Tomato Day

It's tomato day!  Last year I didn't start them until Feb 8th, and then suffered major losses in my rush to get them out to the greenhouse.  I ended up buying tomato plants.

In 2010 I started tomatoes on January 25th.  I had to transplant them 3 or 4 times, and they were huge when they finally went in the garden.  They were still mostly green when we were hit by frost.

So, even though 2012 is the Year of the Cuke!, I am looking forward to canning a ton of tomato sauce, tomato juice, tomato soup and catsup.  It might be overzealous, but I want lots of big red juicy tomatoes along with the cucumbers.

Today I planted saved seed from last year.  I'm still waiting for this year's order to arrive. 

I started 8 jiffy discs with San Marzano tomatoes (2010 seed), 4 Starfire Improved (2009 seed), 4 Sweetie (cherry) tomatoes (2008 seed), and 12 with my saved seed from my 2011 tomatoes.  (I don't sort or separate my seeds.  All the tomatoes I saved seed from, from different plants, went in the same tub.)

Then, since I had everything out, and I have my pepper seeds (you know, the ones I said I didn't want to waste greenhouse space on this year?)  I started 4 California Wonder (2010 seed), 20 Salsa Pepper- Annaheim (new for 2012), and 8 Jalapeno (also 2012).

I don't usually start peppers quite this early, but I figured it couldn't hurt.  I haven't had a good pepper year yet.  Surprise, surprise, oh Canada!  lol.

Then husband asks, what's next?  Um...  Oh boy.  Where did I leave my garden journal from 2010?  I'm going to have to do some digging.  My notes from last year are all pretty much irrelevant, since I started everything in the greenhouse, and then restarted and restarted after various losses.  All I can remember from 2010 is that the sunroom was a jungle, and I started the pumpkins and cukes way too early (they were flowering in the house!)

But there you have it.  The 2012 gardening season has officially started in the great white north. :)