Beets are bustin’ out all over. We’ve got three kinds: Red Ace, Early Wonder and Cioggia.
Filed under: Garden
Primo had his first lesson on lawn mowing today. He did a nice job on the front for his first try. Once he gets through his training period we’ll start paying him. Maybe in August. He’d probably do better making Nikes in Malaysia.
While we feel strongly about our tomatoes, some people in this world get violent about them.
It’s by no means the only reason or even a major one, really, but here’s a take from today’s NYT on why we go to the trouble to grow stuff in our back yard. Of course, anyone who knows me knows we only grow veg for the flava.
On a related note, we augmented our salad last night with a few leaves from the lettuce plants we planted from the Garden center. It’s a start.
Filed under: Garden
The lettuce and beets have sprouted. I’m almost as excited as a new parent. Almost. At least the seeds weren’t duds.
Filed under: Garden
We got a little more adventurous with out seeds started indoors this year thanks to my mother-in-law. She gave us a ginormous plant light set up (3 shelfs, each shelf 4 feet long with 4 bulbs) which increased out seed starting capability six-fold.
We set it up in the attic because the thing is too tall to go in the basement. So we’ve got flowers, ‘maters and some herbs going so far. And we haven’t even filled one shelf.
In addition to the seeds planted last weekend I planted a few lettuce and parsley seedlings from the garden center. After nearly a week, the lettuce is visibly larger. We’ll have a few leaves in our salad next weekend, perhaps. I was worried about the seedlings as the night after I planted them the temp dropped down to 26, but those plants are hardy little suckers. Besides, I’m going to have so many seedlings from the plant lights that a little die off in the garden might not be a bad thing.
Filed under: Garden
Talked to Mom up in NH today. Told her that the daffodils were coming up. She was jealous.
She’s not sure if she’ll see hers before July 4th.
The forsycthia should be open tomorrow or the next day.
Planted first seeds outside today. Lettuce and beets. 3 types of beets. Beets are this year’s “experimental” veg. Each year I try to grow something new. Usually I fail miserably. We’ve tried eggplant, broccoli, artichokes, and maybe had one serving of whatever we were trying to grow. We’ve tried melons of various types and never once actually eaten a melon grown in our garden. We had modest success with brussels sprouts. We have high hopes for beets. Last year I “discovered” one could plant beets in late summer and decided to try, figuring I’d scoop up some marked down seeds at the hardware store. No luck there or a couple of other places. Apparently beets sell out.
Filed under: Garden
The plastic has been on the beds for about a month. First planting will happen this weekend. Boy, am I ready for spring.
The picture says it all. August 2005.
I’ve decided that the year can be broken down like this:
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3 months of good skiing
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3 months of good tomatoes
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6 months of crap, waiting for one of the “good” seasons to begin.
Since I’m an average skiier but like to think of myself an above average tomato grower, this blog will focus on tomatoes and other goodies from the garden; AND what I do with said goodies once they make it into my kitchen.
JerzeeTomato 
