Vegetable Gardening

[OakLeaf]

Ha, well at least I've given you a standard for the ugliest fence in existence!

I've got a few 2 mm tomatoes. I don't even really count them, since I bought the plants. One of these years I'm going to start some seeds and make sure there's enough room in the car to bring the flats north...

I did direct seed a few tomatoes just for the heck of it. My volunteer tomatoes have produced in past years, so obviously there's plenty of growing season. I've got the "boughten" plants for early tomatoes.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Ha, well at least I've given you a standard for the ugliest fence in existence!

Hey I have one of those too, in my tiny garden patch!

I've got a few 2 mm tomatoes. I don't even really count them, since I bought the plants. One of these years I'm going to start some seeds and make sure there's enough room in the car to bring the flats north...
I did direct seed a few tomatoes just for the heck of it. My volunteer tomatoes have produced in past years, so obviously there's plenty of growing season. I've got the "boughten" plants for early tomatoes.

Our season is SO short, I'd have to start tomato seeds under lights in the house- just not into building tables or shelves and lighting for all that fussing- we don't have a lot of extra space in the basement. So I buy my tomato plants already started- I buy from a farmer's market locally that offers some nice heirloom varieties locally grown, in wonderful varieties, so I don't mind at all not starting the tomatoes from seed.

[Tuckervill]

We have a hugely long growing season (I've picked tomatoes in October!), and no one I know starts tomatoes from seeds. Plants are just easier.

Lisa, you could build an ugly fence, and then landscape around it to make it pretty. Think of the vines you could grow on an 8.5 foot fence!

Karen

[tulip]

I started my tomatoes from seed, and they're still so small. I'm going out to get some plants!

[OakLeaf]

Tomatoes need to be started 6-8 weeks before the transplant date, peppers 8-10 weeks.

It sure is simpler to buy plants, but not nearly as satisfying, and of course you're much more limited in varieties. We're lucky that we now have a local greenhouse that has dozens of heirloom tomatoes, but varieties of peppers are still pretty limited.

Plus I really want to start saving more seeds. I used to start everything from seed, but that all went by the wayside when we became snowbirds.

[tulip]

I started my seeds in March. They are just small and slow. They seem to have hit a plateau. I water them with compost tea and everything. Oh well, I'll just put them in the ground and see what happens. And I'll go buy a big honking tomato plant for good measure.

[Tuckervill]

I've never heard of this before, but I have a pot of petunias that come up year after year. It's a pot that I planted at least 2 years ago, bought the plant from Lowe's, and it has been hanging out there on a shepherd's hook all that time. It dies back and then every spring as soon as it gets rainy, it starts coming back. It's blooming like crazy right now!

I would like it in another place but I'm afraid to move it, for fear of disturbing its perfect environment.

Karen

[GLC1968]

Starting tomatoes from seed can be hit or miss. We started a bunch in January in our basement under an old florescent light (and sitting on a heating pad set to low). They did wonderfully and by the time we could safely put them in the ground (we too have a short growing season), they were 3 ft tall and already sprouting tomatoes. We had to transplant them twice as they grew and we pinched off most of the early flowers. They are doing very well right now after two weeks in the ground.

The tomatoes we started in Feburary never sprouted. The ones we started in March sprouted and then died (our own fault, they got fried in the greenhouse when our temps went above 80 degrees too early in the season).

Our peppers also died in this heat wave, so we had to go buy some starts at the farmer's market.

It's SOOO much more satifiying to grow from seed! This is the first year I've ever had luck growing tomatoes from seed and it's so exciting!