Taxes and Canning

It is that of year to get the taxes done. If you get your taxes in early then you don't have to stress about them for the rest of the year.
You can then concentrate on getting your garden ready so you will have good vegetables to
eat this year and hopefully enough to put up in canning jars, dry or freeze. Canning may seem like an overwhelming job but once you start doing it you will find out it can be so rewarding. I like knowing what is in the food I eat and who has had their hands on it. We'll talk in detail this year on how to can, hot freeze and how to dry some of those vegetables and fruit you will either grow or purchase from the local farmers.

Tomato Seed Planting

Planting Tomato Seeds

It is almost the end of January; the first tomato seeds went in today. I planted 24 mortgage lifter tomato seeds, 24 celebrity tomato seeds and 24 beefsteak seeds.

I used the small pod planters and planted one per pod. It makes it so much easier when they need to be transplanted to a larger pot or the ground outside. Separating them is a pain otherwise. I will plant more this week.
I planted the mortgage lifter, celebrity and beefsteak last year. If you haven't tried the mortgage lifter I would recommend it. I bought it from Gurney's when they had one of their sales. Sign up and they will send you the specials. I was short last year on a few of the seeds and called them. They promptly send me new seeds to replace them. I like to deal with companies that back up there product.

We have snow on the ground now, but spring is not all that far away. This year I will plant the watermelon directly in the ground, they did so much better last year planted that way.