12:34 PM Mon, Feb 11, 2008 | Permalink
Cindy Brummer
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Luke helps water the newly transplanted seedlings.
I decided I wanted to pot up the tomatoes into slightly larger containers this weekend. The seedlings were as tall as the containers, and we're now about a month away from the last average freeze in Austin (March 15).
Looking back, I could have definitely waited. The roots weren't as well developed as I expected. But I tend to either act too late or too early when it comes to gardening, so I'm taking my "leap before I look" gardening habit in stride.
The transplanting became a family activity... with my husband making the pots with our pot-maker and newspaper, me putting the seedlings in their respective containers, and my son scooping dirt. He actually did a little more "playing" than gardening, but that's what it's all about right? Later, he helped me water the plants before we took them back inside to their respective window and lights.
It's easy to make pots with old newspaper.
Each of the tomatoes was planted fairly deep to encourage long roots. The challenge will be to keep them watered, since the newspaper lets the moisture escape more quickly than plastic.
And if every one of them makes it... we will have way more plants than will fit in our garden. I've already alerted our friends that we will have spare tomato plants to share.
Woo-hoo!
Cool crops
We go through a lot of onions while cooking at my house, so when I spotted a handful of Texas 1015 bulbs at the nursery, I couldn't resist. I packed them into the beds designated for the cool crops and garlic, and shared the remaining with some friends.
I also spent an hour or so planting more spinach, the remaining chard seeds, parsley, dill and endive into a garden bed that was vacant most for the winter (after the demise of the beans and tomatoes). I'm hoping they will be going strong by the time the pecan tree leafs out and begins shading the area part of the day.
Guess what I also finally planted! Flowers... or, rather -- flower seeds. I finally scraped back some soil and sprinkled some native Texas wildflowers in a portion of lawn destroyed by weeds and Bermuda grass. I also dug up some dead weeds in front of the garlic bed, planting Mullein and Texas Hummingbird Sage. It's all about making a thriving eco-system, right?
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