Sara's Garden MarketSustainable Living, Gardening, Flowers, and Food

Hi everyone!

I have an updated picture of the indoor garden for you! It is growing like mad, and it’s so neat to have a bit of summer right in my dining room.

The giant monster tomato plants (started Feb 1st) that are actually pretty normal size are on the far left. On the very top of the shelf is the potter that has the cilantro and basil (started Feb 1st) which are still going strong and I have had several small harvests out of!

The next shelf down from L-R are seedlings (started March 27th) of jalapenos, alyssum, petunias (regular ones that are still hard to germinate and extremely small and slow growing so far), bell peppers, broccoli, and large yellow onions.

Next shelf down are seedlings of alyssum, carrots, and 3 different varieties of tomato plants.

(The alyssum was started some time at the end of March.)

Everything that you see besides the large tomato plants and the cilantro and basil at the top will be transplanted some time around May 20, which is our frost-safe date according to the farmer’s almanac!

In a few weeks I will do another short video before I do the transplant so you can see how big they get before I transplant them.

Thanks for stopping by!

~Sara

Hi everyone!

I have an updated picture of the Alyssum that I planted <>. These are some slow growing plants!!! I think I need to do some research to make sure they are getting everything they need to grow.

I will keep you updated, thanks for stopping by!

Sara

Here in Minnesota it is very apparent to all of us natives that it is most definitely SPRING! However, we have gotten snow at this time of year still. In fact, if it doesn’t snow before May1st it will be the first time in 120 years that we did not see a trace of the white stuff between St. Patrick’s day and May 1st!

We did have some hail in the thunder storm that came through a few nights ago. Nothing accumulated, so I’m thinking that did not count. 🙂

According to my planting schedule you can plant the first section any time now. I put mine in about a week or so ago. In the first week of May you can go ahead and try planting the next section titled, “Early Spring.”

The last section needs to be planted after the last frost date. For the part of Minnesota that I am from that date is May 20th.

Here is a picture of my outdoor garden coming up! I have peas along the back, onions in the first section, and 3 rows of radishes after that.

<>

Thanks for stopping by!

~Sara

Well, in my effort to take tomatoes from seed to table 100% indoors I have created some monster tomato plants! Very tall, about 90% healthy, but no flowers to speak of…yet. Check it out:

These babies (there are 4 large  and one small one that took longer to germinate than the rest) are over 2.5 feet tall. I am not sure if they just seem larger because they are inside rather than out, but they sure are HUGE in my little dining room!

I have been gradually increasing the amount (time) of light they get in a day in an effort to get them to flower, and tonight I will be employing the use of my timer to get them on a consistent schedule. I checked the seed packet and it was not very helpful at all in telling me how tall these plants would be or if they were indeterminate (keep growing taller and have flowers throughout the plant) or determinate (form flowers at the top and stop growing). They seem to have a more condensed cluster at the top of the plant and have slowed down in growth a lot the last few days, so I am going to go with they are determinate plants.

Some valuable information that I got here (University of Ill. Extension) about the salad varieties does point to them having a longer time to flower/harvest than larger more typical types of tomatoes:

Super Sweet 100 (70 days to harvest; 1 inch; red, cherry-sized fruit in large clusters; indeterminate; resistant to VF)

Sweet Million (65 days; 1 inch; red, sweet, crack resistant; large clusters; indeterminate; resistant to FNT)

Yellow Pear (OP) (70 days; 1 inch; clusters of yellow, pear-shaped fruit; indeterminate)

Large Red Cherry (OP) (70 days; 1-1/2 inch; solid, deep red, tasty fruit; indeterminate)

Mountain Belle (65 days; 1 1/4 inch; red, crack resistant, ripens uniformly and holds on the vine; determinate; resistant to VF)

I don’t know what variety(s) I have. The packet just says “Salad Mix.” It looks like I could even have a mix of determinate and indeterminate tomatoes! I chose the salad variety to try out first because with the fruit being smaller I thought maybe the overall plant would be smaller as well. But it turns out that the plants are taller and take longer to fruit than other varieties! Go figure!

So, I am now going to increase their light to 18 hours+ and see if they flower! (Cross your fingers). For my next indoor tomato experiment I will be hunting for a small condensed determinate plant of some sort!!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Sara Murray

So, I have discovered that tomatoes need a lot of light. Mature plants need more light especially if they are going to flower/fruit soon. So I am increasing the light on my mature plants to 18-20 hours per day. That should get them to flower/fruit. 🙂

The seeds and seedlings that I have started for outdoor transplanting will still have 12-16 hours of light until they are larger.

I am also going to fertilize the mature tomatoes for 2 weeks when I water them. That should give them enough nutrients to flower.

I will keep you up dated on their progress!.

So, I have discovered a few things about potting soil, and seed starting soil etc… that I want to share with you!

Seed starting soil:

• Already has fertilizer in it! Unless your soil is over 6+ months old do NOT use a fertilizer when you water!
• Seed starting mix has a lot of Peat Moss in it, which can throw off the Ph of your soil a bit if you don’t transplant right away. I have found in particular that it is deficient in Calcium. I remedied mine by adding a 50/50 solution of milk and water to one watering. I will also add some egg shells to the top of the soil next time I have some. This can also save tomatoes from blossom-end rot.

Potting Soil

• Not only does potting soil generally come with fertilizer already in it, you can get different kinds of fertilizer, and different kinds of mixes. Read the package well so that you understand exactly what you are getting!
• Testing the Ph of your soil in this case is also important. Simply by being on the shelf in that plastic package for too long can throw off the Ph.

Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and not end up burning your plants or having them wilt due to being calcium deficient!

Thanks for stopping by!

I planted my onions, radishes and peas today!

A ton of large yellow onions, snow peas and dwarf peas, and cherry globe radishes! I planted a ton of radishes because once they are done I will clean out that part of the garden to plant other things in, so I use more than I normally would.

Here is a nice little guide for when to plant stuff:

Very early spring (as soon as the ground can be worked)
* Onions
* peas (Martha Stewart plants hers every year on St. Patrick’s Day – she lives in New England!)
* spinach

Early spring
* lettuce
* beets
* carrots
* radishes
* dill
* cilantro
* cabbage
* broccoli
* celery
* kale
* potatoes

After last frost date
* beans
* corn
* melons
* cucumbers
* squash
* tomatoes
* peppers
* pumpkins
* eggplant
* basil

Happy Planting!

So, the indoor garden plants are getting very big now!

The tomato plants now have a regular support cage around them and are about 2+ feet tall. I am wondering when they will flower!

The Cilantro continues to be prolific and I use it often in salads, breads and salsa.

The Basil is also getting rather tall. One plant in particular is about a foot tall and towers above the rest of the Basil forest. I am wondering if my pruning is causing this growth? It sure is delicious though! I love to just run my hand over it and smell the sweet Basil smell. MMMmmmm…

Here is a picture of the new set-up now that I have my seed flats started for spring planting.

Thanks for stopping by!