With the Earthboxes on the way I planted our first tomato plants this morning (indoors) to get them started for when the boxes arrive. The plants are Emerald Evergreen tomatoes from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co..
From their catalog:
“Medium-large fruit that stay “evergreen”. This heirloom variety was introduced by Glecklers Seedsmen around 1950. The large plants set heavy yields of these beauties having lovely lime-green color. The flavor is rich and superbly sweet. It’s one of the best. A popular market variety, now being sold in many upscale stores.”
The other plants we’ll be planting are:
- Early Prolific Straightneck. “45 days. AAS Winner from 1938, uniform lemon yellow, club-shaped fruit, firm flesh is of excellent quality, tasty.”
- Cocozella di Napoli. “55 days. Long, slender fruit, ribbed, pale greenish-yellow, striped with dark green, very firm and flavorful flesh, a unique Italian heirloom, tasty.”
- Quadrato d’Asti Rosso. “80 days. Very thick, brilliant red flesh, the fruit are huge with delicious rich-sweet taste. Excellent for frying, salads or stuffing, one of the largest red bells, beautiful and blocky, The perfect pepper for home and market growers, produces large yields. Very popular with many fine markets in Italy. Superb!”
- Fine Verde Basil. “Very small, fine leaves on compact bushes; great for containers. Perfect rich, spicy basil flavor that Italians love.”
- Italian Sweet Basil. This one I picked up at the store and grew some in containers on the window sill with mixed results. I’ll try it in the Earthbox to see if it does better.
- Genovese Basil. “The famous Italian heirloom is very popular with many cooks. “
- Little Gem Lettuce. “Very small green romaine-type, one of the very best tasting lettuces. A superb heat tolerant variety that is sure to please! “
We plan to stagger planting times and when the weather starts to turn cooler we’ll plant cool weather crops. We may also use row covers to extend the season longer in the Fall/Winter months. Of course we’ll be posting pictures. Our small porch won’t be able to produce a whole lot but it should be interesting to see how much we can grow and how well the plants grow in that location. Hopefully we’ll be able to keep the squirrels at bay!
