Forni Brown officially opened April 1st and Carolyn and I made our annual excursion Saturday morning to pick up starts to plant our spring gardens. We weren’t the first gardeners to arrive, but I think were the second and third.
Forni Brown has many varieties of heirloom plants. Every year I get overly excited while shopping and buy too many starts. This year, I made a shopping list based on prior planting notes and primarily stuck to it. I did buy a few extra melon varieties that I had not heard of and want to grow to see what they look and taste like.
I like this photo as it identifies the shape and color of the many types of pepper starts that Forni Brown offers. Over the years, I have tried a lot of them and this year planted only padron peppers, as those are my favorite.
Ready to plant! I only have 75 square feet available to plant, as a bed of onions are not quite ready. We have had such a wet and cold winter that both the white and red onions need another couple of weeks before harvesting. We recorded 65 inches of rain on our property so far this year and it is forecasted to rain again this weekend. Last year we recorded 24 inches of rain. By planting more vegetable starts in a month, I will have a longer harvest season.
I decided to be creative with my plant identifying markers. I found these 11 inch wooden markers at Gempler’s supply and created a custom stamp with our website name on it. Then…I spent some time stamping.
This is what I planted this year: Padron peppers, Persian cucumbers, Genova basil, Amethyst basil, Italian parsley, Sweet 100 tomatoes, Early Girl tomatoes, Yellow Pear tomatoes, San Marzano tomatoes, Roma red and orange tomatoes, Brandywine tomatoes, bush beans, French climbing beans, curly kale, chives, Fairytale melon, Dark Green melon, Charentais melon, Sangria melon and a Big Max pumpkin. I also have several planters of herbs which include mint, several varieties of Thyme, Oregano and Rosemary.
This year I was more thoughtful in planting my tomatoes, as last year I had a tomato jungle. I planted the indeterminate tomatoes on a climbing structure and the determinate tomatoes on the sunny side of the planter boxes. Indeterminate tomato plants will take over the garden and should be grown in wire cages or on a climbing structure spaced 2½ to 3 feet apart, allowing for sprawl. Determinate tomato plants can be planted 2 to 2½ feet apart and grow more “bush” style.
Let the growing begin!
