Wild Hope Homestead

Having my tomato seed trays on the dining room table has been quite fascinating. I have been watching the babies grow each day, and even The Husband has been watching with interest. Small Fry was the first cultivar to germinate. Then it was Amish Paste, of which all 8 seeds have germinated. Oooh yeah! I have 7 Black Krims and 7 Big Beefs. As suspected, the older Dew Drop Cluster seeds are not doing very well. And by that I mean none of them have come up. Oh darn. Well, luckily I have 7 Small Fry seedlings pulling their weight in the cherry tomato department. So I’m looking at 29 tomato plants at the moment. Providing they all survive the trials of childhood. Sometimes it is a trial surviving in my care, as I am not usually a fussy plant mum. Survival of the fittest is how I like to think of it. But being within easy reach, the tomatoes are definitely getting better care than my other seeds at the moment.

I have also sowed some carrot seeds in the vege garden. First, I prepared to soil to a fine tilth. I love that phrase. I think it’s more fine in my head than in the vege garden though. I got rid of the weeds and tried to get rid of the stones. This is one of the beds that I dug the mustard green manure into during winter. We shall see how the carrots like my preparations. Carrots are historically one of my nemesis crops. When I try to provide them with ideal conditions: fine tilth, removal of obstacles and good row spacing, they throw their hands up and laugh, but when I carelessly scatter them in a fit of rage (mild rage) in a bed recently supplemented with chunks of well-rotted horse manure, they decide to grow very happily and get in the way of my actual planned crops. I think they have it in for me. I have sown two rows of Manchester Table and one row of Bastille, which I haven’t tried before. Bastille is an early carrot, with 90 days until harvest, while Manchester Table is 100 days until harvest. Any sort of carrot harvest would be considered helpful…