growing on

I took this shot last week, and already it’s clearly the past – with the sunny weather we’ve been having on the island, the greenhouse is full and thriving. Strong germination rates, happy plants. I did the math this morning and I have something like twelve hundred tomato starts, which is borderline insane. Everything you see to the right of the center aisle? Tomatoes. Jet Star, Brown Berry, White Cherry, Pink Beauty, Big Beef. Over 400 Sungolds. More heirlooms to come. The plan is to sell almost two thirds of them. Even non-gardeners like to have a tomato or two.

Now that the seed starter is full and humming along, the project for this week is building greenhouse number two, the tomato house. At eighty feet long it’s almost twice as big as the seed starter, which is kind of a headache, but I learned a lot the first time around and I think this one will actually feel easier. My friend Emily helped me lay out the heavy anchor timbers this afternoon with the Vermont Cart, which is perhaps the best wheely tool known to man, and after working up a sweat we took a break at the Black Dog with iced Chais. Hopefully, tomorrow, the hoops go in.