Anyone want a Tomato Plant?
Soooo.. this year, myself and Liz decided in the middle of the winter that we were going to grow seeds from scratch for a whole bunch of vegetables and flowers that we would otherwise have to pay for at the grocery store all summer. We thought it would be a great idea if we grew some of the more ‘expensive’ vegetables so that we wouldn’t have to pay for them..
This is our first time ‘gardening’ from scratch.. let’s just put it that way.
Well, here we are well into the 2nd or 3rd month that we’ve tried to grow seeds, and although it’s a slow process as one would expect.. I think we’re actually doing alright now that we’ve gotten some sun and the last frost is behind us. Speaking of last frost, I’m hoping that I’m not the only one in the world that didn’t know about ‘last frost’ and I’m also not the only one whom expected some ‘baby plants’ to survive overnight before the last frost was over (Sorry about that Bean Plants).
So we were very jealous of our friends container plants that they had all over the place (and my mothers as well), so we are growing carrots, tomatos, beans, peppers, lettuce.. all in containers that we can hopefully leave on our patio. We also have a number of herbs and flowers which we are trying to grow as well (without much success.. yet!).
The sole survivors of tomato plant attempt #1
Anyhow to get to my topic, I’m obsessed with growing some good tomato plants. I love tomatos, and it’s sad to say.. but I have over 30 tomato plants starting right now, they are all starting to grow their 2nd set of leaves, so they will be transplanted to the ground fairly soon after they get a little bigger. However.. that being said.. there is no way in hell I’m planting 30 plants, sooo.. I’m wondering if there are any other gardeners out there that would like to trade, or would just like to have a tomato plant around. Trading would be awesome as we have some areas we’d like to fill in our garden out back that we just created.. but if you just want to try your hand at growing a tomato plant, well.. go nuts! Just contact me by either clicking on the digsby logo on the right for an instant message, or email me.
Getting back to the saving money point.. I’m thinking that gardening is a lot like owning a new puppy. The first year is generally more expensive then subsequent years. Reason I’m thinking that, is you have to purchase a lot of things in your first year that you usually wouldn’t the following ones.. some examples I can think of off the top of my head, well.. I purchased a 4 – tiered greenhouse from Walmart for $40 which is actually REALLY awesome and saves us a lot of space. There are also all the containers you need to buy and you know, they aren’t really inexpensive either, although you can get pretty creative here if you’re open to the ideas of having unconventional pots.. using plastic garbage bins, drinking containers, etc etc. One tip I’d give you is to NOT use egg carton shells like we did for planting new seeds.. buy those little greenhouse’s with peat moss that you just have to add water too and there are something like 72 peat pods in a plastic container.. they work awesome, and they are only $10 for the whole case and you can get re-fills. We found that the seeds would root right into the egg container linings, and you’d sometimes have to break roots in order to transplant them.
I Garden in the Back.. WIP
Also don’t get those peat pots which claim to be able to go right into the ground. Our experience from them are that they are tougher to maintain and they don’t really transplant well either. Again though, we’re rookies.. perhaps we’re not doing it right.. who knows.
I will say this however about the whole gardening thing, it is addictive, and fun. I do enjoy watching something grow over time from nothing but a couple of cents we spent on the seeds. I really also enjoy the way a nice garden adds to the appeal of a landscape. Our garden which we are in the process of finishing up in the back (picture on the right) is hopefully going to be covered in green in a few years as we purchased a few vine coverings, as well as some climbing roses which were there before, so hopefully they can grow into something that looks very nice.
This hobby is something myself and Liz really enjoy, I will keep you up to date in awhile to see if we actually get any good food from it, or if this was all just a ‘learning experience’… or practice for next year.. (god I hope not).
