Scenes from the Burpee

So! Sprouting in the Burpee (see planting marathon post here)

from back to front:

~ Golden Detroit Beets (all!)
~ Red Detroit Beets (all!)
~ Garlic Bulbils (all!)
~ Cucumber Marketmore (several)
~ Cucumber Straight Eight (just one so far)
~ White Cosmos (all - huge - oy!)
~ Tamina Tomatoes

Still waiting for:
~ Zinnia - probably wait forever as the seeds were the last of the lot from the nasty eBay lady
~ Lemon bee balm - may not sprout as it was just dust from last year's packet
~ Garlic Chives
~ Amish Paste tomatoes - free SASE seeds, so perhaps unreliable
~ Melon, Minnesota Midget - melons are slow to germinate; should have soaked seeds first
~ Watermelon, Sugar Baby Organic - same as above

These actually started sprouting a few days ago - the cosmos were first up, then the marketmore cukes - but I didn't get a chance to update here what with Pesach and Shabbos and all...

I just removed the plastic lid anyway because the cosmos were so bloody tall (doh). Hopefully, the self-watering mat will mean the soil stays evenly moist and the other stuff will eventually sprout somehow.

Up close and personal:

Garlic from bulbils - they apparently take 2 years to reach edible size, or, if you're impatient, you can eat the scapes and green bits up on top. I was amazed they sprouted so fast, since they look so hard and non-seedlike.

Beets! I love beets of all kinds and have never had any luck growing them. This is my first year starting the seeds indoors. Apparently, beets resent transplanting less than other root veg. Good thing.

Last year, most of my beets succumbed to major leaf miner infestation. That shouldn't affect the quality of the roots, but the roots didn't get huge, anyway, for whatever reason. I have improved the soil, and I figure a good headstart indoors can't hurt for this year.

And finally, Tamina tomato. This was a T&M freebie from the Humber Nursery booth at Canada Blooms last year (ie 2008). It is the most reliable tomato I have ever grown. Good medium size which is nice for children to pick off and eat, tasty enough.

Plus, it survived and thrived in last year's dismal wet summer when almost nothing grew well.

So, in conclusion, and yes, I can't believe I'm arrogant enough to "recommend" a tomato, especially something so mainstream and probably bad-for-the-world in some way as a packet of seeds from a commercial seed company, but there it is.

Thompson & Morgan. Tamina. Yum. :-)

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