aspenhill's blog: Strawberries and Tomatoes

Sunday
The weather yesterday was absolutely miserable. Cold, cold rain and then even colder with high winds. Not a great day for being out and about, but that is what I did.

Mike said he was heading to Tractor Supply before I even mentioned to him that I wanted to go there to look for strawberries. I jumped at the chance to ride along. I did find boxes of bare root strawberries, and picked up a variety called 'Sequoia'. Mike didn't find what he set out to get, but he did find some hardware clamps that would work for hanging the long power strip bar in my greenhouse. Tractor Supply is a favorite store to browse. I rarely buy anything there, but I sure do like to look. Right now the baby chicks and ducks are in

After Tractor Supply he stopped at a friend's house to let their dog out - a little Yorkie named Lily. He does this often when they will be gone for most of the day. I was wet and chilled to the bone after getting in and out of the weather for the Tractor Supply stop, so I sat in the car with my seat warmer on and the heater at full blast. It was enough to take the edge off, and when he was done taking care of the dog, I ventured to ask about making a stop at Lowes while we were in town. I wanted to look for more strawberries

At Lowes, he waited in the car to warm up while I got out and braved the weather. Lowes lines up a lot of their plants out front where there is no cover at all, and although their garden center area is partly under roof, it is a wind tunnel with the way it is oriented. You know you are a plantaholic when you are the only fool out there looking with the weather as awful as it was Anyway, Lowes had boxes of bare root strawberries too, and I picked up 'Allstar', 'Tristar', and 'Ozark Beauty'. When I was checking out, the cashier asked if my plans for the day had changed because of the weather. I responded that yes, instead of out planting, I'm out buying. She thought that was hilarious.

The boxes of bare roots come 10 strawberries to a box. Perfect for one tier of the Greenstalk planter. I plan to put one plant in each pocket, so I need 6 of the 10 to grow. If I get more than 6, I'll put those in the ground or pass them along. With the four varieties just purchased and the 'Mara Des Bois' coming from Jill's order, I'll have a different variety for each of the five tiers of one of the Greenstalk planters. That will make a nice sampling. The second Greenstalk planter will be planted entirely with 'Seascape'. Interesting about 'Seascape' though - when Jill went to place the order with Nourse Farms, they were sold out (we often combine our orders to save on shipping). 'Seascape' is a variety that many of the online sources carry, but nearly ALL of them that we checked were sold out. I'm wondering if Laura of Garden Answer raving endorsement of this particular variety has influenced her 1 million+ viewers to the extent that there is now a really high demand for them. It wouldn't surprise me in the least. Anyway, I did finally find them still available through Park Seeds. Whew. I really wanted 'Seascape', and I KNOW that I am totally influenced by Laura

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the greenhouse. It was comfortable, but not toasty. The wind howling was rattling all the panels though. The first thing that I did was to get those christmas fern bare roots soaking. Then I sowed tomato seeds - 17 different varieties. I am using 2 inch round pots, 6 for each variety. I put 2 seeds in each for the seeds from Jill's harvest last year, three or even four seeds in each for the commercial seeds I had left over from 2017. Again, it will be interesting to see how many, if any, of those older seeds germinate.

From Jill, I sowed 'Amish Paste', 'German Pink', 'Limbaugh's Legacy', 'Moondance Special' (which had been passed along to her from NGA member Horseshoe), 'Dwarf Pink Passion', and 'Dwarf Rosella Crimson'. I also did 'Boxcar Willie' from a pass along at the winter seed swap, and leftover from last year's commercial purchase were a few 'Ten Fingers of Naples' and 'Zapotec'. The old commercial seed from 2017 include 'Black Cherry', 'Caspian Pink', 'Gardener's Delight', 'Jaune Flamme', 'Snow White', 'Steak Hybrid', 'Sunrise Bumble Bee', and 'Umamin Hybrid'. A fascinating array. The trays are now inside on heat mats, with humidity domes, and under grow lights. Can't wait to see what they do!

To end the day, Bonnie wanted to check out Lowes and go out for dinner. While I had been at Lowes earlier, I had seen a few things that I knew I would go back for, I just didn't think it would be later the same day The cold and wind were even worse. Talk about crazy. I rarely buy perennials locally anymore - I just don't want to pay the prices when I can get such better bang for my buck at the Amish place in Lancaster. However, Lowes had a purple phlox divaricata that I haven't seen at Black Creek. I have some phlox divaricata already that is a much lighter purple and I can just see the two together. Lowes also had a solid purple calla lily that will look beautiful alongside the white with purple throat 'Picasso' that I just got from Sally. I made a bee line for those, loaded them in my cart, and then accompanied Bonnie up and down the aisles as she browsed. Both of us the fools, no one else was out there We checked out and then went to dinner. We went to a favorite Mexican restaurant, but the parking isn't close. Fools again, walking in the fierce cold wind, but the food was absolutely worth it. So all in all, I know that I will brave the elements for a plant haul and a good meal!

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