Tomatos can be tenuous

My tomatoes grown from seed this year have been a trial. Partly from my noviceness at growing them from seed and partly from the cloudy, rainy weather we have been having. I lovingly selected a few varieties and purchased seed from eBay and other sources. I planned cherry tomatoes, Sun King tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, and an heirloom- oxheart.

I purchased the seeds, being frugal, from a dollar sale (except for the heirloom which came from ebay) of a well-known garden vendor. The Sun King seeds were back ordered. The cherry seeds only had about 20 in the pack, as did the Roma. The oxheart arrived and appeared to be ready to go with the quantity true as advertised.

I planted a half of the cherry, roma and some oxheart tomatoes in recycled swiffer boxes (left over from house breaking Roxie the pseudo sheepdog) with soil less mix and promptly put them in a southern windowsill in late February per my frost calculations for Zone 7. I checked them twice a day, misting when dry. Nothing happened.

I did more internet research (which contains a lot of conflicting information) and discovered tomato seeds like darkness initially. I replanted, covered for 24 hours, uncovered, installed them in the windowsill, and waited. Nothing happened. The Sun King seeds had still not arrived.

I recalculated my budget for late spring to accommodate the purchase of live tomato plants and in a last bout of "why not" frustration, threw all my remaining oxheart and cherry tomato seed into the swiffer boxes, covered them and *sheepishly* forgot them for four days. When I discovered them, I watered them generously and again installed them in the windowsill. I watered them every other day for a couple of weeks and went to eBay to purchase more cherry and roma seeds as cheaply as possible to experiment with figuring out this dilemma for the next year's crop.

After three weeks, the new seeds had arrived; it was near time to put tall healthy tomato plants in the garden. I analyzed all of the seed trays and custom set ups described in folk's websites to see what I might be doing wrong. I went to the craft store and bought $.30 1.5" clay pots to line the swiffer boxes. I went to retrieve the swiffer boxes from the windowsill to start working on the new set up- and they were green! I had sprouts! I planted the romas and sweet green bell peppers in the new set up and left the oxhearts and cherries to their own devices. Sun king seeds still had not arrived.

Within a week, the peppers and romas sprouted and caught up to the others. I babied the cherries and oxhearts trying to get them to thrive. Once they had piddling second leaves and the days were growing warm, I transplanted into recycled cans. I left the romas and peppers, waiting for second leaves. I put the cans out in the yard one sunny morning to get them ready to go in the garden bed. I came back later to get them and most the cherries had been eaten by a bird. I blamed it on Roxie the pseudo sheepdog, but my neighbor confirmed it was a really big ugly bird.

I found some beef steak tomato plants at a local discount store for $.75. They are now ensconced in the garden bed as usurpers to the space that was planned for the Sun Kings. The major seed vendor has lost a customer as I enjoy watching the beefsteaks double in size. The remaining oxhearts and cherries will be planted in the garden bed this weekend as will the romas and peppers ahead of schedule as they are blissfully root bound in their tiny pots.

And to reflect that this is just the start of the tomatoes, hopefully a full summer season of tomato tales will ensue.

Lessons learned: use small cell-like pots in a tray to be watered from the bottom only when they are dry. Keep the newly planted seeds in the dark 2-3 days before installing into light. When setting seedlings out for playtime, cover them with wire cages, recycled plastic bottles (open at the top) or an upside down laundry basket to protect them from critters. Buy extra seed and be persistent.

Sweet Cultivating

Lopsided Holly Bush...

After living in a dark cave of an apartment for many years, my dear family moved to a house with a very blank yard.
There was a tree in the backyard that was severely damaged, most likely by the Ice Storm of '95 that was the home of a family of squirrels. We had neighbors with trees that provide some shade.
In the front of the beige/white/brick home was a bleak yard barren of shrubs and flowers or even grass.
Upon second look, the green of the lawn is prolific weeds. We inherited a lopsided holly bush (I'll include picture soon) and a strange oak-type tree planted 2 ft (not exaggerating) from the carport post.
There was a rusty concrete post right next to the mid point of the driveway (most likely an ex- basketball goal). The former occupant had put a metal birdbath type construction over it, but the copper bowl kept falling off. The metal stand that rested around the ugly pole settled lower than the pole causing the bowl to not be able to sit flush in the stand.
We inherited a lopsided white, rusty stained mailbox as well.
We are renting the home so I had to consider that in any future plans. I do not want to put anything into it I won't mind leaving behind in a few years when we buy our own property and anything I planted had to be tasteful and easily cared for by future tenants.

At first the task by a novice gardener seemed daunting. As I worked through the planning stage over the winter I realized I was just having too much fun. Having a blank slate to work with was actually inspiring. In October, I added a lasagna garden bed around the concrete pole/bird feeder to stablize it and plant tulips. I created another lasagna bed around the lopsided mailbox which I have now painted blue. I planted daffodils, hyacinths and crocus that were cheerful against the blue mailbox in early spring. Recently I pulled the bulbs out for summer storage, planted sweet william seed in the bird feeder bed and lavender seed in the mailbox bed. Now we wait...And of course tackle the vegetable garden. A sweet cultivator's work is never done.