You Grow Girl™

Yesterday I planted some seeds. It's kind of sad because I am WAY behind in this. Like months. But I planted some tomatoes at this time last year and all the plants produced so... Rather than learn my lesson I just took it as an opportunity to be slack. I actually have a number of tomato seedlings that are at various stages so it's not a huge tragedy. I have some that were started at the "correct" time and several types that have been going for weeks now and have at least one set of true leaves. Predictably I didn't bother to label them thinking I'd somehow "remember" what was planted and now I don't have a clue what's what. I know I planted black plum tomatoes (an heirloom), Ceylon tomatoes (another heirloom that is supposed to be disease resistant, and cape gooseberry (Physalis edulis) . I can distinguish between the cape goosberries and the tomato seedlings but I can't identify varieties since I have never grown either variety and have no idea experience with them.

The varieties I planted yesterday are as follows: green zebra, tiny tom, broad ripple yellow currant, and purple tomatillo. They are all heirloom seeds I bought from Seed Savers.

I also planted a bunch of basil seeds yesterday. How I let this go so long is beyond me. I've had several seed planting sessions prior to this so it's not entirely chalked up to pure laziness.

In other news my sage plants are producing flowers like mad. Just plain old sage. They are plain plants I started last year and wow are they doing well in the large planter box. Oddly enough I have never seen sage flowers so it will be a bit of a surprise when they finally open. I could look it up, but I'd rather wait and see.

Yesterday I bought a hanging basket of strawberries. I already have several strawberry plants on the go but I couldn't resist a basket of plants that had actual ripe fruit on them. Mind you for the amount of strawberries I will likely get from the plant I could have bought several boxes of fruit. However there is something satisfying about going outside and picking a ripe fruit from my own plant that I managed to grow and protect from the various wildlife that frequent the deck. It's like a contest to see if I can get to it before the birds.

And speaking of the birds... We have had seven different species of birds visit the feeder this year! Last year we had a maximum of four. Our feeder is the neighbourhood hotspot! We even have red-winged blackbirds frequenting the feeder on a daily basis. I particularly like the calls they make (when they aren't attacking!) We had turtle doves earlier in the spring but I think they were driven away by the starlings (they are very pushy). We even had a pair of crows a few times but they are much too large for the feeder and watching them attempt to balance on it is comical.