In honor of Plant Wednesdays

In honor of #plantwednesdays,  I've decided to start a vegetable garden.  The last time I grew vegetables was first year of high school, in Champaign, IL...

The main reason I started from seeds was that I wanted San Marzano tomatoes -- I use them frequently in cooking and they aren't exactly cheap and only come in cans. I could only find seeds for San Marzano tomatoes.  And, while I was at it, I decided I might as well start with seeds for zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, green beans, and bell peppers.  I bought a $15 heating pad made for starting with seeds and a $5 "greenhouse".  Most of the seeds said they were germinate in 7-10 days -- this is day 6 and I had to take half of them out of the mini greenhouse because they got too tall. I transplanted the green beans, zucchini, and cucumbers into bigger pots (3").

The important San Marzano seeds have all sprouted but they are very thin and still under the greenhouse -- they are maybe 1.5" tall.   The peppers and eggplant have not broken the soil yet -- but I am probably late on starting these anyway and I can just go to the nursery and buy 1' plants if I want to....

Just as long as those San Marzano tomatoes grow!!

I have about a 15' x 6' section of space set aside in my back yard that is a walled flower bed. There was a multi-trunk birch where two of the trunks died and the 3rd was on its way. There were 4 somewhat healthy orange flowering  2' tall plants whose name I always forget -- I took them out and felt a little bad about it but I hope they don't mind that I'm making way for the veggies.  I am blocking off either side of this area (so I can still keep my purple hibiscus and olive sapling) and am filling in with about 8" of quality raised bed soil for the veggies.