Garden Update

Even though this year's garden dreams were utterly dashed by all of the house redoing, never ending packing, and epic moving, I did manage to plant a few of my heirloom tomato seeds.  To my great surprise they all sprouted, and (after thinning and culling) for the first time ever I was able to keep them all alive.  Most of the fragile baby plants survived the move and "hardening off" process, and I now have nine big strong heirloom plants grown from seed and planted in tubs.  (If you can't tell I'm quite proud of myself). 

I planted two Arkansas Traveler, Mule Team, Cherokee Purple, Mammoth Gold, and one Moonglow.  I'd have planted more but I ran out of containers and dirt - and believe me, dirt is hard to come by around here.

The most exciting thing is - I HAVE GREEN TOMATOES!!!  The rest have blooms, but no 'maters just yet.  Still, to have good-sized green tomatoes by June 1st is the best tomato luck I've ever had.

In other garden news, it took me hours and hours and buckets of sweat to re-plant my gooseberry bushes.  First, finding a halfway diggable, all-day sunny spot really narrowed down the options.  Second, "diggable" is saying way too much for this ground we now live on.  It took a pick, mega elbow-grease, and more patience than I thought I had to dig holes through rocks the size of my head.  Anything else I plant is going in a raised bed - this time not because I want to, but because without owning a backhoe it's going to be the only option.

Check out the ridiculousness of the rocks: