Let's Get Crazy

It's been awhile since I could honestly claim to be in the throes of The Tomato Crazy. But I think this year might be the year.

Sunday night I planted out five quite large tomato plants that were too big for the box in the kitchen anymore. A. prepared a very nice spot for them. He divided half of the more-sheltered backyard garden into what he calls "flooding cells." They're square and have berms of earth all around the sides, to hold the water so he can just put the hose in there and, well, flood it.

We found that this is the only way to ensure tomatoes get enough water in our somewhat arid climate. Sprinklers don't cut it.

In addition to those five, I have seven more plants that aren't big enough to go outside. So that's a total of a dozen tomato plants. With the possibility of more from the giant Sysco Roma tomato seeds I asked Cubby to shove into an empty seed-starting container. Those are just starting to sprout.

Okay, so it's a far cry from the 120 seedlings I ended up with one year at Blackrock, but I'm still pretty excited to have those dozen+. And if I can actually get them to produce (unlike last year), that could well be a large quantity of tomatoes.

Dare I say maybe even a shitload? Yes, I dare. And dare I say that I'm even looking forward to sweating copiously in the kitchen while I can jar upon jar of homegrown tomatoes? Yes, I dare say even that. (Though I'm sure there will be some complaining right about August if that does come to pass.)

In addition to the tomatoes, I have way more pepper plants than I was anticipating having. The first planting was so slow to come up that I planted some more. And then, as I might have expected, they all came up. Mostly thanks to the heating pad I put under them.

So now I have eight bell pepper plants in pots, plus the paprika peppers the MiL sent us are just starting to come up now. There are two of those so far, with a possibility of three more to come.

So there, again, we're going to have about a dozen plants. And again, I am excited. Bell peppers are one of those things I always buy when I get to a store, but they're kind of expensive and, well, almost 100 miles away. If I can manage to have dozens of bell peppers right in my backyard? I will be living the dream.

Maybe that's not everyone's dream. And maybe I'm crazy, but it's a kind of crazy I'm willing to live with.