Heirlooms- Giveaways- Bunnies

As of yesterday we have given away 105 tomato plants, mostly heirlooms. The plants grew well on our shelves with the grow lights purchased from Westlake. Almost every tomato plant has done great, except the Aussie and the Blue Ridge Mountain. The Aussie seems to be a late grower and we have two plants doing much better. So we will hopefully see a few Aussie tomatoes this year. As for the Blue Ridge Mountain, we have one plant in the ground and it's not going to make it. We do have one under our grow lights that might be able to replace the one already in the garden. We hope. Right now we have 40 tomatoes growing quite well. 30 different varieties. Last year we harvested 369 tomatoes.

We are trying to reach 500 this year, which we might easily do if the weather cooperates. We have already had to spray for blight once. Now all we have to do is feed, water and keep the plants safe from bunnies. Several of you have told me that bunnies have already destroyed a few of your tomato plants. Sorry to hear that. We are more than happy to share the harvest. So throughout July, August and September there will several tomatoes at the church during the week and on Sundays. Hope to also take some to Restart if they harvest falls correctly.

We have seen one baby bunny running around the yard but that poor thing has no chance against the mighty Rheau (roo).

She stand guard over her backyard like no one else. Bunnies have a very small chance of taking out the garden, as do squirrels or another other rodent. She chases them and when she catches them, it's playtime!

Here are the tomatoes we can't wait to harvest- Whopper (6 plants in), Valencia, Church, Grandfather Ashlock, Yellow Pear, Aussie and the Black Zebra. Very unique sounding eh?

Alright, good gardening to all.

Mother's Day- The Time to Really Plant a Garden

Well, as many of you know, we already planted most of our garden. We are up to 41 tomato plants. 15 heirlooms and 26 regular. We planted 5 whopper plants because those are our favorite tomatoes for BLT's. Why 41? Well, we could plant more and probably will but that is how many we have planted so far because we grew most of them from seed and were not sure how many would take. So far the Church heirloom is doing very well, as is the Grandfather Ashlock. The Blue Mountain and Aussie are absolutely terrible. They did not grow well in the seed starter and after transplant into the garden did not do well at all. Could be the climate, could be the seeds or maybe it's just a crummy plant. Not sure. We also planted cucumbers, green beans and red/white potatoes. Everything seems to be doing well.
The herb garden has already yielded spinach and onions. We are pleased with it's progress and hopefully will see some of the herbs we planted- cilantro, oregano, thyme and chives start really growing. The pepper plants are growing nicely, but some bugs are starting to eat them. Have to get rid of those pesky bugs soon.
Finally, we are still giving away tomatoes. We have given away of 30 of them so far and will continue to do so. Get those plants in the ground soon so you have ripe tomatoes in June!