Wednesday, June 1, 2011

sorry...

I know it's been a while, but kids, life, holiday weekend, good weather and massive planting, all got in the way of spending time in front of the computer.  And now, I'm heading out of town.

So a quick round up of what's been going on here at the homestead...
We've started harvesting strawberries

Tomatoes were moved out of the basement and into the sunlight - pictured is 'black cherry'

So I had a little bit of an ethical dilemma this week (alright that sounds a little too dramatic).  I was standing in line at Whole Foods, and the woman in front of me was buying tomato seeds.  Here in the Northeast, our growing season is not long enough to grow tomatoes from seed outside.  Seeds need to be started inside many weeks ahead of planting.  I wondered to myself, should I say something to this stranger that is likely an inexperienced gardener, and save her from a summer of frustration of not being able to grow tomatoes?  Or should I just keep my mouth shut?  In the end I didn't say anything, and then felt guilty about it all day.  The end message however, is that it's not too late to plant tomatoes, if you purchase transplants from a nursery (not from a big box store please, let's avoid the potential spreading of the tomato blight).

Don't forget to plant your tomatoes really deep, they like having their stems buried.  Seriously (but don't ever do that with any other plant).

This happened this week too...


Three apple trees arrived, two Braeburns in espalier form (oh just wait for the pruning post on this in the winter) and one dwarf Red Delicious.  The kids were jumping for joy when they got home from school, "you mean we can just go outside and pick an apple off the tree and eat it?"  Well, I explained, not this year.  The tree really shouldn't be allowed to have any fruit mature on it, that way all it's energy should go into rooting and getting established, for the longer and better health of the tree.  

But really, am I actually going to have the strength to pull all of these off?  I'm not so sure.

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