Gone Feral In Idaho

click the photos to enlarge:  eggplant spines this looks like this year's first megabloom tomatillo fuzzy krim zavory brandywine potato leaf teeny-tiny yellow wonder alpine strawberry cherry tomato seedling garden huckleberry

It's a lot harder to photograph the new grow-op, but the seedlings are doing really well.  We have the very early start tomatoes in the back row with basil plants, the middle row has eggplants, Thai basil, and Zavory mild habeneros, and the front row are all the new seedlings with the normally planted tomatoes, peppers, ground cherries, garden huckleberries, and wild strawberries.   I finally figured out that the large guy here, probably isn't a strawberry.  It looks more like a dandelion.  I have no idea where it came from. Oh, and the one on the left doesn't fit in either.  I'm pulling them.   These are really tiny alpine strawberry plants. I hope they get a bit bigger.   I'm really glad I started the Zavory's extra early.  They were this big when we planted them out last year.  These guys have 2 more months to grow and will have such a huge start.   I had to make room for two of the early Black Krim tomatoes.  ...

These are the very early started tomatoes that are 8 weeks early.  Black Krim. Zavory mild habanero. New 8 week start seedlings. The wild Yellow Wonder strawberries are growing!

I up-cycled a Zurcher's mylar table covering into some nice light reflective material for the "grow box".  I've since added some to the floor.  It is very early in the season, but we already have one type of tomato started in an effort to have an early harvest.  This is completely experimental and may terribly fail, but the Black Krim seedlings are looking great.   We also have Zavory mild habeneros going since they are such slow starters.   Siam Queen, Genovese, and sweet Basil. Can you smell them?  I can.   And lastly, Rosa Bianca and Ping Tung eggplants. Yes, I tried to get artsy with the last photo.  I love the purple hairy stems.   Also started yesterday were Lipstick sweet peppers.   It's hard to see, but last year our first successful year of starting plants from seed shows a bit of a difference in the effects of lighting used.  We had very warm lights that were hot and had to keep them far from the seedlings res...

Kyle and I have been thinking of using those "wall of water" protectors for putting out tomato plants earlier.  I am so glad I came across this Yahoo article while researching them.  We already buy 2 liter bottles of diet soda, so we will have more than enough for our garden.  I love this idea.   I also goofed and started some tomatoes WAY too early, I thought our last frost date was April 8th, not May 8th.  Maybe things will work out though.  I'm sure the Burpee Zavory peppers will be fine since they took 2 weeks to germinate and were the smallest transplants we had all last year.   Black Krim, Zavory, and a medley of herbs for a windowsill garden.

We are still getting lots of tomatoes and the peppers are really starting to ripen up for us.  The two long ones are Carnival Salsa Mix from Burpee seed.  They are a perfect flavorful mild salsa pepper.   We got our first two ripe Burpee Zavory mild Habaneros as well.  They are a beautiful orange/red and sure are a true mild Habanero.  The two peppers diced with seeds and spines added a nice flavor to our fresh salsa. 

I'm not sure what to think about Brussels sprouts.  This is our second year trying them and we aren't getting the little cabbage sprouts, just open leaves.  It seems to be a lot of effort for little to no yield.   The generic cantaloupe plant we picked up from Zamzows on sale is doing really well on the fence trellis.  I am very happy with this picture BTW. This Burpee Sugar Girl Hybrid Chantarais-type melon is doing nicely in it's knee-high stocking sling.  All the melons will get these so they don't get too heavy for the vines.  The Burpee plant is smaller and has less melons though.   The Burpee Zavory mild habeñero is doing really well.  The two in the raised tomato beds got crowded out and are only producing a few pepper, but the one in the neighboring raised cold frame bed is going nuts!  The plant is huge and is covered in peppers.  I can't wait 'till they ripen and turn orange.  They look just like regular habeñero...