Misty Morning Walk Through the Garden, and Tomato Time!

"Dew on the Dill"

Very misty this morning, but the day promises to be sunny and hot, in the low 80's. I took some pictures to keep my blog up to date. I planted four of my tomato plants on the 17th of March and need to get the photos on here so I will remember.

Old German Tomato Heirloom Yellow with Orange marbling, planted March 17

(from Green Thumb Nursery)

Cherokee Purple Heirloom Tomato, planted March 17

(from Green Thumb Nursery)

Persimmon Heirloom Orange Yellow Tomato, planted March 17

(from Green Thumb Nursery)

(Also planted an Heirloom Yellow Pear Cherry Tomato, no photo)

Tomato Seedlings, Dr, Wyche's, German Queen,Green Zebra, San Marzano, Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Underwood's Pink Beefsteak, Zapotec Pink, Wisconsin 55 and an Isis Candy Bi color cherry tomato. I have more than one of each of these, but have not potted up all of the seedlings yet. I will plant these in the garden around the 15th of April.

Lots of seedlings, see below for summer squash varieties. Also started lots of Zinnia and Mexican Sunflower Tithonia rotundifolia.

Lots of herb seedlings. I am planting several new Marjoram plants this year, the older ones are getting a little woody and the gophers seem to like to burrow under these older plants. Also started Cilantro, Chervil, Summer Savory, Parsley and Sage (in the middle front pot).  Still a little early for Basil so will directly plant that in the Herb Garden in April.

Summer Squash, we planted several varieties, Yellow Crookneck, Early White Bush (scallop) Black Beauty Zucchini, Cocozelle an heirloom stripe Italian zucchini, Scallop Patty Pan an heirloom spicy, nuttier squash that grows in three colors of yellow, green and white. Both from Botanical Interests.

Just two of the many pots we have of Pepper Seedling, we planted New Mexico Pepper (like a Anaheim Chili), California Wonder (bell pepper), Sweep Pepper Pimiento and a Carnival Mix Bell Pepper, Poblano (Ancho) and a small Thai Chili. Most of these are from Seeds of Change, I really like their seed packages, they are a heavy plastic which makes it easy to keep them from year to year. Just make sure if you are saving your seeds that they dry out before you put them in these packages.

3 Pots of French Tarragon, these are now three years old. I grow Tarragon in pots to keep the leaves clean, these will completely cover the pot cascading down 12-24 inches, I pick it often so it stays nice and bushy. Try making Tarragon Pesto, it is delicious on fish. I also keep these in filtered sunlight under one of my Ficus benjamina trees in the summer.
French Tarragon can't be grown from seed, I have heard that it will revert back to the Russian Tarragon. I take cuttings of these plants and propagate by putting Rootone on the end of the cutting and putting in a light potting mix. After they have taken root I transfer them to a mix of one part potting mix, peat, coarse sand and just a little bone meal. This is the same mix I use for any herb I grow in pots. I also use terracotta pots, this helps to keep the soil from staying too wet, which Tarragon does not like!

Winter Savory in terracotta pot.  This I also keep in a pot so I can bring it in the house in the winter months. It gets so hot here in the summer that I will move this to a filtered sun location in July.

Planted 4 of the tomatoes in this cage March 17; will build another one of these cages for the rest of the tomatoes this year, it works fantastic. If you would like to see it full of tomatoes from last year just look at my tags for "tomatoes".

Well, my coffee cup is empty and the sun is now shining so I better get outside and start weeding this area.

"To dig and delve in nice clean dirt can do a mortal little hurt." -John Kendrick Bangs (1962-1922)