Plant Babies...

I am still very much an amateur gardener, but over the last year or two I've learned a few things and gradually I feel like I am getting better at it.

My biggest struggle has been with tomatoes. As much as I would LOVE to be able to grow a crap tonne of them and just eat tomatoes all summer, until this year I had not been at all successful. The first year I grew them, I started out with them in an egg carton, and put WAY too many seeds in per cup. Then I tried to thin them out by plucking the weaker ones, then I dropped the carton one day and that was the end of my tomato attempt that year. Then last year I put fewer seeds per cup, and I got them to sprout, but then they wilted shortly after sprouting and I couldn't get them to come back. This year, after reading a blog from a friend of mine that is an AMAZING gardener (seriously, he has written books, is a regular expert on CBC radio, lectures at the University on occassion, he gets commissioned for landscaping and garden design all the time... the guy is a gardening genius) I determined that my issue was that my tomato plants weren't getting enough sun. I don't have any spot in my house that gets sun all day that is easily accessable and safe from little hands, that first year I tried moving the carton every hour, but that's why the drop happened. So I got a grow lamp. Best call I have ever made.

And these are just the ones that made it!

These babies are the ones I kept for myself to plant in the garden. I am so proud of these little buggers. I only kept room in my outdoor planter for a few plants thinking that I wouldn't get as many as I did, so, these guys are the winners!

However, when you compare them to greenhouse grown plants, mine pale a bit in comparison.

This is why I don't get paid to garden. The bigger plants I bought from a fundraiser to support a couple of little boys that need international surgeries. (Just a note: this picture is of one of my "winners" about a week before the other picture was taken, so he still looks pretty small in this one. But. Still. Comparison wise, it makes a good point)

Regardless, they are all healthy and happy little plants and they have now been adopted out to their new homes. Given that there were 30 (THIRTY!) extra plants that I did not need, I asked my mom if one of her classes at school might want them for a Father's day project or something. So the Grade 4/5s at my mom's school will now be their plant mammas and pappas.

I am getting more and more into this whole gardening thing! :)