Tag: gardening

Over at Apartment Therapy’s Kitchn they have found a use for flowers from bolting arugula. I got tons of bolting flowering arugula. Unfortunately, all that bolting arugula looks kinda weedy to the untrained eye. I know this because young men came to my door offering their services to pull out all those ‘weeds’. Not the first time someone has done that.
I am trying to collect seed from these bolting plants so I don’t have to keep buying seed. When the seed pods have dried, I’ll pull up the plants and restart my salad days again.

I look at this picture to remind myself that in a few months my front yard will b overrun by greenery, and I will leave some tomatoes to rot on the vine because there is no way I’m going to reach back in there and retrieve them.
Anyway, I’m now actually trying to use up the tomato pastes and sauces I made with last year’s tomatoes to make room for this year’s tomatoes. I look forward to the little cherry, the flavorful paste and the plain old tomatoes. Right now they are seedlings that aren’t sure if they want to live or die. If the little baby plants decide to commit suicide, I’ll buy plants at a farmer’s market (Bloomingdale starts May 18th) or Home Despot.

I got an email from a marketing company and after some light investigation figured it was worth passing on to y’all.

For the first time in its more-than-100-year history, Campbell Soup Company is making available to the American public specially cultivated seeds used to grow tomatoes for its iconic Campbell’s® Tomato soup. The effort is part of Campbell’s goal to grow more than one billion tomatoes across the country and to support American agriculture. Campbell also is teaming up with the National FFA Organization and Urban Farming Inc., each of which will use the special seeds to help create five community gardens in urban communities.
To learn more about this please to go http://akamediainc.com/SMNR/tomatoseed.html

Campbell’s on their own site appears to be giving away seed with the purchase of soup. At “Help Grow Your Soup” you can click and donate seeds to their project and get your own seeds.
I already bought all the tomato seeds I’m going to use this year. I tried a new to me seed company “Totally Tomatoes” to get indeterminate and determinate tomatoes. Indeterminate just go all over, determinate tomatoes like the balcony hybrids, are a bit more bush like. Totally Tomato had more of a choice with the determinants.

Other Seed Sources of Interest:
Southern Exposure Seed Exchange– Virginia based and mid-Atlantic focused.
Pinetree Garden Seeds– Smaller packets of seeds. Seems a bit cheaper than some other suppliers.
Cooks Garden– My personal gardening rule is if I can’t eat it, I don’t need it. This is a seed supplier who factors in taste.
Nichol’s Garden Nursery– She wrote the book on container gardening and I bought seeds from her site.

April 10th was supposed to be the last frost date for Spring, so I got out this weekend and played in dirt.
Inside the house I’ve been growing tomatoes from seed in the window. I took a few of the balcony hybrids and replanted them in larger pots. I also have some not-exactly red type tomato seedlings growing in the window as well as I love the odd varieties, the yellows, the green stripes, the orangish and whathaveyou.
Last year, some heirloom varieties we (we being me and neighbor B) grew were duds, producing nothing but lots of vines. I’m going to blame the light, or lack of it, in the rear yard. The front yard produced a bunch of rudely shaped San Marizano (?) plum tomatoes suffering from mild blossom rot. There were tons, and tons of cherry tomatoes that were great for snacking and I’ll do them again this year. The Russian heirloom variety tomato was a late season type that produced these huge monster tomatoes that most of the time I did not let ripen on the vine because one part would look 1/2 way to rotting. Having them ripen in a sunny window (to fight whatever mold-like thing growing on one side) was my best bet.
Besides tomatoes I planted some bean seeds. I’m doing the french string bean thing again. I really enjoyed similar beans I had grown before and a meal at Corduroy featuring buttery string beans reminded me of how great this vegetable is.

I’ve admired the front yard of a house on the 1500 block of 8th St where raised beds bring forth lettuce and something that looks like bok choy. Currently the beds are covered in opaque plastic. That’s probably to protect seedlings, while providing light and warmth.
I haven’t gone the way of raised beds yet. I tested my soil last year and so far it’s biggest problem is that there is too much fertilizer, more than likely from my over use of compost. The soil has been amended and isn’t very clay-like anymore so there isn’t a need, I think, to raise the beds. However, due to a planned paint project a number of front yard plants will be in pots.
Despite being sick and woo-woo in the head from the cold medicine I’m taking, I filled some pots this weekend. Despite being less than charmed with Swiss Chard, I’m growing it again, but mainly for looks. Swiss Chard can be pretty growing in the yard. Prettier than arugula, which though tasty, is just green and leafy. The arugula is staying, but I am going to try growing it in pots this year.

Total hat tip to The Bloomingdale Blog on this wonderful idea. The site Share Your Backyard attempts to match people with backyards with people who need/want space to grow things. That which encourages people to turn lawns and backyards into gardens is a good thing.