I enjoy growing vegetables. I’m not particularly good at it, and certainly not an expert. As a matter of fact, last year, I lost nearly all the plants I started in a series of unfortunate incidents including a rogue frost, a hot and dry summer, an amazingly invasive weed, hungry insects (including aphids, squash bugs, and cut worms) and even an accident involving my trusty Taurus (backed over a pepper plant, causing irreparable damages). But I still like the act of going out each year and putting plants into the soil, watching them grow, and (when I’m lucky) harvesting an edible reward.
Along with the discouraging results from last year, the fact that I rarely eat a tomato is enough to make you wonder why I bother. Certainly I could probably get by without growing as many plants as I have going in my south window but still, I find it fun.
The pictures above include the tomatoes at left, just beginning to show their first true leaves. These will soon be transferred to pots. More pictures of that process will be posted, too. The picture to the right is not too clear, but you can see the first pepper plant to poke through the soil. This one is a serrano type (hot) pepper. I have started several hot varieties and a few sweet peppers, too this year.
I will share a few photos of the final growing locations of some of these plants when they are in the ground, as well as an update on how many actually survived and how they harvest goes. So far it is looking very good with all but six plants germinating. These six were all of one variety – a yellow tomato called “Pink Grapefruit”. Maybe I’ll re-try, but probably not.
