extended fam

after posting about my tomato tragedy/recovery all over facebook, my friend julia contacted me and asked if i wanted to inherit her two earth boxes because she was moving to a place with less outdoor space and couldn't fit them.  did i ever!!!  so yesterday i went to the santa monica farmers market and picked up some buddies for the babies.  one box will house the tomatoes (seen here grow-lamp bathing), and the other will house two sweet charlies, a gypsy sweet pepper, two persian cucumbers, and arugula.  don't judge me for adopting.  i'm still scarred from the double murder i committed on the first generation of tomato babies.  growing things from seed is hard.  but look at that happy little family.  can't wait to plant.

the new generation

baby #1 perished in a tragic late-night moving accident at coachella (because i still refused to let them spend the night outside).  it got the burial it deserved.  baby #2 didn't last long alone.

i eventually came to terms with my murderous ways, bought a grow lamp, and tried again.  gonzi thinks i'm the only person in los angeles county buying a grow lamp for legitimate purposes.  anyway, here it is, the new generation.  this time with less dying please.

r&r

the tomato instructions said not to take the babies outside the first couple of weeks, so they have been living on window sills.  our south-facing window is shaded by the roof and tall trees, and we don't have any north-facing windows with sills.  so the babies spend the morning in a window facing east, and a couple of hours later i make josh move them to another window facing east because the first window gets shady from a tree.  early p.m. i make josh move them to the bedroom window, which faces west.  it is a demanding regimen and josh thinks i'm nuts.  but in theory, this adds up to ~6-8hrs of direct sun per day.  from the looks of it, though, that isn't what's happening, because the babies are flopping around, can't support their own weight, can't stand up on their own, desperately stretch for more light.  so i took them on vacation when we went to coachella, where they could hang out in warm temps and full sun all day.  figured a little desert r&r would do 'em good.

the beginning of the end

gonzi and i went to a screening of food fight a couple of weeks ago.  among the brown paper schwag bags given to all attendees were packets of tomato seeds.  julia child heirloom tomato seeds.  i finally planted two.  no plan for either one, but it seemed neat.  they lived inside a plastic bag on top of the heater for about a week.  today i went to check on them, and to my surprise and delight -- herro lil buds!!!

and so it begins.