I always know there is no turning back when the tomato seeds go in the dirt.
When at first we are planting herbs and early spring greens like lettuces and kale indoors, we are still in the deep of winter. The idea of gardening is almost this magical fairy tale that warms us up on cold windy nights. Then, the pepper plants go in, but they are so slow-growing that it almost feels like they will never bear any fruit. Then the soil is workable outside, we direct sow everything from beans to peas, from Swiss chard to carrots. And by the time the quick-growing seeds are started indoors, like cucumbers, squashes and watermelons, the heat of late spring has set in and we are already eating from our plot.
Oh but the tomatoes…
6 to 8 glorious weeks before our last frost date, the true countdown begins. By now, the snow has started melting, the maples have been tapped, the roof is cleared of ice and the gutters are pattering like drums in a high school marching band. It’s when everything is possible, the light (brighter and warmer) at the end of the long tunnel.
Yes, we planted our tomatoes this week and in less than 5 days, 53 of the 72 seeds we planted have popped up to say hello. Even our first ever collected seeds, a Red Pear Cherry Tomato heirloom variety we picked up at a garden center last year, has germinated at 100% and if THAT is not a true sign that Spring is indeed coming my friends, I don’t know what is!
Have a wonderful week-end! May things grow in your homes and in your hearts. May the warmer sun heal your hibernating souls. ❤
Family, Faith, Food and Fabric 
We have tomatoes under grow lights in the yurt! Even if the temperatures are still teasing us with warm days interspersed with snow flurries and cold, I walk inside and see them setting out leaves next to the warmth of the wood stove. Spring HAS to come now 🙂
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Exactly! No matter what outdoor says, indoor, life is coming back and I’m just full of the Springtime cheer! 🙂
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p.s. that’s so exciting about the seeds you saved!!!
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Yes, we really weren’t sure about our “seed saving abilities”. This year, we have actually planned out the tomatoes so that they are all separated by the necessary distance to not cross pollinate. So we should be able to save seeds from all our varieties. *does a little happy dance*
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That sounds like a wonderful milestone in the pattern of your year – fingers crossed that they all make it to the harvest!
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Thank you Carie… This time of year is always so invigorating! I know that the winter was hard, but I’m the ever optimist! 🙂
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How lovely to be able to grow tomatoes. Although we may be warmer than you now, our summer is never warm enough/sunny enough to ripen the tomatoes. I have stopped growing them now as I have never had a red tomato in all the years I have tried, just masses of green ones! I hope you are blessed with a fantastic harvest 🙂
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That is too bad… could you try short maturity days in a container? That way you could start them indoor and finish them indoor? You could probably even hand pollinate! Maybe I could send you some of my seeds. Most of them are under 60 days. We have 4 different cherry varieties. I’d be happy to do it next year since we’ll be collecting seeds. Let me know and I’ll get your coordinates! 🙂
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I have tried all varieties and none ripen even in our hottest summers. A hot summer day for us is about 20°C/68°F and we might only get that on a handful of days, most of the time it is around 15/16°C/59/60°F with a lot of cloud! I can only grow them in the polytunnel and that is usually full of other plants which are more successful! Thank you for your kind offer 🙂
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I didn’t realize how cool your “hot days” were. May I ask which region exactly you are in? You can email me the answer if you don’t want share here. (fff.blog_at_Hotmail.com)
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Oh yes. Things are growing! My potted raspberry plants have so many leaves right now after being completely bare all winter. I can’t wait for it to start flowering. But tomato plants, now there is a challenge. I don’t know anyone who has had much luck with them. Do you have any tips for growing lots of delicious tomatoes? Eep! Spring is so exciting!
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Which parts of California are you from? I don’t know how much I could help. If you would be in a colder climate, I’m getting pretty good at cold weather gardening. But with your heat and drought, I would be nervous to give you too much advice. We have a tendency to search out the most sun possible, but your sun is HOT! Give me some info, my husband has some ideas. I need where you are, the type of soil on your property. Write me : ffff.blog_at_hotmail.com
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oh, you make me want to have a garden again 🙂 i love the way you share about it. yes, spring is here and it feels soooo good.
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Gardening has become one of my true passions. I don’t know if I could ever give it up. I may not always do it at the scale we have now, but I think I will always grow something.
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Growing something can be so rewarding, especially if it is your own food. I would love to have a house with the garden one day. I would go inside only to sleep! 😀
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Yep, that is pretty much us in summer. And this year, my daughter has asked to set up our tent in the backyard so we can camp out so it seems like we might not even be coming in to sleep! LOL!
I wish for you a garden one day. Do you guys have community gardens where you live?
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Camping in your own yard, great! Community gardening? First, I had to investigate what that even means 🙂 I don’t think there is something like that here, especially in the capital 😀 Sure sounds like a nice idea, though.
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They are everywhere here. We had a 360 sq. ft plot when we lived in the city. It was 3 blocks away, just wonderful… I hope you get your own little place to grow food soon. It really is some of the best stuff in life!
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I wish I could have a garden…enjoy!
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Wish you could too. Containers on your balcony maybe???
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we have already, as much as we can…not like a garden tough
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I totally understand… after a few years when we were living in town, we got a community garden patch. The containers just weren’t cutting it! 🙂
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Ode to Baker Creek Seeds 😉 and yay for spring. I can say I certainly get the gardening fairy tale sensation. We’re taking a break from starting our own seeds this year, but we’re preparing beds for early plantings, which we should be able to do in the next week around here. Tempting fate a bit, as we sometimes get frosts as late as Memorial Day, but in between there are lots of beautifully hot days for greens and peas and spring carrots, and the frosty nights are usually kept at bay with a well used collection of old sheets! I wonder if you will get Red Pear Cherry Tomatoes from your seeds or something new and exciting? We saved seeds for a while, and since they were open pollinated we had lots of exciting surprises.
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I was thinking the same thing about the cherry tomatoes. They were planted right at the edge of our green zebras and black prince varieties… maybe we’ll get a funky tie-dye tomato! If so, we are definitely keeping seeds again. We will be investing in a few row covers this year. But for now, we’ll be starting to dig out the beds. We did it last year and gained about 3 weeks on the growing season. 🙂 Good luck with your gardening! Hope you’ll share about it. If we get funky cherry tomatoes, I’ll save you some seeds.
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Congratulations on the tomatoes! Enjoy the welcoming of spring and have a great weekend to you too!
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Thank you! They are all already putting out second leaves. We’ll be replanting a few rows, just to make sure we have a good production of canning tomatoes and we figure to have the plants 2 weeks apart might mean they won’t all be ready at the same time. LOL! Last year, we canned over 50 lbs in one week-end, That was a LOT of work! Have a happy Easter week-end! xo
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Wahoo! I knew what those seed packets meant before I even read your post. Planting time! We start our seeds in April, and I’m so happy April is here!! Have fun watching your seedlings grow. Be well.
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We start half of our seeds a bit earlier to make sure that we can replant if need be. And there is always a need. We are set up with grow lights and shelves, so they are happy indoors until it’s time to acclimate. We will be starting the other half in about a week. You’ll have to share pictures of your garden growing as well. 🙂
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Wow 53!! I thought my 25 was a lot. I guess I better step it up in how much I plant. My pepper plants are growing terribly slow as well. Show us those sprouts!! 🙂
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LOL! Keep in mind, we have almost 200 sq.ft reserved just for tomatoes. We are aiming for 60 plants for preserves (30 canning, 30 paste) and then about 10-12 “fancy” varieties for eating fresh (colored and cherries). We also give plants to my parents, a few friends and my sister. So all and all, we will be starting between 100 and 120 and keeping about 60% of that for ourselves.
I will take pictures and post them I promise. I just have a sick little man on my hands this week so posting has been put on the back burner.
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That’s really awesome. I like hearing about how many plants people have in order to have enough food to put up for later. I don’t think gardening books talk enough about that.
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We are still redefining what we need. The “preserving” for sustenance is fairly new. We always used to can a bit, but we kept them for special occasions and such. It was never about feeding us per say. But last year, we put away almost 200 jars of food and are still going through them. it’s such a wonderful experience to walk downstairs to the cold storage and pick jars for dinner. We have been averaging 250$ a month on groceries (if we don’t count vitamins and supplements of course). It’s pretty amazing!
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Wow, after just seeing all that ice on the river, I wouldn’t have thought your weather was quite at tomato planting point yet, Just shows how quickly Spring can move in even with so many traces of Winter still remaining. Exciting times.
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Most people here don’t start seed until April to plant in early June. We use row covers and tarps which allow us to plant by the 3rd week of May. I also start seeds at 8 and 6 weeks. The seeds started 8 weeks before get thinned out and more are planted. Allows for a stronger plant selection in the end and also makes the tomatoes not ready all at the same time in the garden. LOL!
But yes, usually, by the time the snow is gone, it’s a very quick jump to “warm enough”. May is a VERY busy time.
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