It keeps me out of the garden....makes it uncomfortable to transplant in the damp, chilly garage.  But - anything that will alleviate the inevitable summer drought is welcomed indeed!

A few cloudy, lazy pics of what things are looking like this morning - the remaining flats of seedlings awaiting transplanting under lights, a cell of Green Giant ready for transplant, and the state of the driveway (the last pic is from a few weeks ago; those seedlings are now in individual pots in the driveway getting well watered by mother nature).

It's never fun to move dozens of flats of seedlings into the garage, but this morning's frost validated the activity!  Right now, at 9:30, the sun is out, we are back into the 40s - so my next task of the day is to repopulate the driveway!  

I think I will achieve my goal of getting my indeterminate tomatoes situated in their large pots by April 1.....which will be 7 weeks sooner than last year!  Gotta beat the heat and see if I can get a decent crop this year.  Going through the winter with no home-canned heirloom tomatoes was very sad indeed.

I also hoping to get the rear rows of the garden re-dug and the deer fence back in place...would love to get some lettuce and greens set out this weekend.

So, not much to do, really (ha ha!).

Just to mention again - follow me on twitter @nctomatoman ....and if you want to see how the seeds are germinating, I am nearly done recording all of my germination data in this website - check the 2011 Germination information on the right side tab to take you to the appropriate page.  Beware - there is LOTS of information there!

First, you can now follow me on Twitter - look for nctomatoman
I've resisted it until now (many of you will have noticed I departed from Facebook last year) - but Twitter may be a good way to communicate with you all throughout the seedling sales and growing season.  So, I am giving it a try!

Guess what I just finished doing?  All of the babies - including transplants of pretty much everything we will carry this year (I worked on Sungolds yesterday) are safe and sound!  After sufficient caffeine (today a recently home roasted Kenya peaberry), I moved all of the flats into the garage - well, almost all!  Lettuce, greens and beets will remain out, protected by multiple layers of Reemay.  So I can now relax, not be stresssed...and enjoy the rest of the weekend.

And, for your viewing pleasure, I took a brief video clip that focused on the lettuce and greens - they are just beautiful right now...so much diversity in leaf shape and color (and a big shout out to my Michigan friend Jeff, who supplied me with many of the lettuce varieties).

...just in case!  Things are going so well - I am making lots of progress on transplanting, and the seedlings look really good - that I am not taking any chances.  There is a frost warning, but the clouds I now see out my window may reduce that chance (according to my favorite TV weather dude, Greg Fishel).  Still, no sense tempting fate!  Last night we had....HAIL...yikes - fortunately, it didn't last long, and nothing was damaged.

So - where are we in the process?  I've now got at least half a flat (9 pots) of everything we are carrying this year.  The seedlings are tiny, but should make good progress - especially if the nights get warm again.  Furthest ahead is lettuce - in fact, I am pondering inviting anyone interested to come and purchase it from our driveway (appointment needed, of course).

I think that mid April at the market still seems most likely....but one week sooner could always happen - keep watching the From The Vine page for updates!

Tomorrow I am going to start focusing on the two main varieties people seem to love - Sungold and Cherokee Purple....and transplant those in good quantities.  I'd do the same with Mexico Midget, but as usual, germination has been late and spotty....it will once again be in short supply!

I am trying to take advantage of this warm weather and get as much as I can transplanted as quickly as possible.  As of tonight, I am up to the "D"s in tomatoes - and hope to get at least half a flat of all varieties transplanted over the next two days.  After that, it is all up to mother nature!  Looking to next week, I don't like the night time temps very much - but it seems to go that way every spring!

There is so much to do (aside from the transplanting) - redig the garden rows, put up the deer fence, and get a few rows of lettuce, greens and beets planted.  But it sure is fun!

Right now, when we look out into the woods off of our deck, the colors are amazing - yellow forsythia, pale pink of the flowering plum, pale yellow dogwood, shocking magenta loropetulum, pale violet redbud, and white quickly changing to pink cherry tree.  The warm weather is making it all happen too fast - soon it will be the different shades of green as the trees leaf out.

I decided to take a walk around the yard and also show progress on seedling transplants.  Enjoy!

Everything looks happy and healthy - I am in the midst of transplanting sweet peppers....the tomatillos and eggplant are now outside in the driveway, the hot peppers are resting/recovering in the garage.  If I can get the sweet peppers finished today, I will move on to everyone's favorite - tomatoes! - tomorrow.  And that will take a good bit of time.

I will take and post some pics later on - maybe a video update as well (if not today, soon).

Then again...there is basketball to watch this afternoon!

Yesterday, Caitlin and Sara dug up a few of my garden rows - I hope to get lettuce, greens, and beets planted within the next few days.  So far, my wish to really advance this season is going to plan.

I will have to look back - it seems as though our cherry tree is in full bloom earlier than usual, the days getting milder, less frost threats.  But if I want to push the season and get things moving quicker - to beat whatever searing, hot days lie ahead - there is no time like now to get things in gear!

Check out the News page - although we don't have many details yet - we will have our annual Raleigh area tomato tasting - Tomatopalooza - on Saturday, July 23.  Time, location, details to come as our organizing group works through them.

What can you say about a weekend in the 70s with forsythia, cherry trees, and daffodils in full bloom?  Nothing, really - so just a few pics!

Last night was frosty, but the immediate future looks good...so I thought it was time to move the lettuce and greens and beets into the driveway....and the tomatoes, peppers and eggplant sunned themselves a bit today as well.  

Here are some pics...top three pics are the greens, lettuce - and a few big pots of radishes now spending all day and night outside.  Next row - the peppers, eggplant and tomatoes out for the day - close up of a purple leaf hot pepper cell, and potato leaf tomato cell - last three pics show how I've put the variety labels into the cells - the last pic is a flat that is still under lights.