Backup Heirloom Tomatoes

A week ago I planted my German Pink Tomatoes out in the garden. These are very special tomatoes to me because I started the plants myself from seeds saved by my son from tomatoes he grew in his garden last year with seeds given to him by one of his gardening neighbors. His neighbor tells of these tomato seeds being saved and passed down year after year since his family came to this country from Germany a hundred years ago. See what I mean, these are very special tomato plants! I have never started tomato plants from seed before, and without a greenhouse I struggled a bit to rig up an appropriate lighting and shelving system for growing plants from seed at home. I did the best I could and most of my plants seemed to patiently hang in there, but I felt they always looked to be a bit stressed, puny and struggled to grow. At first, signs of mold showed up on the top of each little peat pellet in which I had started the seeds, and then more mold after I transplanted them into bigger peat pots. Then there was an infestation of gnats that had to be dealt with. Somehow they managed to hang in there and lived. Giving up on growing seedlings in a peat-based material, once transplanted into plastic pots, they seemed to do better. Then it came time to harden them off and once again they were stressed. Not having a good place to harden plants off at home, a make-shift cold frame in my garden was the best that I could do. Unfortunately, it was very sunny during their first few days outside, and almost immediately some of their leaves showed signs of sun scorch. I partially covered their make-shift cold frame with the lid to the box to shade them a bit from the sun, but, unfortunately, damage had already been done. So far they are holding their own, hanging in there and have not yet died. They still look puny after losing some of their original leaves upon transplant into the garden, but I noticed just yesterday that they are beginning to sprout a few new leaves. I'm going to take this as a very good sign, and hope that this means I may actually get to eat some of my home-grown heirloom German Pink Tomatoes right out of my own garden.

Meanwhile, at a local market I noticed a big rack of extremely healthy looking heirloom tomato plants marked at what seemed like an extremly low price. I could not resist. I purchased four of them and went straight to the Happy Valley Community Gardens and planted them in the last unplanted bed in my Garden Nbr. 02.

These tomato plants look very healthy and do sound promising. One is even called "German Johnson", another "Mortgage Lifter".Turns out the Mortgage Lifter tomato has an interesting history too. Developed in the 1940's by MC Byles, the owner of radiator repair shop and also known as Radiator Charlie. Wanting a better tomato, starting with a German Johnson tomato plant in the center of a ring of ten other types of tomatoes, with a baby's ear syringe he collected the pollen and squirted it onto the German Johnson. Each year he would save the seeds from the German Johnson and repeat the process, and after seven years he was satisfied that he had a stable tomato with all the qualities he was looking for. After that, he raised tomato plants each year and sold them for $1.00 each, paying off his mortgage with the proceeds.

It's an interesting story, and you can read more about it here - Mortgage Lifter Tomatoes.

I'll consider these our backup heirloom tomatoes.

Blooming Things

Day after day, I can pour water out of the hose onto the plants in the garden when the sky above is its deep blue and, yes, it does keep the plants alive, keep them from withering away, keep them slowly growing, but, wow, after a day of steady drizzle, what a difference it makes. The garden starts to pop. And things start to bloom. Suddenly the buds on the irises have opened up to reveal absolutely huge flowers.

The flower stems on these lupin stretched up to be almost as tall as I am now that they, too, are blooming.Even the vegetable plants are beginning to bloom. Looks like there will be an early crop of peas very soon.

One day of rain and the fava beans are showing buds.

Standing on the outside looking in at Garden Nbr. 02, it was almost magical, as if recorded in a time-lapsed video, as little bean and squash plants were sprouting up through the soil.

More pics of blooming things on a day of drizzle in the gardens.

~~~

Barry's House - Insulation

A quick glance to the right as I walked through the door into Barry's new house and I could see the latest construction progress - insulation.Sheets of thick insulation now tightly fill the spaces between the rafters in the ceiling.And the walls have been lined with a different type of insulation. Apparently an insulating fabric is framed in between the studs, then a hole is punched in that fabric and the insulation is blown in to fill the space. It's like cotton to the touch, feeling like something you would want to use as batting for a quilt or to line a heavy winter coat.

This house is so well insulated now, standing in the middle of the room I could tell that it will be comfortable in there next winter when Barry stands there and looks outside through those big windows. Even when the gale force winds and heavy rains are blowing through Hales Passage, he will be warm and cozy!

Meanwhile, looks like Barry's been inspired to put in a garden. He's gathered up some of the scraps from his house-building project and built raised beds for potatoes, and with tomatoes planted so that their roots will get plenty of air, his garden is in.

Since he cut some of the lumber for me that I saved from a different construction job dumpster so that I could build many of the raised beds in my new Garden Nbr. 02 at the Happy Valley Community Gardens, and then let me borrow his truck so that I could haul in a couple of yards of soil to fill those beds, I'm going to count Barry's newly inspired garden as part of my Extreme Growing Challenge this year. Good job on that garden, Barry!

Moving

This is the reason why what felt like "Gorilla Gardening" for the past few weeks has been the focus. This move was pending. The week has finally arrived, and the task of packing is well under way.It almost feels like moving day has snuck up on us. But really, that can't be because this move has been looming ahead for quite some time. We've just been putting it off, procrastinating perhaps. What with putting in a new garden, and getting the existing garden in shape, there really was a lot of work that needed to be done this spring. We wanted that work to be history before having to focus on the move. With the gardens now under control, about all that needs to be done for the next little while is to keep them watered, and hope that weeds don't take over while we're packing, unpacking and settling in.

I don't like moving. Even with others doing the hard physical labor of lifting all those heavy boxes and furniture, it's still a lot of work. I'm a nester and enjoy a more settled feeling at home. I don't enjoy having my stuff packed up in boxes. Our friends are excited though because we'll be living much closer to many of them - and they are helping.

With plans for a summer filled with backyard barbeques and taking the dogs for swims at the river, I know that once all this hard work is finished I will like it, and that soon it will once again feel like home. It really will be fun and I am excited - just dreading all the work.

Hen and Chicks

This plant must be extremely root bound. It has been growing in this same pot for at least twenty, gosh, maybe even closer to thirty years now. This pot of Hen and Chicks sat on my father's back deck surrounded by huge planters spilling over with pansies each summer for the longest time. Looking rather abandoned and dormant out there each winter as our Pacific Northwest rains, ice and snow pounded down, amazingly it always came back to life. It grew huge, spilling down the sides of its pot and sent up a flowering stem each summer. My kids and I liked it and often commented to Dad, Grandpa, what a cool plant it was.Delighted that he gave it to me when I purchased a house after I moved back from Africa, it's been with me since. It's been around the block a time or two, and for the last few years it's sat in the back yard at Sandy Point, pretty much ignored - but no longer. Now, with ample garden space at the Happy Valley Community Gardens, it has been moved to Garden Nbr. 02.

My son tells me that this is why he had to get himself a big pot of Hen and Chicks too. He said his was old and root bound when he got it and that he carefully pulled it all apart, pulling off the dead portions and burying the rooted stems even deeper. I should do that with this one, but not yet. For now, I think I'll just let it settle in at its new place of residency.