PLANTING DAY

YES!!!!

The moment I have been dreaming about since February finally arrived today. There are officially plants in my garden!

Let's go on a tour of what I did today:

Peppers
This large specimen is the beautifully overwintered sweet pickle pepper plant that I grew on my balcony last summer. I kept it in a south-facing window over the winter and occasionally watered it (and by occasionally I actually mean rarely, oops). It did SO WELL and should be putting out peppers very early this year. I also overwintered my jalapeno plant, which is a little more distressed looking... but I'm hoping he perks up now that he's in the ground. He's at the far end of the pepper row. In between the two I planted a variety of other kinds of peppers... 16 plants total! Note that I am using old tent poles as stakes. They're the perfect size and won't rust! I'll add them to the rest of the peppers too as they get taller and need more support.

Peppers planted and mulched

Cucamelons

I started the cucamelons at the same time as the peppers and tomatoes this year - not really sure what I was thinking?! These guys got so big and tangle-y before I could plant them outside that it took me a very long time to detach them all and figure out which vines belonged to which plant. But obviously I managed because here they are! I cut up an old volleyball net to use as a trellis, and tied it to the back of the gazebo. They're already flowering so I expect them to climb the trellis and start putting out cute little cucamelons in no time!

Cucamelons growing on a volleyball net

Tomatoes
My mom gave me 4 of her old "Topsy Turvy" hanging tomato planters, so I thought I'd give them a try with the yellow Tumbling Toms I grew this year. Getting the plants in the planter was a bit of a challenge, as was holding the plant at the proper stem height while trying to fill the planter with potting mix, but again I managed. Once I watered these they weighed about 1000 lbs each. So don't worry, they're not going anywhere! I hung one planter on each corner of the gazebo.

Topsy Turvy Tumbling Toms

I then planted 5 mixed heirloom tomatoes and 4 Roma tomatoes in the one larger tomato bed with the red mulch film (plus some real mulch on top). They look a little lop-sided at the moment as I actually planted them laying on their side, and then bent the end of the plant upright before covering the rest with soil. Doing this allows more of the stem to be buried, which will result in a better root system (all of those little "hairs" you see on tomato stems will actually turn into roots if they are underground!). They should straighten themselves out shortly and begin growing upright.

Tomato bed in action. What a nice looking garden!

This took a surprisingly long time to do today... we're talking a solid 7 hours (who knew sticking plants in the ground would be so time consuming?) so I didn't get all of the plants in the ground... still need to do the cucumbers, melons, and squash, but that will have to wait for another evening this week.

I am also sad to report that the morning glories I was so happy about in my last post didn't survive the cool temperatures we had the past few nights. I meant to go cover them up Friday afternoon (it went down to zero degrees or so Friday night... brrrr!) but I forgot. Today they were all shriveled up. RIP morning glories. I'll have to pop a few more seeds in the ground asap to replace them.

No sign of the lettuce, beans, or peas I planted last week either - again, I blame the cold temperatures. I'm hoping with the warmer weather coming back now things should start sprouting.

Anyways, that's it for today. Here's one final look at the cucamelons and tomatoes, and my relaxing garden chair!