Last summer's tomatoes

were a bust in my garden. I didn't have a single good tomato among my 5 plants. It is the first time anything like that ever happened in my garden and I was initially perplexed. From the outside, the tomatoes looked perfect. But when I cut them open, they were white inside, and tasteless. Fortunately, the tomatoes were OK cooked, so I could use them to can spaghetti sauce.

My understanding is that the cause of this problem was a potassium deficiency. Apparently extremely high temperatures during ripening makes some tomato varieties susceptible. I'm not the only person in the area who had this happen last summer. The curious thing was that people who planted some of my tomato seedlings in their gardens had tomatoes that were just fine. What that tells me is that my soil is probably deficient in potassium.

This year seems like a good year to get a soil test at the U. I'd like to make sure that never happens to me again. I'm going to try some new tomato varieties this year as well and maybe that will also guard against an entire crop going bad. My order includes: Container Choice Hybrid from Parks, and some heirloom varieties, Stupice, Cherokee Purple, Brandywine, Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter, Kelloggs Breakfast, and Opalka. Maybe I'll find a few winners among them. I chose some of them just for the colors - I've been seeing beautiful tomato salads in cookbooks, but you need some color variation in order for them to really look spectacular.

I'm also looking ahead to the Como garage sale this spring. I love to plant seeds, and this year, I plan to include a lot of the excess plants in my sale. I have a suspicion that heirloom varieties might be popular in this area and they aren't always easy to find in garden centers. I guess we will see.

January Blahs

We are not quite to the middle of January and I'm already so sick of winter I could scream. I hate the following:

-having to wear long underwear just to sit at my desk at work
-walking the dog in the cold
-walking the dog in the dark
-knowing that I will have to go out and shovel almost every night after work
-having to be extra careful where I step so I don't fall and sprain or break something
-painful frozen fingers
-gloomy weather most of the time
-having to spend any daylight hours inside at work, except on weekends

I guess there is nothing I really do like about winter. The only two things that make winter tolerable for me are looking forward to vacations to someplace warm (I've just returned to Minnesota after a visit to San Diego,) and planning what seeds I'll be starting indoors. Since my vacation is over, I will have to rely on seed starting to cheer me up. So far, here is my shopping list, all from Park's, at this point:

Pepper, Mohawk
Snapdragon, 'Chantilly Deep Orange'
Zinnia, Zahara Double Fire
Zinnia, Dreamland Yellow Hybrid
Cosmos Cosmic Collection
Zinnia 'Sunburst Mix'
Salvia Blue Queen
Petunia Aladdin Nautical Hybrid Mix
Tomato Container Choice Hybrid

I plan to continue with the blue and orange color scheme in my garden. I really like it, and so do the birds and butterflies.

I'm trying to hold off on sending off my seed order for the time being. Every year, as soon as I hit the "checkout" button, I realize that I intended to get one other item which can only be had through mail order.

For instance, as I look at my current list, it lacks cucumbers for the pickles I plan to can, zucchini, and tomatoes that aren't intended for growing in containers. I'm sure there are more things I've had on my mind and I hope to remember them before I place the order.