Tomato Update and My New Favorite Petunia

Well, they’re in the ground.

Two Red Delicious Cherry, two Pruden’s Purple, two Stupice, and one lone Brandywine. (Alas, I’m sad to report I lost one of the Brandywines. I had two more started in the greenhouse but after a certain mishap this afternoon I now have one left in the greenhouse.)

Three of them are tucked safely in under Walls O’ Water because there were only three in the package I purchased this morning. The rest are under glass cloches for the night–it’s a contest to see which ones turn out to be the happiest. I’m loving these Walls O’ Water though, and sorely tempted to purchase more tomorrow.

This afternoon I laid drip irrigation and covered the bed with this red plastic that I recently learned is especially good to use for tomato mulch.

Then, I dug seven holes and filled each one with a concoction of three baby aspirin (my “recipe” said to use one regular aspirin but I couldn’t find any in the house), bone meal, worm castings (thank you Worm Hotel!), and fish parts. We were never able to find the coveted fish heads, but got fish tails and other assorted parts from the meat counter person at Fred Meyer.

After filling each hole with water and waiting for it to drain, I gently settled the tomato plants into their new homes. Some of the plants still had remnants of the original newspaper pots I had planted seeds in. That was kind of cool to see.

I’ve come farther this year than ever before in my quest to grow tomatoes from seed. Now that they’re in the ground I’m almost holding my breath waiting to see if they’ll “take” and be happy. It’s true. A mother’s work and worry is never done. Even for a tomato plant mother.

On another note we spent a fun morning visiting a couple of local nurseries while was on my quest for the Walls O’ Water and I found the most unusual petunias I’ve ever seen!

The photography in no way does justice to this flower because at the time I was struggling with not allowing myself to go across the street and do bodily harm to the neighbor who had been using a power-tool of some sort for the past hour.

(Headache? Well yes, I certainly did have a headache by that time.)

Nevertheless, isn’t this the most unusual petunia you’ve ever seen! I bought three plants and can’t wait to see how they look in a month or so!

I also picked up a few flowers to put in my strawberry pot.

And Gerry bought a Himalayan Blue Poppy plant to replace the one he finally confessed to killing a couple of years ago.

All in all, it’s been a great day. Hoping for sunshine and warmer weather tomorrow though.