April Dean – amiskwaciwâskahikan/Treaty Six Territory
Mystery Tomatoes!, Italian Heirloom Tomatoes, Yellow Cherry Tomatoes, Black Krim Tomatoes, Purple fountain grass, Sweet grass, Japanese silver grass, Black Hungarian Peppers, Borage, Poppies (summer 2024)
Its currently mid-October, and as I’m cleaning up the garden pots and beds for storage or for hibernation, making piles of leaves and vines for compost or insulation, it’s difficult to think back to last February and the hopefulness of planning out the new year’s garden while looking out at a blanket of frozen snow. I’m not sure what came over me last spring but I went a bit over the top on tomatoes. I started 7 different varieties indoors in early March (a little TOO early!). They germinated in an unheard of FOUR DAYS! I was thinking ahead to another hot dry summer with smoke filled skies and thought tomatoes and peppers would thrive in the heat. After thinning and potting up I had TOO MANY plants and gave so many healthy seedlings away to good gardens. May and June did not deliver the heat of the previous year and it was extremely windy and close to zero degrees overnight well into June. Not favourable tomato weather! After weeks of moving large seedlings in and out of the house each night, I gave up and planted out in late May. I still had a great tomato harvest despite the challenging weather. The Black Krim were very beautiful and dense. The Italian Heirloom grew in wild shapes. The mystery tomatoes turned out to be some kind of roma variety and the hungrian peppers had a wonderful smoky flavour enjoyed in salsas and tacos all summer long. While it wasn’t quite the weather expected the cooler temps and more moisture than the previous year were a huge relief.