Tomatoes and Herbs

Last year our tomatoes did horribly. The weather was incredibly wet which lead to a diseased downfall for nearly all of our twenty-five plants. The only ones that did anything were the San Marzanos and Sungolds.

This year, we're hedging our bets by planting sixty tomato plants. I figure if I can get one tomato per plant I'll be happy. We're also only planting them in raised beds, with 6-10 in containers. Also plan to provide better trellising than I did last year.

Another thing we're doing is starting virtually all our plants from seed. Over the winter we bought a florescent light that hangs in our spare closet under which we have been raising seedlings, initially kale, cabbage, spinach, and broccoli; and lately tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and basil.

I've been hardening off the tomato seedlings for the past few days and hope to put them into the ground later in the week when the high is supposed to be in the 80s.

The varieties we're doing this year:

Small-fruited: Sungold, Prize of the Trials
Paste: Amish Paste
Beefsteak: Italian Heirloom, Rose, Mortgage Lifter, German Pink (purchased 6 seedlings from SSE)
Non-Red Slicing: Green Zebra, Japanese Black Trifele, Cherokee Purple




We've also planted an herb garden in the front of the house which currently includes Greek oregano, Italian oregano, sage, dill, mint, lemon balm, cilantro, Italian parsley, German Thyme, onion chives, and Provence lavender.