So so many wonderful veggies every day. I'm loving this. I have the right amount of everything, which comes from years of learning from mistakes. It's ironic because there almost wasn't a garden this year. Like many people with kids, the spring months are insane. If you have a graduating senior it becomes even more ridiculous and I was busy going to end of year banquets, concerts, etc.
There were years in the distant past where I would grow all of my tomato plants and many other things from seed.
It was a fun little project and would net me so many tomato plants that one year I loaded them up in a wagon, sent out a Facebook blast what I was doing and I walked around the neighborhood giving out my baby tomato plants. But here's the problem: Even though I started those tomato plants in late Winter, they still were pretty tiny when it was time to plant them outside. By time they were producing a LOT of tomatoes, it was time for the first frost. After all that work, my tomato harvest was ok, but not fantastic.
MY TOMATO CHEAT IDEA
What I do now and what I did this year when I finally was done with graduation festivities and could catch up on the delayed planting of my garden, is I went to a local big box discount store and bought the biggest tomato plants I could find, that were already staked and ready to go. I didn't go to a fancy nursery. I got 5 big tomato plants and other vegetable plants and planted them. I have tomatoes a good month and half before I normally would get them. I probably spent the same amount of money and I am enjoying a prolific harvest.
I won't lie. I enjoyed growing them from seed, and as my kids all head off to college and I have more time again, I probably will be starting a lot of plants from seed. However, I will probably focus more on certain types of plants that worked better, like coleus, impatiens, and for my veggies like tomatoes will continue to purchase sizable established plants that might already have blossoms.
Here's a rundown of what I did:
Cucumbers: Planted seeds in garden
Tomatoes: Purchased plants
Peppers: Purchased plants
Green beans: Planted seeds in garden
Lettuce: Planted seeds right in garden
Spinach: Planted seeds in garden
I feel like I'm forgetting some so when I remember I'll post again.
So there you have it. The truth. Not everyone has unlimited time to have a garden and it's ok to cheat. I think a lot of people, probably most, do this anyway, but to me it seemed like I was somehow cutting corners and not being a true gardener. I wanted an authentic garden, that was all original down to each and every seed. It's unrealistic and I wonder how many people don't have a garden because they think it's complicated and that you have to do all that work when basically you can plop a bunch of plants in the ground, water them, and have fabulous results.
