For those who know me, you may have realized that I love gardening season. But more realistically, I look forward to growing things that I can use, eat or be delighted by.
You may also have noticed that my entire back garden area is flanked by Black Walnut trees and a 50′ high row of cedars and various shading trees. Not what I had on my Christmas wish list, but they have their benefits as well.
Recently, we did a bit of landscaping and the side effect was a larger planting area at the front of the building. After not really coming to any suitable decisions about how to plant out the more usable top section of the new front garden, I simply saved and replanted many of the odds and ends I had left over from my displaced garden. Even that first year, the very practical part of me said, “Why not use some of that new space for some easy, sun loving edibles?” NO, not that type of edible! This is also my business and it’s also on the main street, with a lot of foot traffic… like those kinds of edibles would last there! So two years ago I planted a few tomatoes.
I belong to the Brooklin Whitby Garden Club, BWGC, (previously the Brooklin Horticultural Society) and bought all my tomato plants at their annual plant sale; all heirloom varieties. I researched what would make good companion plants for tomatoes, and found that I had some of them in the back garden already, so I split my existing lavender, garlic chives and oregano to plant between the newly planted tomatoes. I had a bumper crop in spite of my lack of understanding about pruning. It was a very satisfying experience.
After doing that for a couple years now, I’ve saved my seeds and am currently trying to start my tomatoes from seed in the basement. Not the perfect location I know, but I have to start somewhere. I started them about 3 weeks ago, about 8 weeks before a safe time to move them outside.
They started out promising, but I think I will have to hone my “starting from seed” skills, as they are becoming very “leggy” and some have just simply keeled over and can’t sustain themselves. I should get a few worthy of planting, but if all else fails, the BWGC plant sale is coming up on Saturday May 17 at the Municipal Parking lot in Brooklin, the same location where the Brooklin Farmer’s Market is held. Last night, the 4th Wednesday of the month, was our BWGC monthly meeting, where I found, and picked the brain of our resident Tomato Lady (Faye) to see if she could offer me some tips to help salvage my little guys. She did, and I have put these refinements in place.