The seedlings we started a month ago are looking good and have been transplanted from their egg carton starters to the plastic plant pots we had left over from our garden purchases this year. We’ve got golden orb (I keep calling them this, they are actually Sun Golds ha) and black prince tomatoes from Julia, romas from seed, and a bunch of other goodies; African daisies, bachelors buttons/cornflowers, cardoons, chamomile, morning glories, black hollyhocks, zinnias, and loveage. Started in the second wave of seeds are nasturtiums, sea thistles, lupins, and bee balm.

We put a few of the golden orb tomato plants outside already because it has been unseasonably warm (thanks, global warming) under a quick DIY polytunnel we whipped up with an old hose and a clear garbage bag. We had a roll of stiff black tubing from last year and some spare rebar, so we fitted the tubing over the rebar and set the rebar into the dirt at the edges/corners of the planter. We then cut the old hose into sections and sliced them open so they would fit over the black tubing. I slices open a large clear garbage bag and we held it in place with the hose “clips.” So far so good! Not the prettiest, but it won’t be long before the plants are ready to be caged and the tunnel can be removed. We hope to have a lot of tomatoes this year! The cherry tomatoes we grew last year made the best salsa.