Start planning your 2023 garden

It's hard to believe but we are close to the middle of November, but even as late as mid-November Marge and I went out a week ago or so and picked over 2/3 of an ice cream bucket of Stupice tomatoes. Then the past few days we picked another 2/3 a bucket again. Half a dozen or so never made it into the house. I usually have a salt shaker full of Lawry's Season Salt on my four-wheeler. They sure taste good right off the vine. We also have some zucchini that are blooming right now. If we can keep them from freezing for a couple more weeks and get them pollinated we should be picking zucchini. Normally I have some that don't need pollinated to plant in our tunnels but simply forgot this summer. We'll try and have some on hand this spring.

I did order some of our seed, and it just came in. There are several open pollinated chili peppers so we are going to try half a dozen of them. I think all but one are mildly hot so they should be OK. For some reason my taste buds have been dulled. I've wondered if it wasn't COVID-19. Never diagnosed with it, but honestly think I've had it a couple times. We grew one warm pepper this summer called Maxibell. Good tasting and just a touch of heat. I've saved seed from it, so will be planting some next summer.

Also ordered Waltham Butternut Squash ,which Marge and I like. We simply cut them in two lengthwise and nuke them. They would be better baked in the oven but a lot quicker in the microwave. Also ordered some Japanese White Eggplant seeds. Back in 2021 we had several white eggplants, and they were awesome. Milder taste and not nearly as many seeds. So this is on our grow list.

Am also going to grow the Gete Okosomin or Kentucky Squash. A friend of ours in Nebraska pointed it out to Mick and I, so found some seed where it's an open pollinated heirloom variety. Really sounds good. I had thought about waiting until spring to order the seeds but wondered if they might run short and then I couldn't get any. That happened to us in 2021 when we couldn't buy Fortex climbing bean seed. That's simply the best climbing bean we have tried, bar none. Lots of beans claim they are stringless but Fortex is stringless.

We tried growing bell peppers in the high tunnels, and it did work but not real well. We have to use a shade cloth to keep the tunnels from getting too hot but it significantly reduces the sunlight enough that the peppers didn't have enough direct sunlight. We had peppers get close to 6 or 7 feet tall, and the peppers even showed signs of blossom end rot. One tomato we will plant for sure is Ananis Norie. It's kind of a pale green color when ripe and it simply has an awesome taste. It's not a real heavy producer though. It is open pollinated so you can save the seed.

Be a good time to test the soil in your garden. If you have container gardens, that wouldn't apply to you. I usually stop and get some test paper containers at the Extension Office in Benton, Missouri, but you can stop in Jackson as well. They can describe how to get the needed soil sample. We are going to test our three tunnels and our hill garden so will have four soil tests. Now is the best time to add lime to your soil.

If you are wanting May Stupice tomatoes do an internet search for "Walls of Water". Even Amazon has them. Plan on planting your Stupice tomatoes in them six weeks before your average last frost. Then about 8 weeks before your plant date in the walls of water plant your tomato seeds. This will give the tomato seeds time to germinate and grow before being transplanted. Email me if you have questions.