urbantomato

Mother's Day

My garden(s) are my love letter to my mom. She teaches me that planting seeds is believing that no matter how bad things get, tomorrow will come ... and it might just be more beautiful or fruitful than today!

Saturday Market booth

Pics from my first day back at the Peterborough Saturday Market and what a wonderful market it is!! Happy to be back. You can find me there for the next three weeks, or email me if you need some tomato seedlings.

lovely slicing tomatoes enjoying a sunny day outside of the greenhouse

buttons, magnets, seeds & seed saving booklets

Cherry tomatoes

Preparing for Saturday Market

Here's the first batch of seedlings getting ready to leave the nest & head to my customers home's & gardens.

You can find urbantomato at the Peterborough Saturday market for the next three weeks. I am close to the Morrow Building across the street from McLean's Berry Farms.

Frozen delights

I had almost forgotten that in the peak of harvest/ seed collecting season I froze three bags of whole cherry (& some others) tomatoes as well as a bag of roasted tomatoes.

Tomatoes freeze so well, they still look so perfect & are not even really frozen together. The roasted ones smell so amazing as soon as I opened the bag!

Hmm, now what should I do with them?? perfect little german red strawberry's, una heart stock, hartman's gooseberry, green grape, green zebra, striped cavern, black russian ... make salsa? sauce? experiment!

Seedlings growing up

I brought along some seedlings with me to Avante Garden, it was their first foray out of the house, so I was a little nervous for them!

It's always funny when they are so small compared to their signs at this time of year

This Saturday April 28th

Drop in & visit us anytime between 11-2pm - 165 Sherbrooke St. .... I will be bringing some of my little planties as well.
Here is a shot from my lovely day spend at Avante Garden

Transplanting How-To

My little seedlings are getting a big squished in their cell packs. I don't listen to my own advice when it comes to planting only one seed in each. It is time to transplant when the seedlings get long & leggy or when they get their first true leaves (they ones that actually look like tomato leaves - also start to smell like tomatoes)

Here's me starting to prep. Get a large container to mix soil in. I use a lot so I use a big rubbermaid. First I put 1/2 pro-mix (peat & vermiculite)

Then add 1/4 top soil

And 1/4 compost (if you have more, you can use more compost - I also water mine with compost tea so don't use as much to start)

Add water. Enough to get all the soil moist, but not soaking!

Then the fun dirty part! Mix all the soils & water together

Then get some clean pots. I re-use mine, so I washed them in bleach & soap first. You can use many things, but make sure they have drainage.

Fill the pots 3/4 with mixed soil. You need to leave room to bury the seedling. Leave more room if the plants are already bigger than mine pictured

Now, remove your seedling from original containers. reach to the bottom of the dirt using your finger as a hook and pull out. they are not as fragile as they look, but be careful not to snap them in half. Try to keep as much of the soil on the roots as possible

Bury the stem plant into the soil, leaving green above the soil.

Then make sure you label the plant!! Water regularly. They will even appreciate a fan on them to help make them stronger and prevent mould.

Heirloom Seed Sanctuary Kingston

I had the great opportunity to participate in the USC-Canada Bauta Initiative -Regional Train the Trainer Workshop. Gathered in a small room at the fabulous Heirloom Seed Sanctuary Kingston