Moved to my other blog

Will not be posting here anymore since I moved back to the farm. Here is the other blog's addy. www.cathysteck.blogspot.com

Thanks, Cathy

Updated Tomato Varieties to Sell Below

Added links to the different varieties. Will be available mid-April.

Tomato Varieties I'm Starting This Year

The varieties I'm selling will have a star next to them. All tomatoes listed are heirloom and open-pollinated (not hybrid). All started in Peaceful Valley's soiless started mix and transplanted in Peaceful Valley's *organic* potting soil. I'm only selling to Sacramento County folks and anyone who wants to drive to get plants. I can bring some with me to Smartsville area as well. Sorry for the inconvenience to anyone who wanted me to ship tomato seedlings. I don't have the resources at the moment to ship. Thanks for understanding.

Determinate Tomatoes - plant has determined height
Siletz*

Indeterminate Tomatoes - plant keeps growing

Cherry types
Isis Candy* - my favorite cherry type
Peacevine Cherry*
Sweetie*
Black Cherry*
Gardener's Delight*

Sauce types
Opalka*
San Marzano*

Persimmon*
Black Brandywine*
Pink Brandywine*
Rainbow*
Caspian Pink*
Stupice*
Copia
Dagma's Perfection*
Black Prince*
Wapsipinicon Peach*
Flame*
Eva Purple Ball*
Delicious*
Cuostralee*
Cherokee Purple*
Illinois Beauty*
Pineapple*
Stump O' The World
Marvel Stripe*
Cherokee Choc.*
Burbank Slicing*
Prue*

Tomato Starts That Will Be For Sale In a Few Weeks

Tomato seedlings freshly transplanted. So excited!

I will soon list the different varieties that will be available for sale and how many I have available of each.

Mexican Gherkin and Rosemary Cuttings

It's growing so well. Yeah! I think I will be able to try some gherkins this year.

My rosemary cuttings. Will be selling these at Farmers' Market as well.

Tomato Seedlings, Winter Sowing and Transplants This Week

My tomato seedlings. Yeah! They look so great!

My transplants so far. Some from winter sowing others from seperating mint plants.

All my winter sowing stuff moved. Had to make room for transplants.

Mint transplants.

Moving Back To The Farm

So I will be going back to my homesteading blog and posting there in the next month or so since I will be moving back to the farm. Will post again when I start posting there instead of here.

Seedlings

Tomato seedlings! Yippee! These came up after only 4 days! Oh my! Good golly germination batman! These two varieties are both new seeds sold this year. Super fresh seeds. These I am growing intensively like last year in soiless seed starter mix from Peaceful Valley. It works great! And since I'm going to use thier potting soil I should not have any of the problems I did last year with the bad soil I got. Where's the thumbs up smilie when you need it. LOL!

Luffah seedling. They grow so sssllllooooowwwlllllyyyy. This seedling has been up for a few weeks now. They take off near the end of summer and get huge, but this first stage takes forever.

Mexican Gherkins. I can already tell they are doing much better than last years seedlings. That bad soil really did a number on all my plants I transplanted last year. Whew! Hopefully these will be ready the end of April for planting.

Seedlings and Winter Sowing

Pineapple and Chocolate mint I seperated into several plants for sale.

Broccoli and Swiss Chard seedlings. Anyone need any?

All my winter sowing receptacles. ;-) Everything is sprouting and it is so exciting! It's just really hard to take pictures of seedlings in them. LOL! The seedlings I'm most excited about are the Goji Berry plants coming up and the first tomato seedlings, Peacevine tomatoes.

Transplanting Winter Sown Swiss Chard

Happy little swiss chard in thier winter sown home.

Another view. Aren't they cute?

Close-up of the greenery.

Transplanted happy little swiss chard. Yeah!

Transplanting Winter Sown Broccoli

Little broccoli plants. They are so much stronger and healthier than I thought they would be. Winter sowing sure makes strong little plants.

Transplanted broccoli plants. So happy.

Started First Seeds Inside

Started peppers (red cheese, early jalepeno, peter pepper), mexican gherkins, sweet william, some other flower I can't remember, and luffah's. Yeah! Will try to get some pics of the garden soon.

Winter Sowing - My New Project

So, this is my new project, winter sowing. The seeds are supposed to start germinating when they are ready to, when it is warm enough for them. Takes a lot of work and space I need for other crops out of it. Thanks Jen for the milk jugs. Would love more when you have them. ;-)

So first you find a reciptical for said winter sowing project. There are a lot of different things you can use for this. These are the only thing I have access to so milk jugs it is. Cut around the milk jug being careful to leave one of the labels intact so its easier to close. Poke 6-8 holes in the bottom with a sharp knife. Load up with a couple inches of dirt. I use PVFS potting soil and perlite mixed in. Water. Then plant your seeds.

Label receptical with duct tape on the bottom so the sun doesn't bleach it.

Tape where you cut the milk jug and leave it outside. Water if needed depending on how wet your climate is. It's not supposed to rain here for awhile so I will have to keep an eye on them.

Backyard Garden in the Winter

It still looks really good. So left to right in the back is strawberries, bright lights swiss chard, and artichokes in there half wine barrels. In the front left to right is rosemary, spearmint, chocolate mint, pineapple mint with coconut geranium on top, rhubarb with columbine in sm. pot on top.
I was hoping the artichokes would go a little more dormant so that I could transplant them in the new garden in the next month. Not sure what to do about that.
The swiss chard I have had since last Spring. I think it was supposed to bolt during the heat. Guess not.

Close-up of the left side.

Close-up of the right side.

Rhubarb is trying to come back already too, another plant I wanted to put in the new garden. Go dormant please!