Transition Time in the Garden

It's not quite April 15, but in this case I do like to take a chance... push the season a bit... and get a few summer crops in the ground.  Some of my beds are now actively in transition.

Country Farm and Home Supply in Pittsboro has locally-started transplants.  My gut says that these plants will be healthier and better overall in the garden than those raised by farm corporations and sold through big box stores.  If nothing else, I enjoy supporting my local seed and feed store and the local farmers who are supplying the transplants.

I was excited to see that my favorite heirloom tomato, 'Cherokee Purple', was available! This variety is said to have been cultivated in Tennessee by the people of the Cherokee tribe.  These plants will produce loads of dusky rose to purple colored beefsteak tomatoes. They're not very pretty to look at, but - WOW - are they tasty! I planted four of them, then filled up the tomato bed with the following varieties:

'German Johnson' - (2 plants) A large prolific heirloom tomato from North Carolina, known for producing huge beautiful pinkish red beefsteak type tomatoes - often more than one pound in size - with delicious flavor.

'Champion' - (4 plants) Especially bred as a luscious sandwich tomato...solid, meaty slices with just the right sweetness.

'Green Zebra' - (2 plants) Produces unique, deliciously tangy fruits that ripen in color from light green to golden amber, overlaid with deep green stripes. Their flavor is special because they are both sweet and tart at the same time! These are smaller, salad-size tomatoes.

'Sun Sugar' Cherry Tomato - A medium-sized orange-ripening cherry tomato, valued for its intense sweet flavor.  I planted two of these at the far end of the current lettuce / spinach bed. I put in eight sweet basil transplants amid the spinach that is starting to bolt at the other end of the bed. In between, I planted cucumbers in the area adjacent to the basil... two hills each of pickling cukes and burpless, seedless cukes.  There's still space in this bed for six or eight hot pepper plants.  I don't mess with sweet peppers anymore.  I've never had good luck with them.  As the lettuce, spinach, and salad mix mature and phase out with hotter weather, these new plants will grow and fruit.

I bought four cabbage transplants from a farmer at the market on Thursday, plus four more red cabbage plants at the feed and seed store.  I put in eight broccoli plants.  I covered these brassica plants with lightweight row cover in an attempt to hold off the cabbage looper moths.

I'm cutting asparagus! The sugar snaps are tall enough to grab 'hold of the string trellis! The potato plants are coming up!