater from the rain barrels to water them in immediately after setting them into the soil.

I had to select the best specimens of each variety to go into the bed.   It was a hard decision to make in many cases because I had several of each variety to choose from.   The remaining plants will be kept on standby for the next several weeks so that if I lose any from transplant shock, I have a replacement standing ready.   After I am sure that the planted up tomatoes are growing and thriving, the remainder of the tomatoes will be delivered to my sister and my staff at work.

Two of the tomato varieties I am growing this year were grown from seed provided by fellow bloggers.   The Market Miracle tomatoes provided by Daphne from Daphne’s Dandelions is one that I have been really excited to grow.   They are relatively quick maturing and come highly praised by Daphne.   The seedlings grew well from the seed she supplied and were quite good sized by the time I planted them out today.                       

Another seed I received this year was Cherokee Purple from Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog.   These plants have also grown well (so far!) and I am excited to trial these in my garden this year too.                           

While the last average frost for my area is now behind me, the temps at night are still quite cool and the usual abundance of spring showers makes things too wet to keep tomato plants happy and healthy.    My plants were well hardened off prior to planting out but soon after the tomatoes were planted, I put a plastic cover over the entire bed to keep the bed warm and to protect the plants from the deluge of wet and cool spring rains.               

On cloudy but warmish days, I open the ends of the grow tunnel up to allow cross ventilation – closing it back up at night.   On really fair and warm days, I pull the cover entirely off for the day and put it back on in the evening.   On cold or rainy days, the cover stays on and closed.    It requires paying attention to the weather forecast and making a decision each morning as to what should be done – but I have had little problem with that.   Keeping the tomatoes protected until the summer dry season really arrives is critical to getting a crop in the rainy and cool coastal Pacific Northwest.            

Hopefully I will have a chance to pick up some potting soil this week and finish the container plantings and repotting of the remaining tomato plants.   I also have some celery and lettuces that need to be planted soon.   I ran out of energy and time today so they will have to wait until next weekend in all likelihood.

This evening after I got home from the office, I popped out to the greenhouse to move the tomato seedlings back into the shop and house and to harvest some chinese cabbage, a little lettuce, and quite a bit of mache.   It looks like the spring greens season has finally arrived!                                    

Since it is St. Patrick’s Day, it only seems fitting to harvest “greens”.    These went into a mixed green salad that was served with grilled steaks, and baked potatoes (Yukon Gold potatoes from storage).                                  

The spinach patch seems to have put on some real growth over the past few days as well.   The volume of available greens will continue to amp up as we move forward into the official start of spring.   However, the first harvest of spring greens each year is particularly appreciated because after a winter of mostly overwintered root crops and preserved items - fresh greens are like manna from heaven.                                                            

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener

The small additional grow light and heat mat that I ordered arrived on Friday.   I assembled it and got it set up in the shop – placing it up on top of the small over flow light set up I already had.   With this all in place, I was ready to get the peppers and basil started.                                

There were several chores to take care of in the outdoor garden area too, which was a good thing because the weather was beautiful today and it was nice to have an excuse to be outside!   I removed the plastic sheeting from the onions and the spinach bed.   Both are hardy crops and the longer-term forecast is not calling for any more really cold conditions.   I also completely reseeded the pea patch this afternoon.   The birds had gotten to the sprouting seeds when I pulled the plastic cover off to stop the rainwater puddling damage from continuing to the support trellis.    As soon as I reseeded the bed, I recovered it with Remay.   Hopefully that will keep the birds out of the bed and away from my sprouting seeds.                 

The rhubarb is just about ready for the first harvest of the year.                   

The final project for the day was to spend time repotting some of the tomato seedlings.   They are four weeks old now and ready for more root room and fresh soil.   I got about 1/3rd of them done before calling it a day.   I have quite a few tomatoes yet to pot up in larger containers.   The plan is to keep working on this over the next several days to get it wrapped up.   The repotted tomatoes went under the lights for now, but the larger ones will soon be taken out to the greenhouse and will do the daily journey into the shop at night and back out to the greenhouse in the day.   The greenhouse is getting good sun exposure now and is warming up nicely in the daytime.                  

Here’s a few of the repotted tomatoes enjoying an evening of artificial lighting and the warmth of a heat mat to help them recuperate from the transplanting.

I tried to take pictures of the bed of spinach today but the newly emerged seedlings are still so small that they are very hard to see in a photo.   I will have to wait until the bed is further along before sharing pictures of it with you.    

The spring garden season is really underway now. The trays of seedlings are occupying every available space under the grow lights and are starting to move into the greenhouse to make room for more.   As I pot up the tomatoes into larger containers, more and more of them will have to shift to the greenhouse too, as they take up much more room with the larger pots. 

How is your seed starting going?

March is a trying month in the gardening year.   The beginnings of the season are underway but the dangers of pushing too close to the “season extending edge” is high.   Even worse, the temptation to do so is fed by the dearth of fresh harvests offered up from a winter weary garden.   After a long dark season of living largely off of preserved and stored items and winter garden harvests composed largely of root crops - the lure of fresh spring greens is strong.                           

I use season extending tricks on both ends of the growing season, early spring and late fall, but I am most aggressive with the spring season.   An old gardening friend of mine (who had tremendous experience to back up his advice) once told me that if I did not lose at least a few plants in the spring and fall that I was not pushing the season extending process nearly hard enough.   This year I feel like I am living close to the season extending edge - but so far have not pushed beyond it.    The question then is…am I really pushing the season extension to the real limits?         

Last weekend, I posted about prepping the garden for a forecasted cold snap (a typical March occurrence).   The forecasts turned out to be quite accurate and the next day we had temperatures drop almost 20 degrees below the highs and lows we had been experiencing for the preceding many weeks.    Much of the garden was already protected but I covered up the freshly planted onions, kale, cabbages, and pac choi.   The Merlot lettuce (seeds from Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog) were also transplanted last weekend, but placed in a container that is currently residing in the unheated greenhouse.   Tonight after work, I did a quick inspection of everything to see how all of the plantings were doing.   I am pleased to report that everything is looking quite sturdy and unaffected by the colder conditions.   The spinach patch has newly emerged seedlings and they are growing and getting substantial enough that they are now clearly visible growing in the garden bed.   The kale, cabbages, and pac choi are clearly recovered from the transplanting and are looking sturdier than the day I set them out and the onion seedlings are similarly looking just fine.   The Merlot lettuces looked a little limp immediately after I transplanted them on Sunday, but they looked quite perky this evening despite the decided chill.           

The super early tomatoes (Siletz) have graduated to the unheated greenhouse during the day and are enjoying a daily trip into the house at night for protection.   The daytime temps the past three days have been quite chill but they seem to be thriving on this regimen despite that.   They continue to put on new growth and are starting to harden up from the constant handling and exposure to colder conditions.   Here’s a picture of them this evening sitting on top of our wood stove (no worries – there is no fire in the stove tonight!).   Sorry the pictures tonight are not as clear as usual but evening indoor shots without a flash tend to be a little more “fuzzy” and lower quality.               

There is always a runt or two in every crop of tomatoes and peppers each year.   I call them my Charlie Brown plants because like the pathetic little Christmas tree in the Peanuts Christmas special – all they really seem to need is just a little extra TLC to live up to their potential.   The littlest super early tomato (on the right in the picture) is one of those little characters.   He is lagging behind his brothers but not failing – just not thriving like they are.   All the plants have been exposed to the same conditions, same care, but you can see that there is quite a difference between them in growth.   It’s really a mystery why this regularly occurs.   I suppose it is just a product of that plant’s genetic inheritance?      

I have yet to lose anything this year as a result of pushing the season extension too far.   I shouldn’t really admit that though, because as soon as I do I know something will go sufficiently wrong to prove me quite premature in my declaration!   Gardens and children have a keen ability for keeping us humble on a regular basis.

How are you doing in managing through the usual March madness?