Eli, age 1 month. The eyes are still blue! He is growing by the way and we are so lucky that we get to see it all happen.

I’ve been quiet, but quite busy behind the scenes. This brief blog is a status update, and includes the first thoughts on my gardens this year. Above you see our grandson Eli at age 1 month. Later today he will pay us a visit. We really enjoy our babysitting duties!

I’ve buckled down a bit (finding energy hasn’t been easy, but warmer days and returning to some hiking is helping considerably.

Betts and me walking on the closed Blue Ridge Parkway with Looking Glass Rock and John Rock in the background

I am pleased to say that I’ve worked through all gardening emails. There was quite a backlog, and most take some time to think through answers to the gardening issues presented to me. My plan is to do better keeping up.

Next - fulfilling seed requests. That starts as soon as I post this blog. I am aiming to do 25 or more per day, which means getting through them all will take a week. Not everyone is going to get what they asked for - the Captain family (Sun Gold F1 X Captain Lucky - F1 or F2 seeds) in particular are not at all plentiful. There will be more to share after this year. If the seeds come a bit late for some, I apologize - it takes a real rev up of energy and discipline to dig in, due to the complexity of my seed collection. Better late than never - and the seed will be good for many years.

Finally - for this blog - just a list of what I hope to plant.

Tomatoes for our back yard - Sun Gold F1, Rosella Cherry, Chrerokee Purple X Potato Leaf Yellow F1 (created by my friend Alex), Captain Lucky, Cherokee Green, Potato Leaf Yellow, Sun Gold F1 X Captain Lucky F1 (Captain family), Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Chocolate, Earl, Lucky Cross, Polish, Brandywine, Nepal, Mexico Midget, OTV Brandywine, Dester, Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, Polish Bling, Lucky Bling, Mary’s Favorite, Dwarf Gloria’s Treat, Captain F2 - number of plants TBD - as well as any chartreuse variegated I find from Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy F2, some variegated plants from Dwarf Choemato X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy, Dwarf Blazing Beauty X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy, and perhaps something from the F2 from Cherokee Purple X (Dwarf Choemato X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy) F2. All of this is subject to some change. I was pondering 10 strawbales, 2 plants each, with some containers.

Also in my back yard - 4 eggplants, 4 peppers, 3 types of bush beans, cucumber Deli Star F1, 2 Summer Squash plants, a few rows of sweet corn in strawbales - various lettuce/greens, scallions, chard - and whatever else I find seeds for that I can tuck in here and there. I will plant some petunia, zinnia and verbena seeds for our flower gardens.

Then - for Jason and Caitlin’s garden, I would like to set plants of heirlooms sent to me by garden friends over the last few years - tomato varieties Pale Perfect Purple, Valdichiana, Hart’s, Vine, Green/Gold Purple, Abraham Lincoln, German Splash, Big Barney, WV 23, Boho, Giant Crimson, Limbaugh Legacy, Red/Yellow, German Heirloom - and I would love to get a good growing of Halladay’s and Mullen’s Mortgage Lifters, McCutcheon and TBT.

I’d love to do some crossing with fuzzy leaf tomatoes, so may try to squeeze a few plants of those in (I have a variety to choose from - we don’t have any fuzzy leaf dwarfs yet).

As far as upcoming events - I will be speaking at a SC master garden event on Feb 22, doing a March 6 Zoom for a Pittsburgh PA library, in Greenville talking straw bales and containers on March 12, and at the Veterans Healing Farm talking the same on March 29.

As far as Instagram Lives - I will be doing the occasional one very soon, and they will become more regular once I get to seed starting. I may even pop in and do one later today. Maybe.

All of this should keep me out of trouble for a few months!

Last comment - please check out my Instagram Linktree, on my profile - I have quite a few of my Zoom talks linked on there you can watch whenever you wish. The only thing you don’t get is me live!