Twelve Tomatoes Take a Trip

Like father, like son, my dad and I were both bitten by the vegetable gardening bug last year, and are at it again this year. It seems only appropriate, then, for my father to hand deliver the heirloom tomato seedlings he has been growing from seed. He brought down 12 total, 10 'Cherokee Purples', and 2 'Purple Passions'. I took them, in a tightly packed box on metro north, and then through the streets of Harlem, then to the M60 bus, and finally home in Astoria. Surprisingly, no catastrophes, just curious folks on Metro North and Harlem. Below are pictures of me holding the tomatoes, the seedlings on the bus with the Manhattan skyline in the background, and finally arriving in Astoria.

Waking up in 2010

Here is the garden in mid-March, just as it was starting to wake up! In this picture, I had just planted my cover crop of hairy vetch, field peas and rye. Cover crops are a great way to improve soil quality, and add organic material to your soil. I’ll let the cover crops grow for about two months, then til gently back into the soil.