Vegetable Starts

Figuring I had failed at producing any seedlings to transplant into the vegetable garden, I went to the local farmer’s market on a mission; to find tomato starts. However, they had none, and upon returning home I was grabbing a shovel to plant the strawberries we had just got from Thrifty Feed and Garden just down the street when lo-and-behold, there was a little sprout standing up in the micro-greenhouse!

This wasn’t necessarily going to be a shock if none of these particular seeds sprouted, as we got them three springs ago. I knew that stored in a cool dark place, you can usually get two seasons out of a seed packet, but shouldn’t expect anything more. I just figured, I have the seeds, I have the little Jiffy Greenhouse Kit, I may as well start my mid to late spring vegetables now so they’ll be ready to go into the ground at the right time.

Of course, that isn’t to say I left the farmer’s market empty handed. I decided that I was too impatient for my parsley and cilantro to sprout, so I bought starts. Needless to say, the chickens were absolutely enthralled with the new plants, and quickly pecked all around them, practically unearthing the poor little things. Methinks we either need to fence in the garden, fence in around the coop, or keep them locked up more. Personally, I’m all for putting up a cheap fence around the coop, as it will give them plenty of space to free-range, without digging up the vegetable garden’s fragile sprouts and starts, and also keep chicken poop from getting all over the deck. We’ll see. Maybe the hose trick will have to be implemented again this year.

After farmer’s market, we decided to pick up some strawberries to plant in an old whiskey barrel we had. Originally I was going to build a box and put them in there, but we figured the whiskey barrel could be used just fine. Figuring that we wanted eating strawberries, not tart pie berries, we got two varieties, both everbearing, and interplanted them in the barrel. Everbearing means they will flower and fruit from spring until fall, rather than a determinate variety, which would flower once, and fruit all at once. Those are perfect for big harvests for freezing, but not so practical for the home gardener who may want to enjoy fresh strawberries all summer long.

Personally, I’m just super excited my tomato seeds started sprouting. I just hope that I can get one good plant out of the three each of the five varieties I planted. Wow, that’s a confusing sentence to say outloud! And hopefully the eggplant and basil will follow suit before the lid comes off. But if they don’t, the farmer’s market just started yesterday in our city, so I’m certain I’ll find starts for those later if I need them.