Top left - germinated seedling flats are now under lights in the garage - center - demo tomatoes on the left, peppers and eggplant on the right.  Right - four flats that were planted last night on heat mats on a table in front of a south facing office window.
Lower pic - just a taste of the task of finding the seeds to plant!

This will be a pretty brief entry (just kidding - when are my blogs brief!). I really enjoy the seed planting part of the season...finding all of the various seeds is not quite as pleasant. It took half of the day, but there are now five flats of seeds on my office germinating table, all happily warming themselves on heat mats. Tomorrow I need to clean off the garage table and get two flats under the lights - the tomato flat to be used for a transplanting demo at the Philadelphia Flower Show, and a mixed eggplant and pepper flat that germinated quite well while we were in Seattle.

Joining those are two flats of tomatoes, and a mixed flat of the remainder of the tomatoes, along with a few slow or low-germinating peppers and eggplant and ground cherries. There is also a mixed flat of this and that - lettuce, leeks, beets, chard, collards, and various herbs...and my first shot at Okra (the burgundy variety).

For the most part, there are few surprises in my selections this year. I don't have time for a significant experimental garden - mostly I want to grow all 36 released Dwarfs to get good documentation and testing. However, there are four really interesting plantings....my first attempts at crossing. If all goes well, I will be planting these hybrids:  Sleeping Lady (a chocolate colored medium sized dwarf) X Sun Gold, Dwarf Mr. Snow X Cherokee Chocolate, Summer Sunrise (a medium yellow potato leaf dwarf) X Mortgage Lifter, and Mortgage Lifter X Sun Gold. If the crossed with the dwarfs took, the plants will be indeterminate in growth habit - I will know soon if I was successful. For the Mortgage Lifter X Sun Gold, it may mean waiting until the tomatoes form to see if I was successful.  

So, what's next?  If the seedlings germinate well, they will be ready to go under the grow lights while I am Philadelphia....soon after my return, it will be time to start transplanting.  Where is the year going....time is flying so fast right now.

Sue and I had a wonderful time in Seattle for the first major Epic Tomato book promotion set of events. The sleet storm kept us away an extra day (yes, an extra day in Seattle....really tough to take!). I find myself with a very full plate and need to keep things moving between now and the next major trip, to Philadelphia via Richmond, which begins on March 5. Between a new newsletter that my daughter and I hope to work on tomorrow, and my Epic Tomatoes website, there will be plenty of news coming from the Seattle trip.

The From The Vine blog is about my own gardening efforts, and that is what I will focus on for this update.

Above, left to right, are pics of my planted flats - the center pic is the planting of Large Lucky Red, to be used for a demo on transplanting at the Philadelphia Flower Show workshop. On the right is remarkable progress in the pepper and eggplant flat that I seeded just before heading out to Seattle.

Next on the list is outlining all remaining seeding - greens, herbs, leeks, beets, flowers, and tomatoes - as well as any fill in peppers and eggplant. After that, I need to get the garage grow light table ready for that Philadelphia-bound tomato flat, which will also open up more room on the germination table.

Hard to believe all of the seeding and growing is happening when it may hit zero tonight....but the extended forecast indicates that spring is indeed not too far off (temperature-wise, anyway).

Happy Gardening, Everyone!

The gardening season is officially underway. A few days ago I planted a partial flat with tomato seeds (using some Large Lucky Red seeds sent to me by Bill Minkey a few years ago) for use in one of my demos at the Philadelphia Flower Show (no Power Point presentations allowed, so I have to be creative!). 

Today, however, was far more relevant to my own garden, as well as our spring time seedlings. One complete flat of 50 cells was planted with eggplant, ground cherries, sweet and hot peppers - and Mexico Midget tomatoes (finally, it occurred to me to get them in early, since they take so much more time to germinate than any other tomato variety). The plan is that while I am in Seattle, the flat will germinate (peppers and eggplant are much slower than tomatoes). The day after I return, I hope to get all of the tomatoes planted - that will probably be 2 or 3 flats - for the season, including all 36 released dwarfs. I will also plant a mixed flat of lettuce, beets, leeks, herbs and flowers.

If everything germinates timely and well, they will quickly go into the garage and ready themselves for a mid-March transplant. I also need to start looking for a good source of straw bales (maybe a source that delivers!), and finalize what I hope to plant where this coming season. Hard to believe, but warm weather is just around the corner (today was a really nice tease - a taste of what we will experience with regularity in just a few months).

Seattle, here we come - off we will be on Tuesday!

In between book-related activities (which seem to come at me daily!), I've been pondering what to grow this year and when to start things growing. My plans are to simplify things just a bit, but also try some new challenges. I hope to get an updated list for the 2015 seedlings season very soon. One thing for certain is that I will be growing all 36 of the new Dwarf growing tomatoes from our project in our driveway. 

The number of pepper and eggplant varieties will be reduced so that I can focus on tomatoes. Our big side garden will be reduced in size by one half, since the rear just doesn't receive the sun exposure that equates to productive plants. Current plans are to grow lettuce, beets, chard, bush beans, cukes, and squash (all repeats from previous years), as well as some new crops - sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots and leeks - all in straw bales.  What fun!

I've ordered my seeds and hope to get tomatoes, peppers and eggplant started in mid-February, just after we return from our Seattle trip (that is going to be one busy week - four workshops and five book signings). The goal remains the same, though - mid February seed start, leading to a mid-March transplant (just after returning from Philadelphia!), and seedling readiness and garden planting in mid-April.

Stay tuned - variety lists will appear soon!