Wild Hope Homestead

That crazy spring weather has returned. Today was the worst. Stormy. Sunny. Stormy. Sunny. STORMY. Sun-storm sunny stormy sunny cloudy. This afternoon, after work, I was keen to get some of my gardening tasks done. The safest tasks in this weather were potting up the last of my tomato seedlings and fertilising all the outdoor potted plants. After that I began assembling a bird netting cover for my strawberries, which I was supposed to do ages ago. I was really getting into it. Then it got stormy again. I called it a day.

Earlier this week I potted up some of the tomatoes and sowed some more seeds – bok choy, flowering pak choy, spring onions, cucumber, dill and red and green cabbages. I’m not holding my breath for the cabbages as the seeds are probably too old, but it’s worth a crack. Today’s bonus was discovering the two small, old fish tanks in the garage. Hello seedling tanks!

Today, I hunkered down in the garage and finished potting up the rest of the tomatoes into their individual pots. I can see the difference in cultivars even at this young age. The heirloom Black Krims look like mongrels while the Small Frys look neat and tidy. I bet the mongrels will be the tastiest. Everything is a little more behind than I would like it to be but at least the plants are safe inside away from that nutty weather. The dining room table collection is growing steadily. Soon the tomatoes will start their journey to the great outdoors.

Tomato ‘Black Krim’.

Tomato ‘Small Fry’.

I was delighted to hear that The Big Sister’s tomato and cucumber seeds that we sowed in Auckland last week have germinated. Her first plant babies! So precious. I told her not to poke them. She said, “Ah, how did you know?” I said, “Once a poker, always a poker.” We cannot leave her unattended when there are Christmas presents under the tree…

Tomato ‘Amish Paste’.

28 tomato plants. I’m one Black Krim down – he germinated then just sat there, hiding from the world.

Rocket.

Limnanthes douglasii (Meadow Foam or Poached Egg Plant). Spot the one that hasn’t germinated.

Tropaeolum minus ‘Top Flowering Black Velvet’ (Nasturtium).