playing n the dirt

In a little over a week Fort Lupton Colorado will celibrate it’s 100th annual Tomato Days Harvest Festival.  Actually, somewhere along the way, the name got changed to Trapper Days, but it still started out as Tomato Days.  I am in the mist of celibrating my own Tomato Days.  I have never had a crop like this and am begining to get buired in tomatos. 

I have decided that whatever I pick today and tomorrow I will take to work on Friday and any and everyone can help themselves.  A good friend and fellow gardener tells me that by sharing my crop I will be putting out into the universe good tomato karma.  I think he is probably right.

If I had to pick the one thing I disliked most about gardening in Northeastern Colorado it would be the short growing season.  It’s not to uncommon to get snow as late as the end of May or as early as the first part of September. 

I have covered everything more than once with plastic, blankets and old sheets to try to keep from losing an entire crop of vegetables.  I used to dream about moving to a warmer climate when we retired just so I could garden more.

Last fall I took action.  Not by moving, but by buying a green house.  It went up last October.  I didn’t plant anything in it, but I did prepare the ground.  This spring I planted tomatos and peppers directly in the ground in the green house.  They have done wonderful.  In the heat of the summer I’m able to keep the sides up and windows open for air flow. 

I’ve got my seeds and plantings all figured out for this fall.  I’m looking forward to enjoying some of the colder weather vegetables like carrots, spinach and peas well into late fall and with any luck even winter.

So let it snow in September, because I’m covered, so to speak.

Any gardener faces the same question, to grow from seed or transplant?  I almost always pick the seed.  The reasons why make a lot of sense to me.

First, they are cheap.  You can buy packets of seed for as little as 99 cents.

Second, they are a good option if you’re NOT a good gambler.  Most packets of seed have somewhere between 25 and 100 seeds each.  That greatly increases the odds that you’ll get at least one nice plant.

Third, I really like watching plants grow.  Yes, you can watch transplant grow, put seeing that seed poke through the ground is much more of a thrill.

Fourth, discovery.  You have to let both seeds and weeds grow a little bit before you know for sure what it is.

Fifth, in my experience the seed usually makes a better plant. 

I have several good examples of seed out preforming transplant this year.  I planted all my tomatos and peppers from seed.  I have at least a dozen of each for about $3.00 total.  I also planted marigolds from seed.  One of them is at least two feet tall.

So is one way better than the other?  It depends on you.  The most important thing is to plant. 

For vegetable gardeners this is a great time of year.  Fresh vegetables are ready to eat or will be very soon.  At our house we have eaten all the first round of the sweet peas and spinach.  We’ve been eating green beans, carrots, lettuce and zuchinni for weeks now and there are many more yet to ripen.  The cucumbers are already as long as fingers.  While watering the peppers I’ve spotted some pretty big yellow ones and we’ve had fried green tomato’s while waiting for them to ripen.  Yep, all the hard work is paying off in some of the best tasting organic vegetables ever and they are all right out my back door. 

I plant a pretty good sized vegetable garden each year.  My only problem is that there is just me and my husband, so like gardeners everywhere I always end up with to much.  That’s why I’m known as the produce lady at work.  What we don’t eat right away, or what I can’t keep up with canning or freezing I take to work.  I started taking actual vegetables today.  About a month ago I took in over 50 tomatoe plants that I had grown from seed.  

My husband keeps telling me I should charge and not just give them away, but then it would seem to much like work.  Besides, I like watching things grow, so I just keep planting them.  The recent concern over tainted tomatoes and peppers actually seems to have more friends, neighbors and co-workers lined up for fresh organic vegetables and I’ll be more than glad to provide all I can.