The snow is melting, and my 2022 garden planning continues...

Marlin and Koda - looking at Marlin’s ghostly doppelganger, perhaps?

Let’s take a break from my Seed Collection and Off The Vine blog series and get serious about my 2022 garden plans. I will be starting seeds in a month, so this is certainly timely.

Here goes! To put this in perspective, I had 109 tomato plants and dozens of pepper and eggplants. The plan below represents the first major reduction in garden size in decades.

10 straw bales for tomatoes, 2 tomatoes per bale (not specific as to which tomato in which bale yet!).

The 20 indeterminate tomatoes.

Cherokee Purple - flavor favorite

Cherokee Chocolate - flavor favorite

Cherokee Green - flavor favorite

Polish - flavor favorite

Lucky Cross - flavor favorite

Captain Lucky - been on my list for years - a find from Lucky Cross sent by a friend

Estler’s Mortgage Lifter - searching for the real deal, trying seed from Neil Lockhart

Yellow Family heirloom, sent to me this off season

“Mary’s Heirloom” - family heirloom sent to me off season

“World War II” - family heirloom sent to me off season (maybe)

JD Special C Tex, potato leaf variant, sent to me off season (maybe)

Glory F1 hybrid which I created on film last year - Dester X Dwarf Gloria’s Treat

Cherokee Purple X Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom F2 - potato leaf selection (3 of them)

Blue’s Bling X Polish F2, potato leaf variegated selections (2 of them)

Blue’s Bling X Little Lucky F2, potato leaf variegated selections (3 of them)

The two with “maybe” above could end up substituted with other varieties. We shall see.

5 gallon grow bag - 1 in front of each of the 15 bales - 15 tomatoes

Lilly family (Lillian’s Yellow X Speckled Heart) F2 dwarf selections, potato leaf (3 plants)

Lucky family (Lucky Cross X Buddy’s Heart), F2 dwarf selections, potato leaf (2 plants)

Blingy family (Blue’s Bling X Dwarf Mocha’s Cherry), F2 dwarf selections with variegation and antho (2 plants)

Moby family (Cancelmo Family X Moby’s Cherry) - F2 dwarf selection (1 plant)

Crossy family (Lucky Cross X Mocha’s Plum), F2 dwarf with potato leaf and antho (1 plant)

Plummy family (Lillian’s Yellow X Mocha’s Plum), F2 dwarf with potato leaf and antho (2 plants)

Donny family (Don’s Double Delight X Mocha’s Plum), F2 dwarf with potato leaf and antho (2 plants)

Misty family (Mr. Snow X Mocha’s Plum), F2 dwarf with potato leaf and antho (if I can find it!) (1 plant)

Dwarf Coastal Pride (my garden friend Mike thinks this needs to be in my garden - so, here it is!)

Again - substitutions could happen depending upon germination results. It is clear that the focus this year is on finding interesting things from recent crosses.

5 gallon grow bag - 2 next to the bean and squash bale group - 4 tomatoes

Suzy F4 dwarf with fuzzy pink fruit (1 plant)

Fuzzy purple fruit (1 plant)

Fuzzy pink fruit (1 plant)

Variegated Micro (1 plant)

The last three above may be switched out - they can go into grow bags in a different location.

5 gallon pots near the driveway area fence - these are all cherry types, most sent by garden friends as unusual finds - 8 tomatoes

Egg Yolk potato leaf

Egg Yolk red fruited variant

Fruit yellow cherry

Fruity orange cherry

Suzy’s Wild Red

Suzy’s, orange variant

Sun Gold hybrid - flavor favorite

Egg Yolk - flavor favorite

The above adds up to 47 tomatoes - 28 indeterminate, 16 dwarfs and 3 ???

Five straw bales for eggplants and peppers (5 of each)

I will focus on my Orient Express and Islander selections for these.

This will prove to be a very interesting set of plants. There will be less sure things, however!

Marlin looking for attention in the morning (as usual)

Watching the snow blow, the dogs nap - and thinking of 2022 in the garden

Hendersonville winter wonderland, morning of Jan 17, after 10 inches of snow

My blog has been busy, with two series running in parallel - a “reprinting” of Off The Vine, the newsletter Carolyn Male and I published way back in the early 1990s for three years, and a review of my seed collection, starting with tomato number 1, 10 tomatoes at a time. I hope to one each weekly.

In between, I will be using this blog more frequently as a sort of garden diary/log. Each year in the garden is, of course, very different. Working through my gardening history through my seed collection and that newsletter gives me the impression of my gardening experiences as a big arc. I dabbled, starting in 1981, then things really ramped up with the growth of my collection, and garden size, due to excitement in joining the Seed Savers Exchange. The steep part of the arc, the upward slope, also included dipping into the USDA seed collection, selling seedlings, the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project, writing and publicizing (though many traveled-to workshop and podcasts) Epic Tomatoes and Growing Vegetables in Straw Bales, culminating with the work with Joe Lamp’l on the all video on-line course Growing Epic Tomatoes, work with Seedlinked (the collections), and using Instagram Live to take folks “into my garden” with me.

A few days from turning 66, settled into Hendersonville in a more rural setting with more outdoor activity possibilities, and having great satisfaction of all of the wonderful fellow gardeners I’ve met and tomato varieties I’ve grown, it seems a perfect time for the arc of my efforts to be on the downward slope. Things already seem simpler; departing from Facebook and Twitter, ending my newsletter, and focusing on Instagram and my blog (and of course, email) really take the load off of my communication efforts. The time saved will be dedicated to finishing the Dwarf Tomato Project book, and, perhaps, further books, titles and topics to be determined (these are the types of things I ponder as I hike in the beautiful surrounding parks).

As far as the garden in 2022, much of the Dwarf Tomato Project remaining heavy lifting will be done by those who expressed interest and now have seeds to grow, as well as those long time volunteers who still have the fire to continue. The course, Growing Epic Tomatoes, will relaunch soon, but with most of the filming done last year, the demands will be much lighter. My garden will be significantly smaller and simpler, as I am happy to garden vicariously through the efforts of others, recipients of so many seed samples over the last few months.

My ideal present and future will have less obligations, less dates in the calendar, more freedom for Sue and I do drop what we are doing and go for a hike, or a day trip. I am really lucky - I’ve never regretted any endeavor I’ve taken on (post my less than wonderful 25 years in the corporate world!). In fact, everything associated with gardening throughout my life has been an absolute delight, and I expect that to continue, because it will be highly targeted for particular objectives. For me, it has always been about learning, teaching, and sharing. It always will be.

I’ve begun thinking about what I want to grow this coming gardening season. There will be straw bales with summer squash and bush snap beans. There will be straw bales with tomatoes, and perhaps, bell peppers and eggplants - but less than in previous years. There will be less containers, less plants to keep track of. Each plant will have a reason behind growing it that I will make clear in this year’s blogs and Instagram posts. It’ll be lots of fun - we’ll have a blast!

Jan 17 AM view off the back deck - flower garden is under a snow blanket