Letter to an Impatient Gardener

Dear Mikey,

You have taken custody of several plants before it is time to plant them. They are four heirloom tomato plants, several eggplants and a cucumber. I know the weather is very pretty, but if you plant them in the ground now, you take a risk of them either being killed by a late freeze or stunted by cold weather. They are also too tiny to put in the ground yet. They should double or triple in size before it is time to plant them.

The nursery staff that are already selling tomatoes and peppers are laughing behind your back because you will probably be back to buy more when your plants die from the cold.

Please wait until April the 1^st to put them in the ground. At that time, check the forecast and make sure it is not supposed to get down into the low 40’s. If it is, wait another week. In the meantime, continue to let them grow in the containers and bring them inside at night if the temperatures dip down into the low 40’s or colder. Keep them in the sunshine otherwise. Make sure the potting soil stays damp, but not soaking wet.

The tomato plants are the heirloom varieties Green Zebra, Ladano de Panichio, Turks Mutt (not a dog) and Avivvi. The only one you might find in local nurseries is Green Zebra. They are all indeterminate, which does not mean they don’t know if they like boys or if they like girls. It means that they will continue to produce fruit over the season rather than making all of their tomatoes at one time. This also means they will be vines rather than bushes, so give them plenty of room and support. These are not going to make big tomatoes. They will make small, sometimes flattened, often weirdly colored fruit. The Green Zebra tomatoes are ripe when they are green with yellow stripes. They all taste fantastic.

The cucumber vine variety is Armenian cucumber. The cucumbers are going to look a little funny, sort of freakishly long, but that is never a bad thing. These cucumbers sometimes twist into odd shapes. Last year, mine produced a cucumber in the shape of the number 6. They are light green with thin but firm skin which helps keep them from getting easily bruised. They will keep for several days after being picked. I have never tasted a better cucumber.

I can’t remember what variety of eggplant I started. The fruit will either be short and fat or long and skinny. Pick them early and often unless you like bitter, seed infested eggplant.

You can save the seeds from all of these plants and grow your own next year, or just wait for me to do it. I always do.

Sincerely,

Debra, Your Rogue Master Gardener.

Sugar Snap Peas: A Guest Post By Michael Middleton a.k.a. Middle Monkey

Planting the seeds

Sugar Snap peas are little vines that to grow massive proportions. They give off a lot of veggies that can supply you with enough food for weeks, depending on where you live.
To plant the seeds you want to use a good fine potting soil in a small container flat. When planting the seeds you want to plant them about a half an inch down. Afterward you want to water them until the ground is damp, be careful you don’t soak them.

Caring for the seeds

You want to water the seeds every day, and they will come up in about a week’s time. In a few more days the seedlings will sprout ,and you want to move them to a larger containers with gardening poles in them.

What they look like when they sprout

When they sprout they look like green little weeds with leaves. You want to move them over as soon as you see a sprout because these little suckers grow fast. As they keep growing they will look like little green strings with leaves

What should happen next

The seedlings will grow into vines and start to produce the little peas that can be eaten raw or cooked. Make sure that they are growing on the poles or else they will try to wraparound a fence or something.

As they grow they should go up the pole in the transfer pot because they are vines and they will grow to be happy healthy plants as they continue to give off these peas that can be eaten raw or cooked

If you do all these steps you should find that the plant will grow fast as well as, feeding you with some fantastic peas.