I may syart a few flowers as well, petunias, marigolds, portulaca.

abhege said:I may syart a few flowers as well, petunias, marigolds, portulaca.

Good idea!

I'm trying the Black Krim, and Aunt Ruby's German Green, this year as well as the San Marzano Redorta... also Black Cherry, Azoychka, Indigo Rose, and Dutchman (went a little nuts with the Piggy Swap! ).

Hope it's another good tomato year!

Sandy that all sounds great. I hope it turns out to be a really great tomato year here also. I am always hoping for a great tomato year.

abhege said:Hope it's another good tomato year!

I hope we have a much better gardening year, weather-wise, here than we did in 2014 -- but in the end I did get enough of everything, so I shouldn't really complain!

Weedwhacker said:Tom, was it you that mentioned the "San Marzano Redorta" tomatoes? I have some of those coming to grow this year, really looking forward to trying them! For anyone else that might be interested, this is the description from the "TomatoFest" website: "Named for a mountain, Pizzo Redorta in Bergamo, Italy. This is Gary Ibsen's preferred Italian paste tomato. A much larger tomato (8 oz., 4-inch) with much better taste than it's cousin, San Marzano. Good enough to eat off the vine with the bonus of ending up with more tomato paste per plant. Yum!" I've grown the hybrid "Viva Italia" for years, but for the past several years it hasn't seemed to produce that well for me so hoping to find a good replacement.

Yes I grew 10 plants of the San Marzano Redorta. They produced a great supply of fruit, and I love the taste fresh, and now that I'm using the ones I canned, I'm finding them to have a great flavor when canned too. I also dryied some, and froze some. I'll be starting a couple more for next summer as well. They worked great for paste as well as canned whole tomatoes. If you use them for juice, it's a nice thick and rich juice.

This is a mixed bucket of tomatoes, but on top are the San Marzano Redorta. They often have green tops, and aren't the prettiest tomato, but what they lack in looks they make up for in taste.

I'm thinking about trying a dark purple one called Indego Apple, Anyone tried that? Since I had so many tomato plants last year, I will only have a few this year for fresh eating. I canned enough last year to last me 2 years. So I want what I have to be good for eating fresh.

Wow! Gonna have to try that one, and I see it's an heirloom! Even better!

Some of them get quite large too. Here's one over a lb.

I think I will look in my seed catalogs today.

I got my seeds from Seeds from Italy, they have a nice selection of things.
http://www.growitalian.com/pro...

Planted brassicas today. Using soil blocks for easier transplanting. Broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.

OH my Arlene. You did lots of work. Great job.

You are ahead of me, Arlene. I had planned on doing my germinating this week but with weather patterns the way they are (I am freezing here!), I am putting it off for a week or two. Generally, I set up my small, 6'x8'x6' temporary greenhouse and just heat it with a 150W light bulb, but with lows in the lower 30's, but mostly in the 20's, that just won't work for germinating my vegetable and herb seeds. It is better to be safe and sorry, right?

I am sick of winter!

That is some lashup you have Arlene. Are they also heated or is it just the lamps being very close. I won't start that until the first of April for most of my stuff. Did you make the soil blocks yourself? I know you can buy dehydrated ones online but that sort of defeats the purpose of being economical. Course if you have to buy the soil anyway not sure about the tradeoff. I just plant in 6-packs of appropriate size or 2 inch pots then move to larger 4" if needed. Kind of labor intensive but my garden is quite small.

My shelves are always in my teeny, tiny dining room, so heated room but no heat mats. We use Eliott Coleman's recipe for making the soil blocks. Works really well but it takes practice. I have the four block maker, a five block maker and the tiny 20 block maker. My son also got the huge single one but I don't see the need for it and it is so heavy!

The lights are not turned on yet. Don't need them until after they germinate.

Next I will sow some seeds using the vermiculite method. Super easy instructions from member JonnaSudenis.

http://www.seedsite.eu/article...

My containers are ready. After we get back from checking things on the farm i will sow some flowers and misc.

I put on my coat and boots and dragged myself out to the garden today. Got some greens to cook:


and surprisingly, although my one saved and protected tomato plant died at 27˚ , my eggplant and pepper plant are still alive, if not at their best.
I put this pimento pepper in my cream cheese bread:



there are two others ripening

Arlene, thanks for the article on vermiculite sowing. I have printed it off and will give it a try this spring. I agree it sounds much easier, less expensive and kinder to the transplant process.