Early Garden

Here in the southeastern part of America, we are living in an unprecedented time of very early spring.  Gardeners were thrown into debate about planting now or waiting until given the official signal that no frost is in the future.

Being a risk taker, I chose to put my tomato plants in as soon as I saw them in the garden center.  I had such good luck with the Goliath in past years,  I chose two of them that were about 6" high and with several stems.  My partner in crime had prepared a great bed out back and heaped on the pine bark mulch.  All we had to do was rake out a spot, dig a hole and plop in the plant, cover with mulch and water.  Of course watching for the weather report is part of good gardening and that I did also.  When two nights in a row of 42 degree weather was predicted, I put a 5 gallon bucket over the plants to make sure the cold did not nip them.

I am happy to report that as of today I have several green tomatoes hanging on one of my plants.  The smaller plant has  plenty of blooms ready to come up with little green fruits also.  At the same time, I planted four burpless cucumber plants that my daughter had  sent to me.  They are thriving and growing extra leaves and were not covered at all on those cold nights.

Down in the raised beds the green beans are 3 to 5 inches tall and the cucumbers are only two leaves up on 1/2 inch stems.  The Lima beans in the middle bed have not come up at all and they were planted at the same time.  I am not sure what is happening to them, time will tell.

I used to have a good friend who prided himself on having the first red tomato in his neighborhood (about one mile from here).  One year he got a nice red tomato from the market and tied it to his biggest tomato plant.  He had a great sense of humor and that is only one example.  I really miss him and his gardening fun.  I do believe that he is up there on a cloud somewhere rooting for my tomato plants and the little green fruits that look so promising.