Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Night of the Living Tomatoes

Yesterday wasn't as productive as I'd hoped, because Torin is teething and his tolerance of my other responsibilities was pretty nonexistent.

Before nightfall, all I had done was organize the seedlings by variety and decide on placement in the garden.

7 different flavors!  Plus baby and pup.  
Obviously I lined up every young living thing that is precious to me for this photo.


I was not deterred.

I had to develop an alternate plan, and ended up gardening in the dark for a few hours after he went to bed.  It was a frenzy of digging and flinging dirt and cupping roots with my bare hands.  Night gardening is very life-affirming... I had no thoughts beyond the dirt, the the plants, the hopes for bringing forth nutrition from the soil, and keeping an ear open for the baby monitor.  I haven't felt a zen quite like that in a while. 

The only downside to night gardening was the bugs.  I had to dig deep for the tomatoes, so I found several cutworms shining white and creepily in the moonlight.  At one point my zen was disturbed as I realized that my arms were completely covered past my elbows in ants because I'd disturbed a nest... but I just brushed them off and kept digging.


Much was accomplished!

The total seedlings planted for the night:
  • 5 basil
  • 2 sage
  • 4 malabar spinach
  • 13 tomatoes (9 in the ground, 3 in giant pots, 1 in a large pot for my grandpa)
Every tomato was planted up to its neck in the soil, so they have excellent potential for growing very large and robust root systems. 


The garden is almost done being prepped for summer.

When I woke this morning, it felt like a great surprise to have all that work done!  I still have to find spots for at least 2 more tomatoes and the rest of my herb/cuke/squash seedlings, but the bulk of the transplant effort is complete. 

Then I plant more seeds directly outside, and repot the leftover tomatoes.

Then I need to find new homes for all the excess tomato babies. 





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