There's snow on the ground and it is below freezing outside. It is middle of winter with dreary gray skies. There's the kind of cold that makes you question why anyone lives in this part of the country. And why we haven't moved to Florida yet.
So naturally I ordered cherry tomato seeds.
I know it sounds crazy but this is how I'm planning to get a head start. Start the seeds indoors now and by the time Spring rolls around we've got seedlings ready to go instead of starting from scratch when everyone else is just putting seeds in the ground. A few weeks of indoor growing will hopefully make a big difference when the weather finally breaks.
Got a grow lamp in the basement already with some plastic sheeting for humidity. Just haven't figured out what I want to plant them in yet. Will it be egg cartons, seed trays, old yogurt containers?Any recommendations are appreciated. If not, I'll figure it out. Half the fun is improvising with whatever we've got lying around.
I love cherry tomatoes and always have. In salads they add that little burst of flavor. On sandwiches they're perfect. But honestly my favorite way to eat them is straight off the plant. Just sitting with a bowl and popping them in my mouth one after another. There's nothing like a homegrown tomato. Store bought doesn't even compare. Those things are picked green and shipped across the country. They look like tomatoes but that's about it. No flavor or soul.
We haven't had a real garden in a couple years. Our soil is garbage and it is hard as a rock and basically clay. You almost need a pick axe to break through it. 've broken a couple of shovels sine we lived here trying to dig in it. Tending it would take years of work and money we don't want to spend on dirt. So we tried container gardening on the patio last time. Pots and planters that seemed like a good idea. It didn't work out so well. Things didn't grow right, watering was inconsistent, the whole thing was more frustration than harvest.
But we're thinking about trying again this spring. Maybe with better pots. Bigger pots with a better soil mix. Lessons learned from last time. The mistakes taught us something even if the tomatoes didn't survive.
These seeds are the first step. Get them started in the basement under the grow lamp and see what happens. Keep them alive long enough to transplant when the weather warms up. Worst case we've got some green plants to look at during the cold months. Something growing while everything outside is dead and grey. Best case we're eating fresh cherry tomatoes by summer.
Not sure what motivated me to do this for winter. I think it's reading all the gardening posts lately. Doing so sounds about right for where I'm at these days.
Thanks for reading,
Joe
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