Spring Update: The Little Tomato Seedling That Could
Friday, May 6, 2011 at 4:53PM 
The garden is making steady progress, now that the weather is warming. Leafy greens are coming in strong, along with a handful of French breakfast radishes and a ton of volunteer mint. My Fun Jen frilly bok choy is thriving, it'll be a good year for stir fries. My carrots and quinoa have started to sprout, and my Brussels sprouts are really starting to leaf out. In the herb bin, little is sprouting, but I transplanted my one successful lemon balm seedling, and my one successful parsely, which are both doing just fine. Cilantro is coming up strong, and I think I spotted one or two dill sprouts. Fingers crossed!
I've pulled about a dozen volunteer gourd seedlings out of the garden. Not that I wouldn't want another group of bird house gourds to carve as gifts for Christmas, but the plants are enormous and I have no room for them, as I'm hoping to grow pumpkins in their place.
Today I transplanted three of my strongest tomato seedlings outside, as they were getting to large for the indoor seeding station.
About two weeks ago, I was acclimating my tomatoes to the outdoors when I accidentally snapped the largest one clean in half at the base of the stem, leaving it hanging on by a thread of green. Unwilling to let my strongest seedling die due to sheer clumsiness, I quickly burried the plant up to the first set of leaves. I had hope, as I remembered from last year that as I was pruning lower branches from my tomato plants, I noticed a large branch I had cut had fallen cut side down into the soil and was rooting itself. Sure enough, two weeks later, the tomato is doing just fine. Plants are shockingly tough. I suppose they have to be to survive in the ridiculous weather with constant animal assaults.
Spring, Tomatoes in Pre-Frost Crops, vegetable gardening 
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