Low Carb Gardening 2007

[HeidiE]

here is a new seed link

http://anniesannuals.com/

[ajakol]

I always plant a salsa garden - I love to can and last year I made 40 quarts of salsa. A bunch of chili sauce and spaghetti sauce.
We just got 5 inches of snow over night - I guess the garden will have to wait

[not2late]

I bought tomato and pepper seedlings yesterday. Next week, I plant them into the ground!!!!

[Alexa]

That's cool Megs,

I need to persuade my Mum to give me some tomato plants _ haven't got a greenhouse and can't realy start them myself.

I've got spinach, brussel sprouts and carrots poking up - spinahc doing well, I need to try and plant it evey 4 weeks or so. Also bought 2 baby (tehnical term? ) courgette plants which I'm quite excited about.

I wish I had a bigger garden or an allotment...

[not2late]

We've been having cold weather here lately so I didn't want to risk planting anything or buying any seedlings until the weather was warmer. But definitely this weekend (weather permitting), I will break ground and start planting.

I don't know if you have a little sunny spot at your home, but tomatoes do well planted in containers. You need a 5 gallon container (sorry, I don't know the metric equivalent) per tomato plant. Spinach and lettuce does well in containers too.

[Alexa]

Would tomatos be ok from seed outside in a container? There is a sunny spot I could put it in. I have spinach in containers already as my earth patch is tiny - I have pots on gravel.

It's been freakishly hot here so everything is doing well.

[sallyseachange]

Broad beans are in flower... hopefully not too long till picking time! Here, when they're very very young they're eaten raw with Pecorino cheese (and the inevitable glass of chilled white wine). Nice and summery!

[Alexa]

That sounds lovely Sally! I think they get a bit too tough when left to grow.

[sallyseachange]

Yes Baarb, definitely tough when big enough to cook... but they can be eaten by taking the bean out of the pod then biting through the outer bean skin and simultanaeously squeezing the tender very inner part into your mouth... a technique that comes with practice. Lol!

It's always wonderful to sit around with a huge basket of unshelled broad beans in the middle of the table for everyone to pick from... plus the cheese and wine. A nice antipasto.

[not2late]

Sally, I can't wait until it gets warm enough to plant beans here too! There's nothing like veggies straight from the garden. I feel so good, when I can walk outside my door and pick a tomato and a few sprigs of herbs for my meal.

Baarb, yes you can grow the tomato from seed. You can plant the seeds directly into the container or you can make a newspaper pot. For a newspaper pot, you need newspaper and a food can/tin or a bottle. Take a newspaper and cut it into 6 inch wide strips. Wrap the newspaper around the bottom of the can, leaving a 2 inch overhang at the bottom. Fold the overhanging paper onto itself to form a bottom, then slide the newspaper pot out. You'll need to set the pot on a tray, fill it with soil and plant a seed, because you don't want to glue or tape the bottom. When you transfer the seeding to your container or to the ground, you don't need to peel away the paper---it will breakdown in the soil.