Lilacs,

One of the things I loved most about our (last) house in Cbus were the lilacs. I had planted lilacs under every window on the first floor. In spring, the fragrance was intoxicating (and probably overwhelming if you're not into lilacs). It was with great dismay that I realized I would probably never be able to sustain a lilac bush here in Toledo. Too much shade. No place I could really put it to even give it enough sun.

So imagine my delight, when today, my birthday, I discovered that the gangly, overgrown bush by the entrance of the house was indeed, a lilac bush. I'm guessing that the previous owners pruned it back at the incorrect time two years ago, resulting in no blooms last year. This year, there are about 6-7 tufts of lilacs. Clearly, the lack of full sun is influencing the bloom, but hell, I'll take whatever I can get. I sacrificed a few sprigs so I could make the kitchen smell like lilacs.

Backyard Gardening...

At the completion of my master gardener training last year, the one piece that I was disappointed in was the small wedge of time that edible gardening (which I will call vegetable, fruit and herb gardening) was allocated. It was about half a day, total, most of which was spent on very, very basic elements of vegetable gardening (starting things from seed, how much light do most vegetables need, etc.). This is not the fault of the program, rather reflective of the large amounts of information and the diverse knowledge of the student population in the master gardener class. I'm sure while I was furiously taking notes on something as foreign to me like, roses, the master rose lady was picking the dirt from her fingernails.

However, I was so excited when I saw an opportunity to specialize in that which I adore the most. Tomorrow, I start the Backyard and Local Foods specialization, which is being offered at a statewide level. It's an 18 month program, where we meet once a month. I'm eager and excited to really learn in a more academic setting about the gardening that I tend to fumble through each year.

It's really hard *not* to sing a song while I write this...

You know which song I'm talking about... It's about pronunciation. And vegetables. And ditching everything. But it seems so cliche that I'm.Not.Going.To.Do.It.

If you are one of my friends whom I pontificate to about tomatoes, the kinds of tomatoes I have, my collection of tomatoes or why everyone should grow tomatoes, I apologize. I really like tomatoes. I know of no other vegetable (or fruit, if you want to be picky) that comes in so many different shapes, sizes, colors, and flavors, aside perhaps from beans, which aren't nearly as interesting to me. Most people that I know have seen a red tomato. Maybe a yellow one. They are familiar with cherry tomatoes and beefsteaks, but that's about the breadth of their tomato knowledge.

At our last house, my record was 15 varieties of tomatoes crammed into my little garden in one summer. I have in my possession over 45 types of tomatoes. I'm in the process of cataloging all of them, so I'm not sure what my current count is, but I'm pretty sure I'm in the upwards of 60 or so varieties. If you are new to tomatoes, you might be interested in Carolyn Male's book 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden, a really interesting look at some of the different variations in tomatoes. My goal is to try all 100 over time.

This year, I have planted:

Paste/plum tomato:

• Amish Paste
• San Marzano (these did not germinate at all. Kind of bummed about it)

Cherry-type tomato:

• Pink Ice - new to me, haven't tried these before, but picked them up at the TBG seed swap
• White Cherry - I'm hoping these are similar to Snow White- one of Miss Things' old favorites
• Black Cherry - beautiful black/red color
• Green Grape - also a new one for me, but I love having cherries in every color.

Regular/Salad tomato:

• Stupice - a really early tomato, 55 days - can't wait to get those puppies going.
• Anna Russian - haven't tried this one before, made the 100 heirloom book though.
• Riesentraube - heavy setter - really looking forward to this one
• Juanne Flamme - beautiful small orange/red tomato - one of Elise's favorites.
• Nyagous - black, baseball sized fruit. A new one for me this year.
• Orange queen - large, orange fruits. This one didn't perform well in columbus, so I'm giving it another shot here.

Mr. H built me a small garden box for the spot in the back of the yard where we do hopefully get enough sun to grow something. Last year's experiment with pots by the driveway was not successful. It is fenced in to keep wildlife like squirrels, deer, racoons and one of our dogs who cleaned out several tomato plants in the last house. I also am borrowing space at a girlfriend's house who is trying gardening for the first time. I figure between the two, I can supply myself with enough fresh veggies for at least the three of us.

The seedlings are doing very well in the sunroom. They probably could be transplanted again before they go into the ground, but I'm not sure I have the room for it.

hmf.

Carnivorous seedlings...

It has been two and a half months since I first planted the Carnivorous Plant Pack, so I thought I would update those dying to know how they were doing.

We stratified half of the seedlings as directed (stratification is the chilling of seeds for a period of time to encourage germination), and planted the other half right away.

Those planted earliest took the longest to germinate. Seriously, like 7 weeks for the seedlings to emerge. I was about to give up on the whole thing and pitch it when I noticed the first ones. Those seedlings are still the smallest, although developing their second set of leaves, and located in the smaller two sections of the planter.

The stratified seeds germinated in about two weeks and are quite large already.

The pack came with the blue rocks for decoration, and the plastic "bog buddies" to eventually entice small insects to our bog. I had no idea that flies like small fake plastic yellow snakes, but what do I know?

The little bit of research I have done suggests that a plant may need to be upwards of 2 years to be able to eat a bug (depending on the plant, of course).

If you click on the picture, I have highlighted where all the seedlings are.

Feed me Seymour...

After the whole date thing, I remembered the package Mr. H had recently received. One of the fun parts of his job is that he gets all sorts of little swag and weird perks. Once, he was sent a remote control car that can go up to 30 mph for filling out a survey. Around the holidays, he was given some credit to a geek store, where he used the credit to get a star-scope thingy (because I like astronomy) and this....

It's a little plastic grow-dome and a whole bunch of carnivorous seeds (edited to add - the seeds aren't carnivorous - that would make things a whole lot more dangerous. The plants they grow into are carnivorous). We had set it aside assuming that we should plant it when it gets a little warmer, but I broke it open today to see what the actual instructions said.

Given the number of varieties, I'm really tempted to try and get a bigger terrerium before I try and plant these. Carnivorous plants are a little persnickety and take care. I haven't grown any before, but I'm really looking forward to it!

And here is my favorite part of the box...

The actual instructions note not to feed your plants actual meat. I don't know if I would consider flies and insects "meat" but I guess they aren't exactly herbacious either.

Some of these plants take up to 3 to 5 years to mature, so we have to be in it for the long haul. They certainly aren't native to this area of the US, so I'm going to have to be careful with them.

Mastah... mastahhhhhhh.....

Today was the second day of master gardener class.

The Master Gardener program trains volunteers in horticulture, who then take those skills and assist in educational programs throughout the state. Run through the land-grant institutions, it works through extension to train people in every county of most states (at least, this is my understanding). Educational programs may include working with community gardens, with organizations such as botanical gardens or zoos, conducting plant informational sessions, working the plant hotline.. etc. etc.

In my case, classes run all day, once a week for nine weeks.

I've been eyeing this program for about 5 years when a former coworker joined the ranks of Master Gardener upon retirement. But I have a casual agreement with myself that I will not pursue more than one serious educational endevour at a time, and the whole doctorate thing won out.

But since I'm between gigs right now, this is a perfect time to get into this - I have the time to offer the 50 hours volunteer time required for your first year as a Master Gardener (after the first year it goes down to 10 or 20).

Today's topic - vegetables in the morning and soil in the afternoon. The veggie topic wasn't anything particularly new for me (Mr H: "What did you expect? You throw yourself into everything"), and I was slightly surprised that more people had not really explored the joys of growing veggies. I collect heirloom tomato varieties, although my collection has suffered due to the limited gardening of last year's move. I'm hoping maybe to get some people talking about their veggies in future meetings.

The soil topic was interesting but my chemistry was never good enough to hold my attention for the conversation on adhesion and cohesion and how it explained that water moves quickly through sand and slowly through clay. The speaker was engaging, but my eyes kept being drawn to the large quantities of snow that kept falling. I still can't believe what a difference 120 miles north makes in climate.