Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

The garden is growing great. I've been watering every day and sometimes in the morning and evening. The peppers had a slow start, but they're just now starting to come around. The tomatoes are already setting quite a bit of fruit.

Here's a closeup of the Long Purple Cayenne and NuMex Big Jim.

And here's my favorite Tomato so far, the Pink Accordion.

Lisle French Market Saves the Day

I lost a couple of tomato plants after planting. I think the stalks must have gotten damaged during the transplant. Fortunately, the Lisle French Market (their name for a Farmer's Market) had a vendor selling tomato and pepper plants. I bought Tomato plants called Mortgage Lifter, Early Brandywine, and Thai Plum. I also bought an Italian sweet (bell) pepper plant and Basil and Chives.

Planting Day

All the hard work is about to pay off. It's time to plant the garden outside.

Last spring frost in the Lisle, IL area is May 15th, but I waited until the weekend to plant.

Success! Peppers are on the left and tomatoes on the right.

Transplant Day

The seedlings have finally out grown their tiny cells. Actually, the tomatoes probably should've been transplanted a week or two ago.

Here's how the tomatoes look at 5 weeks:

I transplanted the tomato seedlings into larger cell packs with organic potting mix followed by an application of Miracle-Gro Quick Start to help the roots develop.

Crowd Control

Time to thin the little beasties. You can see they are a little crowded right now:

I snipped the weakest sprout in each cell at the base with scissors.

They're Alive 2 (The Sequel)

Twelve days and the tomatoes have already sprouted! Amazing.

Red Globes of Goodness

Tomato seeds are planted:

Pink Accordion
Patano Romanesco
Illini Star
Lumpy Red
Cherokee Purple
Copia

I'm looking forward to the striped Copia and Pink Accordion especially.