It is Spring and the gentle March sun warms the daffofils …. oh wait, I forgot, I live in the Pacific Northwest. When I visited my tomato seedlings in the greenhouse this morning, this is what I saw.
Early veg
My parsley, lettuce, broccoli and Brussels sprout seedlings just grew their first “true” leaves, so I replanted them into their own pots in the greenhouse.
Heated bed
I just placed a new addition in my greenhouse. This 3′ x 4′ bed of sand is warmed to 74 degrees by a buried 250 watt heating cable. My first little tomato seedlings look a little weak and leggy – let’s see what a few days in the new environment do for them.
Nothing exceeds like excess
Today I will begin planting seeds indoors for tomato plant starts. This year I plan to plant the following varieties. Are there any varieties I should add to the list? 
- Abe Lincoln
- Alaska
- Alicante
- Amish Paste
- Ananas Noir
- Anna Russian
- Argentina
- Aunt Ginny’s Purple
- Aunt Lucy’s Italian Paste
- Austin’s Red Pear
- Azoychka
- Beam’s Yellow Pear
- Besser
- Black Cherry
- Black Krim
- Black Pear
- Black Plum
- Black Prince
- Bloody Butcher
- Bonnie Best
- Boxcar Willy
- Brad’ Black Heart
- Brandywine (Landis Valley)
- Brederbadl roti
- Buckbee’s New 50 Day
- Burraker’s Best
- Bush BeefsteK
- Camp Joy
- Carmello
- Caspian pink
- Cherokee Green
- Chianti Rose
- Costoluto Genovese
- Coyote
- Cream Sausage
- Cskos Botermo
- Cuostralee
- Dagma’s Perfection
- Debarao
- Delicious
- Earl of Edgecomb
- Early Wonder
- Eva Purple Ball
- Fireworks
- First Pick
- Flamme
- Forme de Cour
- Fred Limbaugh
- Galina grande
- Gigantesque
- Gill’s All Purpose
- Grandpa’s Minnesota
- Green Zebra
- Hezhou
- Holland
- Ilse’s Yellow Latvian
- Impulse
- Indische Fleiche
- Ispolin
- Italian Tree
- Kellog?s Breakfast
- Kimberly
- Koralik
- Lahman pink
- Long Keeper
- Manitoba
- Manyel
- Marglobe
- Marianna’s Peace
- Marmande
- Martino?s Roma
- Mexico
- Mom’s Paste
- Money Maker
- Mr. Brown
- Mrs. Maxwell Big Italian
- Mule Team
- Napoli
- Neve’s Azorean Red
- New Hampshire Surecrop
- Nyagous
- Old Brooks
- Old German
- Olga’s Round Yellow Chicken
- Panatero Romanesco
- Paul Robeson
- Pink Ponderosa
- Porter
- Prescott
- Purple Russian
- Quedlinburger Fruehe Liebe
- Red Pear
- Red Siberian
- Riviera
- Russian Big Roma
- Rutgers
- Saint Lucie
- Saint Pierre
- Salisaw caf‚
- San Marzano
- Sasha Altai
- Sausage
- Sebastopol
- Sister
- Slava
- Stupice
- Sunsets Red Horizon
- Tiffen Mennonite
- Tigerella
- Tondino di Manduria
- Wapsicon Peach
- Watermelon beefsteak
- Wisconsin 55
- Yellow Pear
- Zarnitza
Strawberry Patch
A one-day hiatus in the rainfall allowed me to get 75 Seascape strawberry plants set into the garden. I kept this bed covered with plastic for several weeks, which kept the soil dry enough to be worked.
Veginox
Equinox defines the two dates each year at which day and night are of equal length. A more useful set of dates for gardeners are the dates at which the day starts and stops being longer than 10 hours, because this is the minimum number of daylight hours required to allow growth of most plants. I call this the veginox. Here in the Seattle area, at latitude 47N37, the spring veginox is February 8 and the winter veginox is November 3.
You may determine the dates for veginox at your location by using this form.
Finally a sunny day
Today the greenhouse is pleasantly warm. Onions, parsley, lettuce, brussel sprouts and broccoli seedlings all look very happy.
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Punxsutawney Phil
Don’t mean no disrespect for Phil; no doubt his forecasts are great for the East, but he doesn’t know beans about Pacific Northwest weather. Groundhogs are not native to our area. Probably we need to find a mountain beaver to do the forecast. 6 more weeks of constant rain? Or SUNSHINE?
Inauguration day
January 21 is probably an odd day to start a gardening website. Beginning this task today no doubt reflects my longing for the arrival of spring. At the moment, the weather is better suited for growing hoar frost than vegetables.
Even so, 4 days ago I planted a few 4″ pots with a scattering of seeds for parsley, yellow onions, red onions, Brussels sprouts and broccoli. The Brussels sprouts and broccoli were both sprouted today so I placed them in my greenhouse. As the night-time temperatures are presently about 30 F and the greenhouse is unheated, it will take a bit of luck for the seedlings to survive.
Early tomatoes
My tomato plants look magnificent, but with our continued cool and cloudy weather they are being slow to set fruit. Nevertheless, we have started harvesting our first ripe tomatoes. The winners for first ripe fruit this year are Flamme and Bloody Butcher. Of the 60 plus varieties I am growing this year, there are a few that I am likely to strike off the list for next year. At the top of the list is Argentina. I am growing 4 plants of this variety, 3 in the garden and one in the green house. All of the plants have the curious feature of having mostly brown and drying leaves on the lower half of the plant.