Tomatoes and Peppers in Baltimore - Lets Do This

[NeedleCast]

Thanks to an unusually mild winter here in Maryland, and weather forecasts that seem to be calling for more of the same, I'm going to get going a little early this year. I'm also going to try and keep a running log of my gardening this year as well.

First, thanks to NRaleighLiberal who sent me some of his heirloom seeds to supplement my own this year. My friends and I can't wait to see what his seeds produce. Also, thanks to my friend Sean who owns his own land-scaping business for the free large containers.

This year, I'm not involved in a community garden. I'll miss it, but as I'm still commuting 3 hours a day, the added time and driving to get to the community garden was becoming too much for me, especially since it doesn't have a dedicated source of water and I was hauling a dozen two gallon cat litter jugs back and forth with me all summer last year. So this year, everything will go in my back yard, which will hopefully give me more time to dedicate to each plant.

I expanded my in ground home planter this year to 11'x6' and my lovely fiance has allowed me to use "that crappy spot with no grass" as well, so this year the hope is to plant the following:

One eight foot row of green beans in raised box planter.

Five various bell pepper varieties in raised box planter.

Six hot pepper plants in in-ground planter (two each of Jalepeno, Serrano and Thai chilies, possibly one super-hot variety of habanero)
*This year there will be a focus on hot peppers we will eat or use in sauces/salsas as opposed to a lot of ultra-hot peppers to challenge my co-workers/amuse myself with.*

One "eight-ball" squash, one zucchini in "that crappy spot with no grass."

Five tomato plants in in-ground planter.

Seven or Eight tomato plants in 5 to 10 gallon containers.

Tomato varieties haven't been 100% selected yet, but I'll post them when I get it all worked out.

[HopeHoops]

1. We just posted our order with Johnny's last night. I'm kind of pissed - out of blue potatoes.

I might be able to find some at the local garden store. I got another variety.

[NeedleCast]

2. Wish I Had Room For Potatoes!

Baltimore row houses don't give me much of an option for bigger stuff like that. If it looks like we'll still be in this house next year as well, I think maybe it will be time to build a privacy fence instead of this chain-link one we have now and I'd be more comfortable planting things that don't have long runners or need extended space.

[HopeHoops]

3. We've only got a 25x4' potato bed, but it keeps us supplied through most of the winter.

We just used the last of them this past week. The harvest was okay, but a little light.

[NeedleCast]

4. Heh, I don't think I have 25 feet in any direction

Actually our back yard is probably about 35' bx 20' but about 4' of the width is dedicated to my finance's flowers. The deck extends 9 feet from the house, so we a quarter of our length to the deck, and another 4' or so on the opposite side to our (one) tree and garbage/recycling area. The biggest problem tends to be the chain link fence and keeping things from shooting out runners into our neighbors yard. She's a nice lady who mostly indulges the tomato branches that end up running through the fence (because we give her lots of tomatoes and herbs) but I don't want to push it too far.

Last year I had a 50'x30' community garden for big, spreading stuff like cantaloupe and squash but it ended up being more work than I was prepared for and when the heat of July hit, a lot of it died just because I couldn't get up to water every day.

So for now it's tomatoes and pepper and a few other things here and there. But someday potatoes will be on the list!

[HopeHoops]

5. We've got .42 of an acre and four 25' beds plus a 16' raised herb box. All are 4' wide except for..

... the perennial bed which is just over 10' wide. Oh, then there's an 8' square strawberry bed with catnip in the center. We also have a shitload of window boxes and pots with all kinds of stuff in them including a chive colony that's been alive for 25 years and in five different houses over that time. We get a lot of our food from the garden. During the summer, it's almost 100% at times.

[NeedleCast]

6. That Would Be A Very Good Amount of Space For Me

That's about what I'd like to have at some point. Right now I've got an 11'x6' in ground planter (with a 15" high flagstone wall around it) and a 8'x4' raised box. This year I'm supplementing that with about a dozen 5 to 10 gallon containers. I've got two blueberry and two raspberry bushes outside the planters and I'll probably be able to put two squash plants directly in the ground near the beds (and cross my fingers the dog doesn't dig them up) but that pretty much takes up all the space that my soon to be wife is willing to give me.

I did buy a dozen wooden wine boxes from a local liquor store and am gong to hang them off the rails of my deck, so all herbs are going to move to nice, orderly containers this year.

In our current house I don't think we'd ever be able to hit a sustainability level garden but over the course of a year it probably saves us many hundreds of dollars in produce cost. I figure a packet of tomatoes seeds that I pay 3.95 for will produce 25-50 dollars worth of tomatoes in a season, so that's a good trade.

[HopeHoops]

7. Where in Bal'mer do you live? (I grew up in Mer-lan)

[NeedleCast]

8. Parkville area nearish to Towson

I've been in the Balto-DC metro area for about 10 years. Originally stationed in DC in 98 when I was in the Army. I was there until 2000, gone to Korea/Afghanistan for about 15 months. Got out, back to D.C. Got recalled 18 months later and spent a year in Tampa and then back to the Arlington/Alexandria/Falls Church area until 2010. Found a great gal in B-more and at the time I was renting and she owned so it made more sense to move in with her than the other way around.

Baltimore can be an, ummm, adventure to live in at times, but I feel like if I can live here, I can successfully vacation in Somalia.

I'm originally from Austin, TX and it's really only been in the last few years that I've become accustomed to and even started to like these things ya'll call "seasons."

[HopeHoops]

10. I'm about an hour and a quarter north of you. We haven't had a winter this year.

I know the Bal'mer, Worshington, and Vaginia areas very well. I lived there from birth to when I was 22. I did a two-year stint in Reston for a job ten or so years ago. It has really changed.

[NeedleCast]

12. No winter here either

We got more snow in October (quarter inch) than we did in February (zero). Crazy, but I'm not complaining (other than the parts about why an entire season averaged temperatures 5-8 degrees above normal and what that says about climate change and the potential for a devastating summer).

[Denninmi]

9. Any Whole Foods near you?

The one about a quarter mile from my office almost always has organic blue potatoes. I got some really large ones there a couple of years ago to use as seed potatoes, and they have been the best blue potatoes I've ever grown. Not small like many of them are, some of these grow to be the size of a decent Idaho Russet.

[HopeHoops]

11. No. I had one nearby when I worked in Reston, but that was a long time ago.

I might be able to score some from the local garden store. Otherwise we'll just live without this year. We've done that a few times in the past 20 years, but not often. They make the prettiest mashed potatoes ever.

[NeedleCast]

13. Okay, Tomatoes and Peppers Seeds Are Planted

I hate this part. I've got about 20 2" starting pots sitting below the south facing window in my bedroom as of late yesterday afternoon. Spent the next six hours before bedtime wandering into the bedroom every 15 minutes to see if anything had germinated yet. When Melissa and I went to bed she asked me "are you going to be able to sleep with those little pots in here? Will you be checking them every 5 minutes, because if you are, I'm going to the spare bedroom." I did manage to make it through the night without checking on the pots.

I'm going to hold off a week or two for the larger, quicker growing beans and squash. Since it's supposed to be in the mid 60's here again today, I might get the herbs done when I get home today.

[NeedleCast]

14. Seedlings Coming Up for Tomatoes and Peppers

As we continue to experience unseasonably warm weather here in the Baltimore area, things are going great. Most of the week will be in the mid to upper 70s and we hit 81 yesterday.

All of my tomato seedlings are up and doing good. They are outside today, as we're expecting lots of sun and temps in the mid to upper 70s. While I could probably transplant them now, I remain a little worried about a late March or early April cold snap.

Seven kinds of herbs and squash got planted planted last night.

Pictures as soon as I can.