On the third day

Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed!

Ready, set, go!

It's time!! Well, probably not, but I couldn't contain myself any longer.

Rather than run to the garden center where I would be tempted to spend hundreds on things I don't need, I fired up the web. A quick click and 2 days later I was all set. Hundreds of seeds remain from last year's stash, so no need to buy more. Even though I really, really want to!

Things I did differently this year -
- Planted 1-2 seeds per pod rather than 4-5.
- Labeled them so I know what is what. Ground breaking stuff, right?
- Planted fewer varieties of tomatoes and only 2 peppers. I had a whole box of peppers last year and never ate 90% of them. This year we'll be doing herbs, tomatoes, jalapenos and giving the Jamaican Hot Chocolate pepper another go. (Mostly because we like to say "Jamacian Hot Chocolate.")

Even after filling 100 pods, I have tons of seeds left - especially from the tomatoes not making a return appearance in this year's garden. I'm just not a fan of the big beefsteaks. All I want is salsa, salsa, and more salsa!

If you would like any pepper or tomato seeds, leave me a comment or email me your mailing address. (mjp3md at gmail). If you're local and want some seedlings, let me know that too. Right now I've got 100 pods going so assuming all goes well, I'll have more than enough to go around.

Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

Dying to bust out the grow house supplies and get to work! Trying to resist just a little bit longer though so I don't again end up transplanting seedings three, four or five times before it's finally warm enough to move them outdoors.

Last year I resisted until March 7. This year I should be able to make it a little longer due to impending travel commitments. Stay tuned.

In Remembrance

How quickly you can go from just a couple of bugs to OH MY GOD APHIDS HAVE TAKEN OVER OUR BATHROOM. And just like that, the pepper winter shower garden experiment has come to an end. It's a shame, as I was finally getting some of the long awaited Jamaican Hot Chocolate peppers.

Not only were the bugs just plain annoying, but they were killing the plants. The leaves were dropping off and/or being eaten. There are so many that I don't even think it's worth resuscitation efforts. If only a couple aphids make it back inside, we're doomed. Not to mention my mom is coming to visit in a month, and I wasn't quite sure how she would shower around the peppers.

This was less about having peppers growing through the winter (and in huge quantities next summer); I don't even like peppers very much (except you, beloved Jalapeno). It was more about being able to deliver peppers to friends and proudly say, "I picked this while I was on the toilet yesterday." Because who doesn't love a nice toilet pepper (not to be confused with toilet paper, because that could end very, very badly).

Hibernation

A select few have been chosen and moved indoors for the winter. Some of these plants just started producing peppers. They may continue producing for a few more weeks but will probably go dormant soon.

If all goes according to plan, I'll be able to put them back outside in April and grow some gigantic pepper plants next year. More likely scenario is we will grow tired of having pepper plants filling our bathrooms for the next 6 months -- and/or forget about them -- and they will end up in the trash can.

Not sure what we're going to do when it's time to start next season's seeds. Perhaps it's time for the growhouse to expand?

Growhouse resurrected earlier than planned?

Somewhere between the weather forecast and the sports talk I heard a random "expert" on our local radio station this morning talk gardening tips. It was strange, as this station usually just repeats exactly the same thing every 10 minutes. Traffic is on the 8's (12:08, 12:18, etc) which is the only reason I listen; there's about 8 minutes of commercials and maybe some sports talk to round out the rest of the 10 minutes. Usually I have to listen a good 30 minutes before I remember to pay attention to the traffic report rather than thinking about things like how much I love nachos or how badly I need a nap. But it's all cool, because in half an hour you go about 2 miles in DC traffic, so no big deal.

Anyway.

He claims I should bring in all my pepper plants now. I don't have a nice sunny window as he recommends but I do have a decent sized grow house just waiting to get back to work.

His theories were -

• If you bring pepper plants inside they will last through the winter and be even bigger and better when next season rolls around. He claims his have lasted 8 years.
• If you wait too long to do it, you will be half asleep when you hear the frost warning and be too lazy to do it at all.

I do have quite a few in transportable pots that I can just toss in the bathtub/grow house. Many of the peppers are in the garden, but their understudies remain on the deck, in tiny pots. It's tempting. Not sure what I'll do with them once it's time to start the seed growing again. Buy more grow lights?  Dear Santa....

Random fist shaking

The tomato production of the remaining plants has slowed considerably, yet I still have to water as often as before. Seems unfair.

I have pulled more of the tomatoes I hate; still trying to transplant the understudies into garden space in hopes I can extend the growing season.

Went to the local hippie farmer's market today -- everything is grown within 100 miles and I swear people wear fake Amish hats to sell more food. (OK, OK, maybe they were Mennonites, but I still think they were milking it; those hats didn't even fit.) Before me was the most delicious spread of onions, peppers, tomatoes, etc. for $2/lb or less.  All that work I do, and I could drive 3 miles to get a wider variety of produce at 1/50000th the cost.

This weekend I spent over an hour chopping/squeezing/washing to make salsa for a relative's birthday. Barely ended up with one full jar.

To review: Gardens are a lot of time/work/energy and not necessarily cost effective. Also when fall comes and everything starts to die, you will get so depressed you will want to snuggle your shriveled up Arkansas Traveler vines. Oh winter, I hate you already and you're still months away. Still though, it gives me a reason to live for Spring and start all over again.

Speaking of the farmer's market

Here's what we had for dinner. All of it was produced locally unless otherwise indicated.

• Free range chicken coated in goat cheese with dill. Marielle's chicken was transformed into nuggets, while I just ate the cheese alone in my salad. Both items came from the fake Amish people. (It's OK to talk about them, because if they are truly Amish the shiny knowledge box doesn't infiltrate their homes and they will never know.)
• Green, yellow and purple beans. 
• Salad of tomatoes from my back yard plus grocery store lettuce & tomatoes left over from a previous meal. Marielle didn't eat the salad, but did eat cucumber sticks.
• Nectarines & plums. 

It was absolutely delicious and probably the most vegetables my daughter has ever eaten in one setting. I really do think it helped that she explored the market with me and I faked excitement over every single thing we saw.

Of course two hours later I was starving, but it's a good start.

You might be a garden nerd if...

You pay Virginia Tech $10 to analyze your soil.

Will to live

I uprooted a cherry tomato plant I found particularly repulsive and replaced it with one of my smaller understudy tomato plants that had just been waiting for a nice, spacious home. I went out today to check on everyone and noticed a weed growing like crazy in the pot.

Curious to see what would grow so fast and so concentrated, I pulled it out. Verdict:

The tomato plant that wouldn't give up!

Prize pupil

Due to several clumsy mishaps, I had no idea what varieties I planted where on our farm. I was hoping I could figure it out after they bloomed, but I'm probably only 50/50. Some are very obvious - due to freak sizes or color - but others I'm stumped.

I have one variety of tomato that has been producing consistently and rapidly. It is great for sauce and salsa. Almost perfectly round, it tastes like nothing I can buy in the store. I envision planting at least 50% of next year's farm with nothing but this variety. Thank goodness for google and the record of seeds I bought. I now know without a doubt my star student is the Arkansas Traveler. Finally, an heirloom tomato that doesn't suck!!

Speaking of tomatoes that suck, I actually pulled some plants out of the ground this weekend. They were taking up too much space. The losers had end rot, too much cracking, or I just didn't like the taste. Good bye, orange banana and friends. Hope the squirrels like you more than I did.

It's baaaaack!

Just in time for the peak of salsa season, my beloved cilantro returns! It bolted and I let it go to seed, then re-seeded the pot by hand and voilà -- deliciousness.

Options

What do you do when Farmer Margarita hands you so many over ripe tomatoes that you don't think you'll be able to use them before they all go bad?


Tomato and mozzarella salad bay-bee! Then eat it all yourself before anyone notices how yummy it is.

Progress report - 3 1/2 months in

The last progress report was just about 2 months ago, and the first one was June 4 (those were the days). Sorry, I disappeared for July (which resulted in the loss of all garlic and onions.) Here's your August photo montage -

These are the two smaller boxes:

Due to planting the tomatillos next to a weed like currant tomato plant, they have kind of melded into one giant mess of plants. I've attempted selective reduction several times, but those pesky tomatillos just keep coming back. They are growing through, over and around all the peppers. Annoying, but shades them which they seem to like.

This is the large bed. When I go to harvest, I just dive in and hope I can find my way out:

Many tomatoes have rotted in the center because I didn't see them in time. I think I have 8-10 plants in here, but who can know; they're all growing on top of each other at this point. Some of the vines are probably 10 feet long and could stretch to my deck if I got off my ass and constructed a fancy trellis.

(You will note however my ass is quite lazy. That is why our deck is 2 colors - we got tired halfway through staining it 8+ years ago and never finished. You got a problem with it, you're welcome to pay for a new one.)

Pest control

Many of my fellow farmers are having trouble growing tomatoes this summer, suffering mysterious disappearances most likely caused by critters.

I haven't had this problem -- in fact have had more tomatoes than I can pick -- and will now share my secrets:

1. Plant 28 tomato plants for a family of 3. You'll hardly notice if even half your tomatoes go missing.

2. Leave offerings of your less than perfect fruit, preferably on an easily accessible surface like the ground, or a deck railing.

You're welcome.

If only they came in blue

I guess it's about time to figure out what exactly you do with peppers.

Screw you, delicious peppers.

These are red Thai chili peppers. I hate them.

I hate them because they remind me that Farmer Nacho is halfway around the world in Thailand, and not here cooking for me and doing all my canning.

Parasitic twin

Mystery

What is happening to my peppers? Farmer Margarita, I may need your input.

So that's what you do with a tomatillo

Roasted tomatillo salsa