Tomato and peppers . . starts
So, I figure a garden might be nice. I like popcorn, I plan a patch of that, maybe 6×10. I like a nice bell pepper in the crock pot, so a few would be handy. A couple of tomatoes seem like they would go well in the crock pot, too. And beans. Lots of beans. I forget why, I think for combining with vienna sausage or hot dogs. Maybe some ground beef and peppers for a version of chili without chili powder (I consider “spicy” is when I add brown sugar to the oatmeal).
So I got to ordering seed. I have a box. Some say to start the seeds early. I built a bracket for an old card table; it holds a 13 watt flourescent under-counter light fixture, with an 18 inch grow light, about 17 inches above the table. The table sets in front of an east-facing windows.
Lowe’s had some jiffy planting setups. I picked up a three-pack of trays with 72 little plug cells each, and another with five of the cardboard plug 10-packs.
I figured if I needed to thin things, I should plant the beefsteak tomatoes (millingtonseed.com) and black cherry tomatoes (Baker Creek Nursery, rareseeds.com) two to a plug, then replant if both seeds sprouted. Almost all did. I figured, if everyone is buying tomatoes at $3 and $4 at Lowes, I can sell a bunch at the flea market and make up the cost of the Lowe’s expedition for planting stuff. Greenfield’s nursery opened a hut behind Payless Shoes here in Ponca City. $2.50 for four plants. I sold 48 plants at $0.50 each, gave away a couple dozen. I have six beefsteak plants about 3-4 inches (I sold and gave away the bigger plants, it just seemed right), and three Black Cherry (I wanted to keep four, but, well). So I didn’t make a bunch, and the starting planters didn’t cost much.
The peppers were interesting. I ordered Red Cheese (Baker Creek Nursery, rareseeds.com) and Purple Beauty. They stuck in a packet of Sweet Chocolate peppers. The Sweet Chocolate germinated 100%, quickly, and matured faster than the other peppers; they look exciting. In my excitement, though, I forgot to order Bell peppers – so I picked up a distressed pair at TSC. I am looking forward to these peppers, for me and maybe some to sell. We’ll see.
I have been reading about some good Brussel’s Sprouts, so I got some. And feeding cabbage and broccoli to the chickens seems to make sense. Supposedly I can feed Mangel-Wurzel (a beet plant) to the pony. We’ll see – I have been feeding beet pulp shreds for years.
Now, if I can manage to covert historic-grade prairie sod to garden soil bed. .
Tags: garden, sweet pepper, tomato