After last year’s depressing tomato experience, I promised myself I wouldn’t jump the gun this year. But after a week of gorgeous 70-80 degree days at the end of March, the tomato bug bit me. (As did the pepper bug. But not as hard.) I sure hope they survive the spring, because I went a little nuts…


Left to right: Anaheim, Inferno, and Sweet Banana peppers; San Francisco Fog, Early Girl, and Garden Peach tomatoes; Juliet (grape) tomatoes, Lemon Drop tomatoes, and Red Cherry peppers; Juliet (again), Sunsugar, and Sweet Pea Currant tomatoes.

I’m positive I’m trying to put too many plants in each of these pots. But I love the idea of having so many different types of tomatoes. With the exception of the Early Girls, which I grew last year (not very well) and the Juliet grapes, which I think are what I grew the year before that were SO GOOD, all of these are new to me. In theory they’re a mix of medium sized tomatoes and cherries. As for the peppers, I did grow a red cherry variety last year, but the others are new. I’m still planning to plant one more pot—Habaneros and Caribbean Hot peppers, both favorites from last year—but I haven’t been able to find them yet. Maybe this weekend.

I’m also growing Swiss chard, and it’s doing much better than last year. Hopefully that’s a good omen for the tomatoes and peppers!

The big pot contains six plants that I planted in February, and it’s been yielding enough for me to eat sauteed chard about once a week. The small pot contains three plants leftover from last year. Geoff was up behind the house, where we tossed last year’s used soil, and noticed them poking up out of the ground! They’re obviously much smaller but are producing some nice tender leaves, and I love the fact that they appeared out of nowhere. (Last year’s chives also made a surprise return. I’ve replanted them in the flower bed, next to last year’s mint that has also risen from the dead.)

It’s been about two weeks since I planted the tomatoes and peppers, and even though the weather hasn’t been as warm as it was when I made the snap decision to sow my crops, they are growing. I took the pictures below on Wednesday. By today, all but the Lemon Drop and Sweet Pea Currant plants have just about reached the first rung of the tomato cages, and all the tomato plants except for the Juliets are starting to grow flowers. I watered them with Miracle Grow this morning, so here’s hoping for a growth spurt!



Tomato madness aside, here’s how we really know it’s spring:

The mother mallard has been living in the back yard since February, using the pool as her own personal pond. On Thursday—about two weeks after Rosy’s daily ritual of whining and yipping at the duck swimming in the pool had ceased being cute and started to get really annoying—the proud mama rounded up her thirteen (!!) babies and herded them off to a new life wherever it is that mallard moms and babies waddle off to in the spring. This year’s daring escape was far less, err, daring than in past years. They completely bypassed the pool and were already heading for the locked back gate by the time we saw them. (It was actually Rosy who noticed them on the move. Then we put her inside the house. Life is so unfair!)

Attempting to open the gate caused the babies to huddle against the wire fence, which caused half of the brood to fall through the wire fence and get stuck in the culvert between our yard and our neighbors’ yard. Two years ago Geoff built ramps with two-by-fours to help the babies up the steps; last year he scooped them up in the pool net. This year he just cut a hole in the fence. Mom and the remaining babies hopped down, and the peeping family forged their way up the neighbor’s grassy yard, never to be seen again.

Until next year, of course, when the mom comes back and starts pooping in the pool again. But I digress. Tomatoes! Woo!