Peppers, Tomatoes, And Peas

So far, this is what I have planted. 2 72-cell trays of mostly peas. It is not everything I am planting this year but these are the ones that I need to start this early based on my growing zone. Last year my focus was mainly on tomatoes. It was my first year gardening really and I didn't know much about it but once I got bit by the bug, I became slightly obsessed. Its really wild how little the majority of people know about their food and where it comes from. Personally, I love tomatoes so that is what I wanted to grow. It just seems like tomatoes are everywhere in soups, pizzas, salads, and sauces. Of course since it was something new to me, I had to try out many different kinds. I found out that is very common for new gardeners, they become so curious and they want to grow everything with out being great at growing a certain vegetable. I did this but with different varieties of tomatoes. I was disorganized in the beginning which lead to all of my seedlings getting mixed up and I was able to track which variety was what until they started producing fruit and even then it was pretty hard to tell which plant was what in some cases. This year I am taking a much more organized approach and instead of doing mainly tomatoes, I am going for a variety of vegetables that my family is buying weekly at our local grocery. We eat a ton of tomatoes and green peppers in our cooking. I also planted a couple other large tomato varieties that are not pictured here because they don't have pretty little seed packs with pictures so I left them out but the other varieties are Black Krim, Pineapple, and regular Beefsteak tomatoes. Last year I had grown too many cherry tomatoes and this year I wanted larger tomatoes because although cherry tomatoes are great for snacking on, they are not ideal for cooking or for large LB yields. I chose the super sweet 100 hybrid for 2 reasons. 1, it is a super prolific growing and has massive clusters of tomatoes like the picture shows and 2, I was not able to find a sweet million seed pack at stores around here so I settled for super sweet 100. The other tomato pictured here is a mortgage lifter. The seed packet says that the fruits average 2.5 lbs! That is a massive tomato. Although I don't expect to get avg fruits

I chose 3 varieties of peppers this year. As far as hot peppers go I went for rather mild peppers. Pepperoncini are great tasting and I plan to pickle my extra peppers. Fresh jalapenos are great for taco night and many other dishes that I cook. And of course I had to do sweet peppers because we eat them constantly in everything like tacos, eggs, chili, shakshuka, spaghetti and so much more so it only made sense to do a bunch of them.

As far as peas go, I went with 2 varieties so far this year. I am going hard on peas this year because they are one of the easiest vegetables to grow and they have a large amount of protein in them. I did 2 varieties, the garden peas on top are the "little marvel" type. They will need to be shelled in order to eat them, and then I did the super sugar snap peas. Snap peas are the ones you can pick right off the vine and eat them fresh. I know the kids will really enjoy that!

April Showers Bring May Flowers, Or April Snow... Plants Won't Grow?

Lately we have been having pretty decent weather, with most days being in the 40s or 50s but wouldn't you know it? Right after I plant my seedlings (indoors of course) we get a winter storm warning for the next 3 days and I wake up to this...so far its not much of a storm but rather more of a dusting but if those weather boys are right at all this time then its going to be a pretty big storm with about 10" of snow.

Although its a little bit of a bummer, I know that all this snow will be gone within a week and things will start warming up. I started my seeds a little late anyways because we are currently in transition between houses but I can not wait for the weather to warm up so that I can get my seedlings in the ground next month. I have been waiting all winter for this! Once you get the gardening bug, its hard to get rid of it. Personally, I believe there is almost nothing more worth while as far as labor goes. What do we need to survive? Food, water, and shelter. I think if you spend your time and energy providing any of those 3 things for yourself/ your family then I believe it is time well spent. And its really quite miraculous that one small seed can give you so much food with a little light, nutrients and patience!

Thank you for reading!

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