Prepping The Army

May 9th is the day.  The day we finally can put all our tomatoes, pepper, and eggplant seedlings in the ground.  The past week or so has been really busy, carrying all the plants up from the basement and outside.  With well over 200 seedlings, we were worried at first about how to keep them protected initially from the sun, however we forgot about our deck canopy that is up year round. Naturally, the plants took over the table (and we added two additional tables), as well as about 1/3 of the deck floor and all was well.  Our babies wouldn't get sunburn, and we would not be able to eat outside until they are safe and sound in the garden.  A small sacrifice for the greater good.

Currently, we have about 50 of our largest tomatoes out on the deck in the sun full-time.  They are the first batch we brought up about three weeks ago and are fully acclimated to the sun.  The only problem we have with them now is they are growing at an alarming rate.  Some are nearly two feet tall already!  Today I started the long and tedious process of bringing out batches of the other tomatoes and peppers to adjust to the sun.  It was 85 F and sunny today, so it was no easy task.  Fill bins with plants, carry them into the sun, time each batch only an hour or so to prevent sunburn, then carry them back under the tent and water.  Repeat!  Good times.  More like it's a good thing I love plants :)

Now there are random boxes of tomatoes all over the deck.  Keeps things interesting...

Since my last post, I've planted a bunch of new things, and have watched many of the seeds sprout I planted weeks ago.  Let's see, I seeded all my herb boxes (this year I'm growing sage, flat-leaf parsley, curly parsley, basil, purple basil, cumin, dill, oregano, thyme, and cilantro) as well as planted the few herbs my dad and I started indoors late march.  I wanted to have some early herbs to tide me over until all my other herbs sprout!  I absolutely love cooking with fresh herbs and therefore have to refrain from killing my plants by cutting them all in one day!  Like how I use about a head of garlic when cooking greens, I use large handful of herbs to season things.  Yet another reason it's good I like gardening!

This is just a teaser herb box.  (My real herb boxes are 3-5 feet each.  Go big or go home!)  Actually, I call this my "lazy" herb box.  It is on our top deck, between two flower boxes, and I'm going to use this when it's raining, super hot, or I'm just too lazy to walk ALL the way down the two steps to the lower deck to get some herbs.

Baby sage plant

Baby cilantro plant...that my dad is a maniac and staked and tied up.  I think he's been spending too much time with the tomato plants :)

My basil box <3

Here are my crazy purple chives, that I loveeee.  They come back every year by themselves (score!), and grow like weeds.  I use them every day, but it barley looks like I've made a dent. 

I planted one pot of each type of squash and zucchini I have, just because.  It's so hard to wait to plant things!  However, there is good reason you don't have to start squash or any vine plant indoors for that matter.  They grow at an alarming rate!  I planted these guys...oh, two weeks ago or so?  Time to get them in the dirt.

Here are my eggplants.  This is my first year growing eggplant from seed, as we have had trouble in the past with these guys.  They are very finicky to grow, and two years ago we had horrible mites that just wouldn't go away.  I'm hoping this year we're in the clear from those pests, and I just had to grow them from seed.  I'm growing two types: black beauty (classic, large black eggplants) and shooting star variety (smaller, purple and white striped eggplants).

Here are our beet, spinach, onion, and scallion patches. Most of the beets are small, you can just see three large ones on the ends.  I planted those indoors, just to have a taste of what's to come.  The rest of my beets and spinach are all very small.  Our onions and scallions came back from last year, we simple moved them to a new place and added seeds to both.  Scallion are another thing I adore to cook with!

This is our lettuce patch, obviously.  Can't you tell there is romane lettuce growing?!

I lined the sides of the garden with beans; sugar snap peas, green beans, yellow beans, and purple beans, while the back of the garden is lined with massive sunflowers.  Beans are super cool to watch growing because they are a large seed (think of the inside of a green bean) and also quite fast growing.  In no time these guys will be full of fruit!

Anddd....the cabbage patch, with both green and purple cabbage.  Last year we harvested baseball-sized cabbages, so this year I planted them slightly closer together.  I don't think they like growing in clay :) However, they were still delicious, you just had to use 3 whole cabbages to make anything.

Ah, my beloved kale patch.  I'm pretty sure I will always mention my kale patch, as it's my favorite (shhhh don't tell the other plants!).  The first kale pictured is old-growth kale from last year that came back.  Kale has a two year cycle, flowering it's second year.  I decided to save some of my older kale and let them flower so I can try to collect the seeds and grow them next year.

This is the chard patch. I'm growing the rainbow and bright lights varieties.  Nothing against regular chard, it's just not as pretty.  I actually have never been a big fan of swiss chard until last year, when I grew a lot of it.  I figured I had to eat it because I had so much, and it's really grown on me. Now it's one of my staple greens.  I use it for everything from sautéing to wraps for sandwiches (yes, a big 'ol chard leaf makes a wonderful alternative to bread!).  And yes, I know I have to weed.  We really need to newspaper and straw around the plants soon so stop these pesky weeds from sprouting up everywhere.

Yet to be planted: the butternut squash patch.  If you couldn't tell, butternut squash is my favorite squash of all time.  I seriously eat about a squash a day in the fall, so I decided to make this patch solely butternut squash instead of pumpkins.  I have 200 lb pumpkins, blue pumpkins, and sugar pie pumpkins growing in the front.  Along with beans and more sunflowers...I really should do a whole post about the front lawn garden!  Back to squash.  98% of this will be butternut.  I might throw one or two plants of spaghetti squash in, just for fun.  I always want to love spaghetti squash but never really got into it.  This might be the year!  I'm going to try my best, and hopefully show my delicious creation off on my food blog, Margaret's Dish.

I leave you today with our budding pepper plants.  They are confused: they need to grow up before growing fruit!  Guess we did a good job raising them the past few months :)

As Saturday draws near, we are as busy as ever hardening the seedlings, laying out the rows, and collecting the tools needed to plant.  I have a friend coming to help, but besides that it's just my dad and I, working away in the garden and planting over 200 seedlings.  I'm excited as well as dreading this green day, but all I need to do is think about what's to come to know that the labor is worth it.  I love my plants, my garden, and most of learning more each year about how to become a better gardener.  So for now, keep watering and sunscreening your plants, and maybe join me in digging up the dirt this weekend and planting dinner.  Look for a post next week about how my planting goes!

~Margaret