Garden 2019 thread
 

I got started about 3 weeks ago, proofing the seeds I had left over from last year. All the tomatoes sprouted 100%, most of the peppers were about 50% except the habaneros which were 100% dead.

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I planted them in their starter cups this morning. Garden season always seems like the first of the year to me. From January to mid-March is a black hole in time.
So, another year has begun!

I am only doing tomatoes and cucumbers this year. Tomato seeds came in the mail yesterday. 5 weeks before I can put them in the ground but I am ready to start. It has been a long winter.

A bit early isn't it? I also use egg cartons but the paper ones. The roots bed into the paper and I just plop the whole cup into ground.

Romas are great in toasted cheese and tomahto sammiches!

I just use the egg cartons to get them started. The pint size cups I finish them in are so tall the heat from the heating pad doesn't get to the top and it doesn't get warm enough to sprout seeds. I'll move them to the bigger cups when they are about 1" tall or so. I didn't need to start the tomatoes so soon, but peppers are slow to start. You have to keep them very warm, 75 to 85f.

I switched from Romas to San Marzanos a couple of years ago. The have better taste and fewer seeds.

I’m going to the farmer’s market.

Any day now
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Three weeks in the tomatoes are doing great, as expected. The peppers aren't doing so well. We have a few serranos coming up finally, but the habaneros, jalapinos, and poblanos are DOA. I can't really blame them. They like warmth, and though I tried to keep the soil temps up, I discovered a week or so ago that Mrs WD was "helping" by watering the plants every morning - with cold water. I checked the soil temp one morning and it was 65f. They don't like cold feet. The sweet peppers are coming up slowly, but I guess I'll be buying jalapino and habanera pepper plants.

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I've got six Jersey Giant, four San Marzano, two yellow table tomatoes, and six King Arthur bell peppers growing well.

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We pulled the straw off the strawberries yesterday. The plants all seemed to overwinter just fine. One of the delights of life is eating a sun-warmed strawberry right off the vine. People who have only eaten food store strawberries have no idea why we even eat these things.

Had to replace the wooden garden beds with bricks. Just about finished. It’s still a little chilly here, but I’m looking forward to growing some vegetables, if the dogs will let me...

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SmileWavy

Harvested the garlic yesterday, got a nice yield of 24 lbs. MrsWD wanted to dry them in my basement room because it's coolest and dryest place in the house. It smells pungent down there, to say the least.

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Strawberry harvest is over. We froze 12 quart size packages - plenty for us - and gave away probably 24 quarts to neighbors.
Raspberries are getting ripe. I picked a few this morning - enough to put on my cereal.

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