Tomato Planting Time

Grant called yesterday. He was taking a break from planting seedling tomatoes in his garden. It was January 4. How can that be right? Well, the rascal lives in Tucson. He has built raised beds in his back yard and brought in good soil to fill them. He has a cold frame, too, and is eating arugula harvested from it.

Here’s the Tucson weather forecast:

Here’s the Baldwin weather forecast:

So, how do I feel about this? I’m happy for the kid and wish him well. If he’s able to produce tomatoes in Tucson, Arizona my hat’s off to him. I know a guy who has been trying to grow tomatoes in Phoenix for 30 years and hasn’t harvested one tomato. I’m curious about how Grant’s venture will work out. I admire him for trying. There’s nothing like a homegrown tomato.

I hadn’t given planting tomatoes a thought this year, but Grant’s venture has inspired me to look forward to our tomato-planting season. Maybe it’s time to go the basement and sort through my seed collection. Maybe I'll do some seed viability tests to determine which seeds to discard. Maybe I’ll pull out the seed catalogs that started showing up in the mail before Christmas this year. It isn’t too soon to select the vegetables I want to start indoors from seed.

These activities will keep me from thinking about tonight’s predicted record low of -10º F. Maybe. Or maybe I’ll book a flight to Tucson.

Copyright 2013 by Shirley Domer