As I was out working in the garden today, I was thinking about a blog post and I laughed. I’m surprised there are any readers here! This blog has no real focal point. One day it’s dogs, one day it’s cross stitching, one day it’s cooking. One day it’s gardening! So, here’s a huge thank you to the readers who stick with me.
Today it was gardening. It was such a beautiful day.
When I start my seeds, I will usually put two seeds per cup so if both of them start growing and looking very healthy, I’ll divide those up and get two separate plants. I did that today and almost all of the seeds I stuck in the pots had germinated and were looking good. I think there were 24 seeds and maybe 4 either didn’t germinate or looked sad enough that I didn’t bother trying to save them.
I try to grow a lot of tomatoes but the majority of them are paste tomatoes. That’s what I use for sauces, ketchup, marinara, etc. Most anything I can is made from paste tomatoes. I grow a few “slicers” for sandwiches and burgers and I’ll grow a few more than a few cherry type tomatoes. Vince and I both LOVE them for snacking and probably eat way too many when I’m out working in the garden. Cooper loves the smaller cherry tomatoes and he probably eats too many of those too. Really, at the end of the season, I’ll can most anything that’s left but the slicers have so much liquid, it takes forever to freeze dry them and forever to cook them down to where they aren’t so runny.
I love trying new varieties of tomatoes and one I had been hearing a lot about is Anna Russian. It wasn’t many years ago that I would only plant determinate varieties for my past tomatoes because the determinate varieties tend to all get ripe in a relatively quick span so I can harvest them, get them all canned and be done with that variety. But lately, it seems all the paste tomatoes I plant are indeterminates. I wonder how/why that has happened. I haven’t thought much about it but I think back ten years ago or so, the popular determinate tomatoes were somewhat flavorless as far as an eating tomato but the Anna Russian, as well as the Amish Paste, which is the other paste tomato I’m planting this year, are both supposed to be decent slicers too. We grew Amish Paste last year and it’s fine for sandwiches and burgers.
Next, I decided to get some potatoes planted. I always put aside potatoes from one year’s harvest to plant the next spring. I keep them in a closed box with holes in it, in the basement garage. It mostly stays cool and dark in there but this year, I did a lot more canning and it was warmer than normal. These potatoes had sprouted and grown like crazy!
One of them had even produced a tiny little potato.
I planted potatoes in 5 mineral tubs and 2 grow bags. I decided I needed more mineral tubs and contacted my friend for more. I’m guessing I’m going to need at least 20 tubs for tomatoes, 10 tubs for potatoes, 5 tubs for squash and probably 5 more tubs for something I don’t even know yet that I want to plant. I need a lot more tubs! I may or may not get as many as I want but that’s my goal.
When I pruned the raspberries a while back, I wondered what would happen if I stuck some of the cuttings in a bucket of water. Then we had several hard freezes and the cuttings were sitting there in a bucket of ice. I was surprised to see that they’re actually sprouting leaves and look alive!
I probably would have been better off to stick the cuttings in soil but I didn’t. I’m going to share some with a friend, and poke them in the ground and see what happens. If they don’t take off and grow, next year when I prune them, I’ll plant the cuttings and see if that works.
Everything seems to get going along pretty much as planned for the garden this year. All that can change so I’ve learned to never expect a big harvest and then be surprised and hopefully happy with what I get.
What are your thoughts?