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I'll break my long LJ silence with a gardening update.
For the first time in a very long time, I have a sizeable yard and all of the sunshine I could hope for. Sadly, it's in the high desert. Nonetheless, I'm hoping to have a vegetable garden this year.
The tomato seedlings are up, though I probably planted them earlier than I should have. I'll try to keep them small and stocky until planting time. We have Romas, Marglobes, green tomatillos, and a dwarf cherry tomato called Tiny Tim that only grows 12 inches high. The Super Sweet 100s, though the same age as the others, germinated poorly, and I have only one plant so far. I'm hoping the Tiny Tims will do well year 'round under the skylights in the kitchen.
My somewhat old pepper seeds didn't germinate well, so I'm trying to germinate the remainder of them with the oft-lauded "coffee filter method." If this somehow causes them to come up, we'll be overrun. The yellow bells (a favorite of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tman_mcl) are up, and seeds for Española Improved, a true local variety, have arrived. If the old jalapeños don't germinate in the coffee filter, I'll need to get more of those, because once my smoker gets here, I'm hoping for massive quantities of chipotles in the Fall.
A very kind man in Maryland decided to send me seeds for 6 additional types of tomatoes (5 heirloom, and one exceptional hybrid, some very rare), which I totally didn't need. On the one hand I'm grateful for the generosity. On the other hand, I sorta wish he hadn't. Now we're debating which of these we want to plant this year.
Even without the new tomato seeds, we'll be overrun with seedlings, because we discovered, as usual, that we didn't have the heart to thin them, and we're transplanting them instead.
I tried to propagate rosemary and oregano from cuttings. So far so good, but I can't tell you yet that they've got good root systems. It's been a few weeks, and they're not dead or wilted inside their humidity domes, so that's a good sign. I don't really know what I'll do with 6 rosemary plants and 10 oregano plants if I succeed.
My plans to start work on the rain barrel system were thwarted last weekend by a fairly significant snowstorm (the first precipitation since I arrived in this place last October)...which is unfortunate, because if I'd actually gotten the system started, I could have collected some water. This allowed me to spend some quality time withiridium and l_stboy, however, who were passing through town, and that was a good thing.
I also need to coordinate getting a load of well-aged horse manure from my coworker, who has plenty. New Mexico soil is pretty much useless as-is, and totally devoid of organic matter. Maybe this weekend.
That's not nearly everything going on in the gardening arena, not to mention other arenas, but it's probably more than enough for now.
For the first time in a very long time, I have a sizeable yard and all of the sunshine I could hope for. Sadly, it's in the high desert. Nonetheless, I'm hoping to have a vegetable garden this year.
The tomato seedlings are up, though I probably planted them earlier than I should have. I'll try to keep them small and stocky until planting time. We have Romas, Marglobes, green tomatillos, and a dwarf cherry tomato called Tiny Tim that only grows 12 inches high. The Super Sweet 100s, though the same age as the others, germinated poorly, and I have only one plant so far. I'm hoping the Tiny Tims will do well year 'round under the skylights in the kitchen.
My somewhat old pepper seeds didn't germinate well, so I'm trying to germinate the remainder of them with the oft-lauded "coffee filter method." If this somehow causes them to come up, we'll be overrun. The yellow bells (a favorite of
tman_mcl) are up, and seeds for Española Improved, a true local variety, have arrived. If the old jalapeños don't germinate in the coffee filter, I'll need to get more of those, because once my smoker gets here, I'm hoping for massive quantities of chipotles in the Fall.A very kind man in Maryland decided to send me seeds for 6 additional types of tomatoes (5 heirloom, and one exceptional hybrid, some very rare), which I totally didn't need. On the one hand I'm grateful for the generosity. On the other hand, I sorta wish he hadn't. Now we're debating which of these we want to plant this year.
Even without the new tomato seeds, we'll be overrun with seedlings, because we discovered, as usual, that we didn't have the heart to thin them, and we're transplanting them instead.
I tried to propagate rosemary and oregano from cuttings. So far so good, but I can't tell you yet that they've got good root systems. It's been a few weeks, and they're not dead or wilted inside their humidity domes, so that's a good sign. I don't really know what I'll do with 6 rosemary plants and 10 oregano plants if I succeed.
My plans to start work on the rain barrel system were thwarted last weekend by a fairly significant snowstorm (the first precipitation since I arrived in this place last October)...which is unfortunate, because if I'd actually gotten the system started, I could have collected some water. This allowed me to spend some quality time with
iridium and l_stboy, however, who were passing through town, and that was a good thing.I also need to coordinate getting a load of well-aged horse manure from my coworker, who has plenty. New Mexico soil is pretty much useless as-is, and totally devoid of organic matter. Maybe this weekend.
That's not nearly everything going on in the gardening arena, not to mention other arenas, but it's probably more than enough for now.
