Finally! Some much needed rain - view of the garden on May 6, 2026
April 27 saw the first planting of seeds into the strawbales. April 30 followed with tomato, and a few pepper, seedlings, I did my first batch of grow bag plants on May 5, but I will cover those varieties in the next blog.
Potato Leaf yellow, planted in the strawbale on April 30.
Here are the varieties that were direct seeded on April 27:
Cucumber Deli Star hybrid (thanks to Sam Austin of the UK for the seeds) - 2 hills in one bale, 2 seeds in each hill. Yet to appear on May 6,
Summer Squash Green Machine hybrid, and Zephyr hybrid, one bale for each - 2 seeds planted but I plan on thinning to only 1 plant per hill - 1 hill in each bale. Germination for both varieties is a success.
Sweet Corn - 2 bales with a double row of Jackpot hybrid, 2 bales with a double row of Sweetness hybrid. This is a different arrangement than last year’s block of 4 bales, which created too much crowing of the inner rows. Germination noted for both types today.
Snap Beans - 4 bales pushed together, 3 rows of beans. Varieties are Marbel, Jade and Goldilocks. Germination is just starting.
Here are the 2 summer squash bales with the hills marked by a 2-3 inch deep topping of potting mix.
Finally, here are the seedlings that were planted into strawbales on April 30.
Indeterminate Tomatoes - heirloom varieties - Cherokee Purple, Captain Lucky, Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, Cherokee Chocolate, Lucky Cross, Ferris Wheel, Cancelmo Family Heirloom, Potato leaf Yellow, Earl, Green Giant, Giant Syrian, World War 2, Italian heirloom sent to me by a Canada garden friend, and Lucky Bling.
Indeterminate Tomatoes - Research varieties - 4 plants of the F2 generation of Potato Leaf Yellow crossed with Cherokee Purple (carried out by my friend Alex) - 2 regular leaf and 2 potato leaf. One indeterminate potato leaf variegated F2 selection from the Triply three way cross (Cherokee Purple x (Dwarf Choemato X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy)). Eight different selections grown to find the desired traits for Lillian Rose, which is a selection out of Cherokee Purple X Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom I found and named in 2022.
Dwarf Tomato - Dwarf Eli’s Surprise, my name for a variegated, chartreuse potato leaf selection from the Peppy family (Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy).
Sweet Peppers - one bale was planted with single seedlings of Shishito and Corno di Toro red.
Side view of the bales with added grow bags with plants, taken on May 5
In addition to the above we are now eating lettuce and awaiting garlic, collard, kale and chard. Despite having less time to garden, I seem to be right where I hoped to be date and progress-wise.
In the next blog I will provide information on the many grow bag tomatoes, peppers and eggplants that were planted yesterday, and will be finished on Friday May 8. After that, it will be regular care and providing support - and updates!
