It's spring again! Or close enough. It's sunny and warm out and the grass is growing. I decided to start my tomatoes today.

This year, I'm growing all of my Fred Hempel tomatoes. Mostly because my seeds are old and I don't know if I'll find them again. Some, sure, Blush, for example is everywhere. But Fuego Rosa? Not so much. Also partly because I was feeling a little sad and nostalgic when I started planning my garden.

I also decided to grow 4 big tomatoes: a pink, a bicolor, a green, and a funky one. I ended up choosing: Stump of the World (of course), Old German, Taiga, and Zapotec.

Also this year, I've started a bunch of seeds from trees. Most are pluots and nectaplums, there's an apple seedling in there too. I'm aware that they won't grow true to parent types, but it'll be fun anyway. I also ordered a bunch of cuttings, elderberry and red currants. My food forest is coming along.

Pre-planted seeds Elderberry and currants Fruit tree seedlings Everything Tomato seeds started. This is a weird picture because of the lighting and the see-thru tags. I couldn't find my plant tags so I cut up a McDonald's cup .

And just how many times a day do you check your tomato seeds? I must check mine 4-5 times a day to see if they have sprouted.

I already checked

I remembered after I planted that I told my aunt I'd start her some tomatoes. She doesn't know much about all the different tomatoes, but isn't big on cherry tomatoes, so I figured I'd give her a red, yellow, purple, and a paste. So I picked out Stump of the World, Pineapple, Big Cheef, and Marzano Fire. Then I threw in some Anna's Multiflora for something early and productive because she might underestimate our summers. She just moved here from Seattle, it's very hot and dry here. I know she'll water, but I don't know that she'll water enough, and Anna's can take some heat, Stump, too.

Good on you @Dawn! Gotta take care of the family.

I was getting worried that nothing was going to come up, it's been 10 days. But today I looked and 6 varieties are coming up. They're just in a colder spot, so they're taking their time. I don't mind them growing slower, as long as they grow.

My fruit tree seedlings are getting bigger, my currant and elderberry cuttings are getting leafier, and my comfrey roots are sending up leaves. It's all coming together.

First sunny day since the tomatoes popped up, so out they go into the mini greenhouse (clear Rubbermaid-type tub). If you can get them out there into the sun before their true leaves come, they can handle the sun and won't sunburn.

The rest in the are my fruit trees, elderberries, and comfrey root pieces that are starting to come up.

The cool room meant slow growing tomatoes, so now I'm happy I started them early. Rather poor germination from 3 brand new and one old seed pack from Renaissance Farms, so I don't think I'll be ordering from them anymore (and I've had a few wrong varieties). Taiga (from Renaissance, not this years seeds, probably 2021 or 2022) I planted still hasn't germinated, so I planted the last 3 seeds I had and I threw Captain Lucky in another pot as a backup. The rest have finally germinated, so I'll be able to save seeds and hopefully have better germination from those varieties in the future.

Anyway, they're all looking great and I hope to pot them up soon.

Also in the picture are a few of my fruit tree seedlings. That red nectaplum sure has grown fast!

Click on my pictures of you want to see them better, they always show up blurry until you click and bring up the larger one.

looking good

I found a bunch of apricot seedlings growing behind my garage last year, they're from the neighbor's trees that have been cut down. I dug up most of them and stuck them in a pot on my porch. I figured they'd die over the winter or after digging them up. They did not. I thought a few were still alive, so I decided to pot up whatever was good. They were all good, 18 apricot trees (only 13 in the picture because I had to stop before I was finished). One has buds, the rest will soon. I have 3 apricot trees already, so they'll be rehomed.

I couldn't sleep the other night so my insomniac brain invented a new way of gardening. I live in the desert, summers are very hot and very dry. I was thinking about raised beds and in ground beds and thought, what if I go deeper? Sunken beds? Cooler ground, no water run-off. So I looked it up and it's absolutely a thing that I didn't actually invent

So I got the rototiller out today, I did 3 sweeps, then took the dirt from the middle and hilled up the sides. Then I dumped a 5 gallon bucket of compost down the middle and rototilled that in. It's deeper than the picture makes it look. The planting space is probably 20 inches by about 15 feet.

I think it'll work, I'll plant my squash here, and probably some watermelons and my extra tomatoes.

What a great idea! I hope that it works well for you. I have seen some garden pics that looked like they were down in the foot print of a basement ready to be poured. The people that had them were very pleased with them and it was easy for them to shade if they needed to.

Tomato babies

3 to 4 more weeks until planting!

Maybe a better picture of the sunken bed. I got some cabbages from a plant sale today, so they get to be the first plants in.

I've been out of commission for a little while, but today, I'm better, so I was able to get outside and do some work. This is the time of year when everything is growing so fast, so a couple weeks of neglect meant that some Bermuda (or similar running grass) was able to complete invade my herb bed. It's been creeping in there for a while, but I can usually keep it in check until plants start growing. It's beyond that now, so I spent last night trying to figure out how I was going to manage it. I finally settled on putting down cardboard in the whole bed, and covering it with mulch. I removed all the mulch that was in there, and set it aside, laid down the cardboard with holes for the yarrow and oregano and sage. They said that the feverfew would come back, but I don't see it, so I covered that part, if it spreads by seed, it'll pop up around the outside of the bed, and I can add it back in. Added the mulch back in, plus all the grass clippings from the yard.

I moved the hoses and mowed between the beds, and now they're ready to plant. I think next week I should be able to, but I'll wait and see when the 15 day forecast looks like then.

Bonus pics of the garden chickens who got makeovers

Glad to hear you're feeling better.

Always tough when you have to defer doing something you like to do.

15 day forecast keeps pushing my planting dates out, so it'll be a couple more weeks at least. Plants are getting big, but not so big that they can't wait.

2 new raspberries planted, Canby and Heritage, and I got my hands on a good size lemon balm start. I've been trying to get a patch growing for years, but it's hard to find starts (because it's a weed), and seeds won't take for me.

Everything is looking good in my little food forest, but it doesn't look like much yet, because everything is just starting out. I had enough raspberries last year for a few jars of jam, this year, maybe I'll double that. My newest blackberries are getting flower buds, and the rest will follow. I have 3 varieties that fruit at different times. Prime Ark Freedom, which is flowering now, Triple Crown, which gave me a few berries last year, and Ouachita, which haven't fruited yet for me, but have tons of growth on their floricanes this year, so I should get a decent crop of those.

I'm hoping the threat of the hot hot summer doesn't out-do 2021. That was pretty miserable. It would be a good test for my sunken beds though. After that year, I changed how I do things, better watering especially, and more dense planting.

Looks like I'll get gooseberries this year. It hasn't set fruit since the first year I planted it, so it'll be interesting to make a few jars of gooseberry jam or something (what do you do with gooseberries?)
Tomatoes! I think the potting mix I used was too old and ran out of nutrients, they're a little pale. I've been giving them miracle grow, but that's pretty old, too . When I plant, I'll give them some rabbit poo tea and compost to liven them up. They're ok though.

I got my raised bed tomatoes planted today. It's been a crazy few weeks. First I had shingles! That was crazy. I thought I was better when I made the post about cleaning up the beds, but apparently it was an intermission . That whole ordeal was crazy. Pain and intense itching and random stabbing pans. I'm not even old enough for the vaccine. When I was mostly better from that, I applied for a job, I've been jobless since October, it was on purpose, I needed a break after working the same job for 20 years. But finally, the money ran out, like it does and it was time to get a job. I applied on a Monday, and was hired by Wednesday. The job was to start the next week, on Thursday. In between those, I managed to hurt my back. Just a lower back injury, nothing major, but it was pretty bad. I was doing all I could just to get it as well as I could before starting work. So, again, no yard work was happening, the grass has taken over the beds again. Oh, well . 2 weeks now at the new job and I'm feeling much better. Thankfully, my job doesn't hurt my back, but it's a physically demanding job, so I'm tired. Once I get used to working again, it'll be fine.

But my tomatoes are planted, yay. Some of them, the rest tomorrow.