Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Plant Extravaganza

We hit the town plant sale held by the Garden Club, and we managed to score some plants, though not as many as I’d hoped to get. I was looking for tomatoes, and they had a few, but they seemed to be more focused on decorative and landscaping plants. There were a few tomatoes, but they had some of the gourmet heirloom variety which I wanted to avoid. I really wanted just two types: beefsteak (or some facsimile thereof) and canning tomatoes, which I’ve been told are plum or roma tomatoes.

They only had beefsteak at the sale, so I got one. Now I also wanted to avoid cherry tomatoes. Though they can be fun, when we’ve planted them in the past, they overwhelm us because we can’t eat them fast enough. Plus, I get a little tired of them. Of course, being the sucker that I am for a sales pitch, CS talked me into getting an heirloom variety (wasn’t I trying to avoid that?) that supposedly produced heart shaped tomatoes. This excited the kids and they convinced me that we needed one. They also picked out a plant for themselves, and it’s kind of cool. It’s called an Elephant Ear, and it looks like, of all things, an elephant’s ear. Can you tell which one it is? It’s actually a tropical plant bulb, so we’ll have to bring it inside once summer is over.

After the sale, I headed over to the Clay Hill farmstand and got some more tomato plants, ending up with 6 in all. I could probably use more, but it’s a start. CS told me that some of them will grow to be 5 feet tall, which is hard to imagine, but she knows what she’s talking about. I asked about herbs and bush beans, which N wants in his garden, and she told me that herbs you can get at the Coop, and beans should be started from seed and planted right now. Live and learn.

All in all, we did okay on the plant front, but there’s always room for more. Until the next time, thanks for reading.

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