I’m really getting behind on my Back Forty updates because I’ve spent my time actually working in the Back Forty. Well, not all of it. But enough that I was pretty sore today.

I don’t think that I mentioned that I received my order from Pinetree on Thursday. That meant that I gave up on the old pepper seeds that didn’t germinate and planted in their places Pimento peppers, Alma Paprika peppers, and Violetta Artichokes. It also meant that I had my awesome new oriental garden tool to dig and plant with. It turned out that it was not magic, though. I think that my straight forked weeder will still be the best tool for wild onions and dandelions. But the oriental tool makes a great trowel!

Weeding, for the most part, makes me happy. That’s a good thing, since I let so many weeds go to seed in the late summer and fall last year. I concentrated on keeping my community garden row neat, not the garden at my house! I’ll bet that by the time the mosquitoes make their appearance I won’t be so appreciative of the task of weeding. It serves a therapeutic need for me, though. I can lose myself in weeding. It’s another reason why I guess I’m not the permaculture poster girl. I know the value of a lot of these weeds, but the OC side of me has a problem with them. I still have a gracious plenty of them - I’m not that obsessive.

I transplanted a lot of my seedlings this weekend. Most of them went in the ground, and I planted more peas as well. The cardoons went into the space between the red cherry bush and the hydrangea. I’ve got to remember to take a before photo because I think that this particular area will look stunning in a few months. Cardoon seedlings have been a problem for me - none of my cardoon or artichoke seedlings made it last summer. This year I’m putting soda bottles over the seedlings at night to protect them from whatever ate them or dug them up last year. In the morning I have to remember to take the bottles off so that they don’t cook.

The heat has given me a bumper crop of lettuce and salad greens and I’ll be giving them away all week. I’ve been keeping the greenhouse door open during the day so that they don’t die of the heat. They are beautiful.

I added a sage plant to the herb garden, which I really need more than ever for the recipes in my Tuscan cookbooks. I think that my tarragon needs replacing too. Dragoncello, Carmen called it. I just love that word.

The tomato seedlings have been out on the deck in the warm weather, and they were getting way too big for their containers, so I repotted all of them on Sunday. I decided to go ahead and put most of the canning tomatoes into the big pots that will be their permanent homes on the south side of the house. For now, the pots are in the greenhouse and on the deck. If the weather takes a sudden dive, it won’t be hard to set the ones now on the deck on the cement blocks in the greenhouse. I think that they’ll do fine there when I’m gone next week if I can get my dear husband to water them once or twice.

As I sat on the deck yesterday afternoon next to the remaining tomato seedings, I counted inventory. Gack.

Brandywine - 11
Mortgage Lifter - 3
Pineapple - 14

These are the known big ones. Yikes! I’m giving some away. But that’s not all:

Heirloom mix - 17

I have no idea what these will be, which makes it fun. I’ll give some of these away too, if I can find takers.

Yellow Pear - 3

I only need one, so I found a home for one, and I’ll give away the other if there’s a taker. Canners:

Amish Paste - 18

12 of these are in big plastic pots that I trashpicked off the street.

Roma - 3

All in big pots. If I don’t have a marker in a big pot saying that it’s Roma, then it’s Amish Paste.

That totals up to 69 tomato plants. Good God, y’all. I thought I went overboard last year, when I had more planting space and less plants. I had tomatoes totally covering my counter space.

I was outside after dark zipping up the greenhouse against marauding raccoons, and it was so beautiful. Really, it may not be the greenest time, but this time of year in my garden is the most precious to me. I can just sit and gaze out over it for hours and be content.

I’ll try to add photos to this post tomorrow. I’m sure that I’ve forgotten something important so I’ll add that too if it comes back to me.