A Fool’s Spring Cleaning

Some spring renovations have happened in the greenhouse and we are ready for the seedlings to enter the building. We had some shelves in the house that we weren’t using and as usual I was running out of room in my little seed starting area, so we moved that shelving out there and it was a perfect fit. Sometimes things just work out. We also cleaned up the beds and will be adding some additional compose before putting in any of the veggies that will grow throughout the spring and summer. I know it’s fool’s spring, but it still makes me so excited to see the temps creeping up and the snow melting away. Even if it doesn’t last, we have had so much fun over the past few days getting outside and working together to get things ramped up for the coming months.

Kevin started from some pole beans inside and he put them out in their own container with string going up to the ceiling. I will have pole beans going outside too on my two teepee poles. Last year I tried some vertical gardening with pumpkins and melons on them, but didn’t get great results, back to the usual use this year. But the real exciting stuff is happening inside the house where I am starting some seeds, mainly tomatoes right now, and some celery. I have a second tray that I will start next week that will be all herbs and lettuce, then a tray of different peppers and eggplants.

I have so many varieties of tomatoes, I’m not sure what I will be doing with all of them! I have six cells of each, and they all germinated! I will start fertilizing then this week and continue every 10 days with a water soluble fertilizer, diluted down to a ¼ of the suggested measurements. I will transfer them to 4 inch pots once they get their first true leaves. I will be bringing them in and out of the greenhouse to harden off as the warmer weather approaches. Here is what I have going so far:

Black Cherry Tomato – 75 days – Indeterminate 

Brandywine – Heirloom – 80 days – Indeterminate

German Lunchbox Tomato – 70 to 80 days – Indeterminate

Kellogg’s Breakfast Tomato – 79 days – Indeterminate – This is my favorite!

Orange Jazz Tomato – Heirloom – 75 to 85 days – Indeterminate

Raspberry Lyanna – 70 days – Indeterminate

Roma Tomato – 79 days – Determinate 

Solar Flare – Organic – 85 days – Indeterminate

Sungold Tomato – F1 Hybrid – 60 days – Indeterminate

Yellow Pear Tomato – Heirloom – 70 – 80 days – Interminate

If you are wondering what the difference is between indeterminate and determinate varieties of tomatoes, here is my understanding. A determinate plant will be bushy and compact and will stop growing upwards once the top buds of plants set fruit. All of the tomatoes will ripen around the same time and then the plants will die. Indeterminate tomato plants are the wild child of the two and will vine and grow up to 6 – 10 feet and need to be managed through removing tomato suckers and staking as it grows. These plants will produce fruit until they are killed by a frost and if you live in a frost free area indeterminate tomatoes actually become perennial plants. If you want a well behaved plant that will fit in smaller spaces and save you some time with plant management I would recommend a determinate type. As you can tell from my list, I have a pension for the unruly bunch!

Hope you are having fun, looking through gardening catalogs, planning your garden and getting those little seeds started and ready for the coming warmer months!