Garden 2015: Tomatoes and Potatoes, oh my

I have a few green things in my garden, yea! I got a really late start on lettuce this year, but I was surprised to see some green onions coming up in the lettuce patch already. I forgot that I put a few in last fall. Two of my Swiss Chard plants came back up, but they were pretty beaten up looking, so all that's left now are the stems which could still be used for stir fry or soup.

Lettuce & surprise green onions

I setup a trash can to plant potatoes in as I discussed previously in this post. I'm not sure how many seasons this plastic can will last since it's got to be the cheapest plastic can ever made. It's pretty thin plastic, but at least it's holding up so far. I drilled drainage holes all over the bottom and about 6" up on the bottom sides. Since I don't really have patio space for the can, I dug out a big hole in my raised garden bed to set the can in. Then I used the soil mixed with compost, vermiculite, and peat moss to fill the can. I have extra soil in my wheelbarrow that will get added to the can with every 6" of plant growth. In theory the potatoes will grow upwards and fill the can with produce. We'll see about that.

High Mowing Organic Rose Finn Fingerling Potato

Organic German Butterball Potato

The trash can has High Mowing Organic Rose Finn Fingerling Potatoes growing in it now. I also planted Organic German Butterball Potato outside in the raised bed just in case the trash can potato thing doesn't pan out.

Organic German Butterball Potatoes... looking good so far! 

High Mowing Organic Rose Finn Fingerling Potato
and what looks like a ton of volunteer tomatoes.

The tomatoes that I started indoors are about 7" tall now. They've been outside hardening this week, so I'll be transplanting them in the garden very soon. I planted Amish Paste and Black Krim Tomatoes. I had a few extra plants, so I gave a Krim to my sister-in-law to try out. Some folks seem skeptical of black tomatoes, but I feel like I've raved about this variety a ton. It's one of my favorite tomatoes for eating. The paste tomatoes are typically what I use for my salsa.

Our new doggie Tuna Fish Joe loves to smell the tomato plants!

A few other things are coming up now too: Kale, Swiss Chard, Lettuce, & Carrots. I don't think my parsnips germinated again this year which is a shame because I LOVE parsnips.

Kale, my husband's arch nemesis... that & sweet potatoes.