New Gardening Mentor: Darwin

Looks like my plants survived the night, with the possible exception of a Santa Sweet tomato plant that still looks woozy.

I'm giving up on that one. I have a strong Santa Sweet hanging and another one in a pot, and if this one croaks, to hell with it. I'll put a better one in its bucket. Besides, I can get three pounds of Santa Sweets at Costco for five bucks.

This one was in an inverted bucket, sticking up from the bottom. I had it like that because the dirt in the bucket was too wet, and I was waiting for it to dry before hanging the bucket with the plant at the bottom. But screw it. I just put it on a hook. If it dies, it dies.

Mike was upset because my beans are so manly and robust and his are so pathetic and wimpy. I had no idea it was possible to grow bad beans. Mine are three weeks old, and the vines are up to my waist. They're so free of disease and damage they look like nursery plants. In fact, they're getting ahead of my efforts to train them. They're starting to wind around each other, and I'm being forced to unwind them and Velcro them to the trellis.

I'm going to have about ten yellow flowers on my bell pepper. They're starting to open. I can't believe how dark the leaves are. I think I stuck two Jobe's tomato fertlizer stakes in that bucket. I wish I had taken notes. Now when I put a plant in a bucket, I take a Sharpie and put notes on the side of it.

I just hung a big Cherokee Chocolate that got hammered in the rain. The dirt in the bucket was wet, but I had some spare dirt, so I replaced about a third of the wet dirt with dry. Hope that one takes off.

The tomatoes that have me the most excited are Cherokee Chocolate, Mortgage Lifter, Kentucky Beefsteak, and Dr. Wyche's. They seem like they'd be most like the tomatoes I miss. I also have a Brandywine going but it's going to take forever to catch up, and it's my understanding that they hate Florida. The Santa Sweets are just for fun, and the Beefmasters are for backup. I also have a tomato I grew from free seed: "Marianne's Peace." What kind of weirded-out hippie names a tomato "Peace"? That one creeps me out a little. But I'll try to find a place for it.

I guess things are going pretty good, considering how weird my methods are and that I refused to wait for the season. Since I started with seed, and I planted two months before the season, I'm actually right on schedule.

I can't wait for those first beans. If those work, I'll be sold on gardening permanently.