The Tomatoes Are In

Before yesterday's blizzard (who knew), I decided to take advantage of a sunny day and plant my tomatoes. Silly me - all the early warm weather has had many of us gardeners chomping at the bit and foolishly putting out cold-sensitive plants.

I should've known better, but I put my faith in my row covers and planted away. In the afternoon gale force winds came whipping into town and brought tiny hail, some sleet, and big ol' snowflakes with them. It was quite a sight. The storm lasted less than half an hour, but it was followed by a really heavy frost overnight.

I haven't checked the total damages in the garden yet. My excuse: had to leave the house by 7:30 for an early dental appointment in Glens Falls. I'll check out the damage when I get home.

If things survived (and I think they probably did - I had doubled up the row covers), I should have lots of good tomatoes this summer. I didn't plant as many as last year, but I do have some really neat varieties, like Orange Flesh Purple Smudge (had to plant it just for the name), Orange Banana Paste, Paul Robeson (one of my favorites - a dark almost brown tomato with a smokey flavor), Garden Peach (Mmmm - sounds good), and Cour di Blue. All in all I have something like 20 varieties planted. The diversity makes for some really great sauce.

Killed my first Colorado Potato Beetle a couple days ago. Grrrr. I'm putting off planting the potatoes in hopes of disrupting the beetle cycle. According to the Maine Potato Lady, I should plant two weeks after the last frost. So, right now that means mid-June. Hm...almost seems too late to plant by then! We'll see how that goes.

And to top it all off, I discovered yesterday that I don't have enough garden beds! I have only three beds left, and I still have to plant the potatoes, beans, oats, sunflowers and fava beans (not to mention the herbs, buckwheat, and companion flowers). I suspect the oats and fava beans will not go in this year. I put down the black plastic (before the storm) yesterday to kill off another patch of lawn, but it won't be ready to go in time to plant this year...unless I just want to take the shovel to it now and start digging. Ugh. The things we do for fresh food! :)