March 24 Tomato Babies

A first look at the tomato babies - good germination with some, not so good with others ...... still lots of time  for more to appear .... once the first sprouts show they come off the heat and are placed in a cool plant room which helps with stocky growth

 

March 21. It's Officially Spring

It's Officially Spring and what better way to celebrate then sow some peas ...... found two packs of older seed in my seed stash, will see how germination goes ...... Sugar Lace II and Cascade - these are both short snap peas, so no major trellis required - and you get to eat the whole pea pod and all

Bed 10 Gas Station Garden

March 18 Pepper Planting Time and More Tomatoes!!

I really liked Donkey Ears last year - so will regrow these ......... but blossoms were not bagged and I have read peppers cross easily - I did grow some hot peppers nearby last year ........ so time will tell

also received two interesting peppers in a seed swap - Sweet Pickle and Odessa Market - so decided to start those as well

then for a peaceful walk to a nearby park

 Just had to start three more tomato varieties .........

Russian Mini Yellow:  Indet. RL creamy yellow mini cherry

Tasmanian Chocolate:  Dwarf rugose RL oblate brown/black

Don's Double Delight x Dwarf Mocha Plum F1

March 14 Time to Start Tomatoes

mid-March - time to start tomatoes ...... as always, so difficult to decide what to grow; here is what I've started today: *indicates varieties I've grown before

*Apero F1:  Indet. RL red oval cherry

*Brad's Atomic Grape:  Indet. RL tricolour large saladette grape

KARMA Miracle:  Indet. PL tricolour cocktail size cherry

*Bundaberg Rumball:  Dwarf compact rugoseRL chocolate round saladette

Muddy Mamba:  Indet. RL green/purple/black beefsteak

Alsu:  Det. RL red heart/beefsteak

Lillian's Yellow x Dwarf Speckled Heart F1: Craig’s prediction of F1:   Indet. RL medium red, faint stripes

Loxton Lass:  Dwarf RL deep yellow

*Fred's Tie Dye:  Det. Dwarf rugose RL round, purple with jagged gold and green stripes 

into recycle salad container with cover then on to hot water heater for bottom heat

 

oh, almost forgot ....... I did start some varieties on March 2 - these were much older seed and I wanted to give them more time to germinate:

PPP x PP "C" F5 2008:  Indet. PL purple/black beefsteak

*Kits Find 2008:  Indet. RL red beefsteak

*Russian Black Pear 2006:  Indet. PL black pear

March 12 Gas Station Garden Beds 10/11 and 64

Good to go for another year at the Gas Station Garden ..... this is a temporary garden on a future development site - 3rd year

Perfect day for garden clean up and prep ...... the compost won't arrive until month end, but I had two beds full of over-wintered arugula; read this can be used as green manure - so cut up plants and dug them into the soil ...... also installed some pea sticks in Bed 10, a very old time method for pea support - 

Bed 64 Before

and after

Beds 10/11 Before

and after - note pea support branches at back of Bed 10; I'm waiting to plant my Oregon Giant snow peas until after compost arrives

March 3 "R" Garden Spring Prep

 Here is a before picture of "R" Garden .......

and after clean up - the garden was top dressed with a thin layer of mushroom manure ......

rhubarb is breaking through the soil - it got an extra shovel of manure - they like it rich - nice to see red stalks this year - the variety is Canada Red, but last year the stocks remained mostly green - this is the third year for my rhubarb

I dug under some of my mustard as a green manure, but decided to let some flower to feed the pollinators and beneficials

March 3 Back Container Garden

Just a quick update on the containers out back ......