Tag: plants

Last year Lewis and I fell in love with heirloom tomatoes. Their smell and taste! Like tomatoes are supposed to be, like the tomatoes our grandparents grew up with. Not your grocery store variety, although we have seen a tiny selection of “ugly tomatoes” at our local Giant. And we were able to pick up some at a local roadside stand last summer.

The guy at my local nursery gave me a few sad tomato plants at the end of their selling season last summer. I nursed them and they produced a few fruits. They were amazing, and even planted beside my usual standby varieties like “better boy”, the heirloom varieties did not suffer from the tomato blight like the hybrids. I think we had a “black heirloom”, “green zebra”, something small and yellow whose name I’ve forgotten (maybe lemon?) and a “Cherokee purple”. I think we liked the flavor of the black tomato best (it isn’t really black, just a dark purple) and it is a very meaty tomato. Maybe they aren’t all heirlooms, but they are certainly flavorful and unusual.

There were so many varieties to choose from this year, and I kind of went overboard, buying 7 different kinds of tomatoes.

Burgess Stuffer
Tigerella
Cherokee Purple
Yellow Pear
Green Zebra
White Beauty
Black Heirloom

I’ll post each one as we try them and note what we like about them. This will also help me make better (or more) selections next year.

One thing I skipped this year is my usual “sweet millions” which is a super sweet cherry tomato. I have several dozen volunteers coming up here and there and I’m sure at least one of them will turn out to be a “sweet millions”. We usually have more fruit from them than we know what to do with anyway. I can always pop them into one of the large planters and keep them on the edge of the porch or beside Oli’s door. I left room in each bed next to the door because Oli- and his rope- are usually pretty rough on the plants closest to the door!

I was extremely tempted by the Tomato Chocolate Cherry from the Park Seed catalog that arrived in late winter, but I knew I wouldn’t be starting seeds this year, so I refrained. Maybe next year…

Here are my first two tomatoes, “tigerella”:
I’m really looking forward to all the blt sandwiches we’ll have for dinner this summer!

I started several malva seeds in pots last year, then planted them in the yard when they were ready. They didn’t seem to do much, so I gave up on them. They are a perennial, but I figured if they didn’t do anything the first year, they wouldn’t be back. I was wrong.

It seems they self-seeded and I now have a ton of them coming up along the back of the crescent bed. That is good, right where I want them to be. They will look so pretty mingling with the cucumber plant. It will be this mass of vining green leaves and then here and there, surprise! A little pop of color from those pinky-purple petals.

I’ve recently read that when they self-seed the flowers may not be true to the variety you originally planted. I say, who cares when they are this pretty?

I got a gorgeous black and blue salvia at Noggle’s Nursery yesterday. It is now the centerpiece of the crescent bed. I also got a couple of smaller blue and white ones to put around it. Someone had been letting their dog pee on the one Swiss chard plant that sort of made it from last summer. It had been intensely interesting to Oli for several weeks, but I eventually pulled it out. It was stunted and didn’t really look nice. Besides, Oliver really enjoyed tearing up the root. That boy does love roots! Anyway, if some rude person is going to let their dog do that, I don’t want any food plants that close to the sidewalk. So where I was going to plant peas, I’ve just put in that row of salvia. Just as well, because it is a little late for peas, and that spot may be too hot and dry for them.

I mostly finished planting the tomato bed last night. I added the four celeriac plants I bought. We are going to give that a try this year. I need to track down some Swiss chard plants. It is so pretty, and I am determined to figure out how to eat it this year. I promised myself that if we don’t eat it this year, I won’t plant it again. It is too pretty not to plant, so I’ll figure out how to prepare and serve Swiss chard.I got one each of blanketflower and melampodium, but I still have room for one more of each. I need something tough right by the door, so if Oli’s rope catches it, the plant will still be okay. I think the dwarf melampodium can handle that. I’d like a red blanketflower, but she only had yellow at Noggle’s.

I’m hoping Lewis puts my squash fence in today- he said he would, but he may run out of time. The plumber is coming again today to fix the hot water heater. Luckily, the whole shebang did not need replaced. It was something to do with a valve, which became blocked. The plumber thinks he can fix it, but if he can’t, they only need to replace this $50 valve. That plus labor, of course. But still way better that a whole new hot water heater.

Anyway, if Lewis gets the squash fence in, then I can plant my yellow squash and zucchini tonight. I didn’t use mom’s seeds. Noggle’s had peat pots for $.99, so I just bought 3 zucchini plants. I know buying plants isn’t as economical as starting seeds, and I feel badly about that this year, but I knew I just didn’t have the ambition and energy to get them started when they needed to be. Next year. I also plan to plant beans from seed and hopefully I can just get them in the ground tonight. Then I’ll pretty much be done. That will feel good.

I’ve given up on planting on the fence line this year, too. I adjusted my carefully thought out plans and cut back a bit. I don’t want to plant more than I can handle. Also, just walking around that side is treacherous. The bed is full of weeds and it stresses Oli out when he can’t see me. Maybe we can get that strip under control this summer, and I won’t have to worry about damaging my veggies. We’ll see.

See? We really did have a garden planted this year, honest. Here was one of my nightly bean harvests. I love, love, love string beans. I will definitely be planting more beans next year.