On Monday, most of the tomatoes sprouted second and third leaves that were zig-zagged on the edges and looked more like real tomato leaves. The good people at Sprout Robot told me that it was time to thin my plants. I had no idea what that meant, so it's a good thing they told me via cartoon illustration:
Oh, man. I love these Sprout Robot people. They are speaking my (very limited) gardening language. I have to be honest, I felt SO BADLY snipping the seedlings. I mean, these are my wittle bitty tomato babies! And they were all doing so well and I wanted them all to have a good home in a nice yard, but that's just not how backyard agriculture goes. So, I snipped them all back.
On Tuesday, Claire and I transplanted all of them into cardboard containers I bought at Lowe's ($2.27/8). I also bought a giant sack of soil for about $8.
These are the 19 tomatoes we're going to plant. This feels like a lot of tomatoes, but I am counting on half of them dying or not producing. As Elizabeth told me, she planted 33 last year and,
"You could get so many you are leaving them in unlocked cars, you could just get a few extra for the neighbors."
Right. Would rather too many tomatoes than not enough for all of this EFFORT I am putting forth. Anyway, here they all are, tucked into their larger containers. I have them in the wagon so I can wheel them around the yard in the sun or take them in at night if we get a cold front. I kind of think we are done with freezes for the year (maaaaybe there are one or two left) and it's hitting somewhere in the 70's most days so they're living outside for now. I'll put them in the ground when they're about 6" tall.
Claire did the pepper plants. She planted all of them, covered them with dirt and watered them. The peppers are all Claire's this year.
Here's what's left. Some of them are spoken for, but not all! If you're local and need/want tomato seedlings let me know before the end of the week. Free to a good home!
After we finished, Claire took the opportunity to play with the garden hose.
I am impressed! Go, garden! I think the wagon idea is brilliant too.
Posted by: HereWeGoAJen | March 06, 2012 at 02:22 PM
Are you saying you won't deliver them to Arkansas?
Posted by: BigP's Heather | March 06, 2012 at 03:46 PM
Be careful - if you do start putting the surplus in unlocked cars, you might end up in the police blotter.
Seriously, I'm totally impressed. I'm intimidated by gardening, and tomatoes in particular for some reason. But maybe now that I have your fine example...
Posted by: Julie | March 06, 2012 at 05:09 PM
I'm almost inspire by you to go buy some seedlings and start a garden. I'm afraid our squirrel infestation would enjoy it more than me though
Posted by: Meghan | March 06, 2012 at 08:53 PM