Stuck In A Rut

I seem to be, and literally was earlier today, stuck in a rut. Just glad I have snow tires on my van, so I could finally jostle my way out of the huge ruts of snowy, slushy ice that cover my neighborhood streets. I have not started my major tomato ops yet, because I am waiting for a final seed order and a final trade to arrive, and because I really did have to wait. There is not much point in putting all this effort into starting and growing all these tomato babies too early. It really doesn't give you any advantages. And with the almost record breaking snowfalls we've been getting, my low tunnels are looking like a pipe dream right now.

I think I may start some tomorrow.

I found some cheap greenhouse starter trays at Canadian Tire, I cleared off the top shelf of one of my greenhouse shelfy thingies, so there is no reason not too. And, it's St. Patrick's Day today. I like having a specific day for gardening dates. I usually plant out on the 2-4 weekend (Victoria Day), near the end of May, although I really should wait till the beginning of June. But I always figure what's a week or two? Then some nights you would catch me running around with sheet and tarps, trying to cover everything because of frost warnings!! But starting the day after St. Patty's has a nice ring to it!

And yes, I do have tons of trays and pots in the shed, but I can't get to it right now, because of all the snow. That's okay, they'll still come in use later on when I transplant the 'for sale' seedlings up to the larger pots. These mini trays that I bought will hold 36 plant babies each, and that would make the indoor/outdoor trek during nice weather much easier. Last year, it took what seemed like forever to lug everything outside in the morning, and back in for bedtime. I was also lugging in and out the brugs, so it was quite a bit of work.

I recently ordered a few more seeds, and was sorely disappointed when I found out that they had run out of two that I really wanted to try this year, Paul Robeson and Black from Tula. Of course, I'd forgotten that I'd wanted to try them, desperately, until I was smugly looking through the catalog, thinking to myself I have everything that I need. Note to self ---never be smug when looking through seed catalogs!! It always, always leads to garden lust. For some of us, looking through them is akin to garden porn. Like the smug reformed non-smoker, it just takes one! One tomato that you remember people raved about, and all of sudden you're off the wagon. And you can't stop at one, because now that you've truly fallen off, you may as well go whole hog!

I also ordered some snow peas, and some asparagus. I managed to kill my asparagus patches last year, the ones that I had grown from seed and so carefully tended to for the past 4 years. It takes 3 -4 years from seed to get a big enough patch that you can harvest from, and last year would have been the year! So here I go again. Did I mention that asparagus is one of the few vegetables that I truly enjoy?? Besides potatoes, of course. I would take asparagus over any other vegetable, I even love raw asparagus. And no, it is not because of my childish delight in the green pee that eating it causes!

Asparagus is not completely cold hardy here, and some extra protection during the winter is advised. Of course, I didn't think raised beds = less protection during the winter. And we had a very cold winter last year, and very little snowfall. So they froze to death, partly due to the lack of snow cover, and mostly because of my own stupidity. Live and learn. But now I'll have to wait another 4 years before I get to harvest a decent amount.

(PS If anyone wants to send me just a few seeds of Black from Tula, or Paul Robeson, I wouldn't say no. And I might have some seeds you would like, in exchange!)