Thursday, February 28, 2008

Get your garden on

It's nowhere near spring yet in the mid-west. But in my kitchen, garden-time is here. We have baby tomatoes!



I think I'm in love. They're so cute, I can hardly take my eyes off them. Those little leaves are called cotyledons. Once they're replaced by "true leaves," we'll be transplanting them from these small containers to larger ones.




It's no doubt over-kill, but EJK and tfoster and I have opted to grow 72 plants. We have 7 varieties, including some of our all-time favorites: Black Krim, Brandywine, Beefsteak, Yellow-pear, and a crazy-new yellow and red-striped concoction. I can taste the tomato tart already!

The plants look healthy and happy, but I'm nervous about the light situation. That seems to be the biggest pitfall with home grown plants--it's hard to get enough light. EJK and tfoster purchased an excellent (and cheap) flourescent light, which I'm running 16 hours a day. It looks like a space ship:



Keep your fingers crossed! I'll be starting the pepper plants in a few days.

2 comments:

planbreaker said...

sniff, sniff...are you *trying* to make me jealous?

I must plan a trip to Champaign in August so I can eat some of your 1 billion tomatoes.

hungrygirl said...

planbreaker, I would never try to make you jealous. The garden will not be the same without you. In fact, without you & df, I suspect it will be a hell of a lot weedier.

The Black Krims are eagerly awaiting your visit.