We’ve had a dry time of it lately, much to the dismay of the Ether Garden and its stewards. Fast is approaching the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club’s annual Morel foray, and I’m beginning to fear there won’t be many Morels (or much else) to be found. Such is life when you’re at the whim of nature though I suppose.

April is a weird time here at the Ether Garden. Not quite growing temperatures sometimes, and other times it feels like summer! Confuses garden and gardener alike. Nonetheless there are definite signs of life about. The Lillies are pushing up their bizarre looking red spikes, Daffodils are starting to open, and the occasional albeit confused wild violet is popping up. Chives are starting to bud, and the Columbine which we thought had been lost to cutworms is pressing on with increasing vigor. Hooray for natives, no?

The cherry blossoms are fading, and the leaves are starting to come in. It’s interesting to watch the colors change from white to light pink to dark pink and then to green. Sometimes plants fascinate me. This weekend is the Blossom Tour in Lower Lawrenceville, and I’ll be there! I’m going to have a few examples of things you probably already have in your home which can be recycled into handy gardening tools, how nifty is that? Hopefully the weather will be nice for it!

Bloom Day is here, and just on time! We had our first blossoms here in the Ether Garden about two days ago, in the form of our dwarf irises. They even beat out the crocus blossoms this year, which have yet to be seen even in bud! Of course, we’ve known spring was on it’s way for a while what with the temps popping up into the 70’s for a few days there and the robins being back in town.

The pussywillow is also in bud, which is always a treat. We actually have two in the Ether Garden, one standard and one of the weeping variety. I’ve always loved their little grey furry buds. All the trees seem to be in bud in fact- the weeping ornamental cherry and the maple are both brightly colored with scads of buds waiting for just the right moment. The cherry blossoms make such a brief appearance, but oh what a show!

This week also marked a good bit of garden clean up, namely pulling off the hay mulch wet with rain and melted snow and replacing it (where needed still) with some of the loftier bunches from on top. Trimming back the last of the dead tops from long since spent blossoms, and raking up of errant mulch and leaves is on the agenda for the next couple days. Soon- we plant peas!

I know, those of us here with the Ether Garden have been terrible and vanished into the mists just when the getting was good last year. We apologize from the depths of our hearts and hope you’ll forgive us. Such is the way of the ethereal though, is it not? We intend on being better this year. We also intend on including more than simply gardening this year! If all goes as planned, you dear readers can look forward to posts on all manner of old-fashioned knowledge and techniques for life which seem to have vanished. Home remedies, kitchen-witchery, preserving the bounty of your garden, and the like.

Those who are local to the Ether Garden have much to look forward to as well, in the form of information on local nurseries and garden related events, as well as seed- and bounty-sharing! What fun!

More than just flowers are bloomin’ here in the ether-garden this Bloom Day. While checking on the garden and replacing a few of the milk-jug cloches which got blown around during one of our recent storms, I happened across this sweet little one and his (her?) brothers and sisters. They were hiding awfully well, I nearly trampled the lot of them! I was surprised how calm this little guy was, and simply couldn’t resist a brief snorgle of his little white-spotted head. I made sure to explain the ground rules of living in the ether-garden before sending the little one along home.

Of course, there are plenty of flowers blooming too. The ornamental alliums have presented themselves in all their pom-pom glory, and the chives are following suit. The wild violets are out, along with a sneaky little variegated vinca growing up along the side walk. The yellow irises are in bud, as is my sage. I’ve never seen sage blossoms before, so I’m quite anxious for them to open. They’ve been in bud for some time now…

Sweet Vitriol has also bloomed a bit, you may have noticed a new author recently. Luminiferous joins in the fun to share his thoughts and ideas, and to keep the show running when I’m out of town. I see wonderful things in the future from this. A new page will be popping up soon as well, with brief bios and such on both Lumin and myself.

Not only is today bloom day, but for those in the Pittsburgh area and Allegheny County, we are now considered to be safely past the threat of frost. Now, if it goes and frosts again don’t blame me as this isn’t an exact science. I just know that today is the best birthday present I can ever ask for- the day I can safely plant the rest of my garden. Most of it’s in already, but what few seedlings were still waiting for that magic time can finally go outside and stretch out their roots and greet the world. Happy Bloom Day!

• Early Girl: Bears heavy crops extremely early, continues longer than most varieties
• Big Beef: Extra large, 10-12 oz., red fruits are firm, juicy and highly flavored
• Big Boy: Rich, tangy flavor, extremely juicy, solid texture
• Better Boy: Huge, delicious, red fruits, many 1 lb. each. Good leaf coverage

All of these are good tomatoes and great choices for someone not as interested in maintaining heirloom lines. I grew these and other conventional tomatoes for many years, and they definitely have the advantage of being available at almost any garden center or commercial nursery.

Gradually I began swapping out my conventional seedlings for heirlooms. My local food co-op happens to carry a variety of heirloom and organic vegetable seedlings in the spring and early summer, which really helped me get started with these wonderful plants. I still grow heirlooms, but now I go a step further and start my own seeds, rather than purchasing seedlings.

2006 was the first year I grew exclusively heirloom tomatoes. I was still using chemical fertilizers such as Miracle-Gro, but that’s a discussion for another day. I chose four heirloom seedlings from my co-op based on nothing other than what sounded tasty and interesting. I’d never grown potato-leaf tomatoes before, so I made sure to choose a few of those. My choices that year were:

• Brandywine: red steak tomato, potato-leaf, late 1800’s amish
• Chianti Rose: pink brandywine and italian cross, potato-leaf, unknown date
• Garden Peach: small yellow with a soft “peach fuzz”, native origin is peru
• Ruby Gold: large variegated red and yellow steak tomato

The Ruby Gold and Brandywine both produced very large, heavy, meaty fruit in a modest quantity. The flavor was lovely- perfect for slicing and eating on sandwiches or in a salad. the Chianti Rose gave me average sized tomatoes, of an average yield, and an average flavor. They were very soft-fleshed and mostly ended up in my tomato-sauce pot. The Garden Peach gave me such a bounty of tomatoes that they would fall off the vine before I got a chance to pick them all! These tomatoes were lovely little ping-pong ball sized golden yellow beauties covered in a soft fuzz. I gave many of these away as gifts, sauced some, and ate even more just as they were. I have a special place in my heart for these little guys, as they bring back fond memories from my childhood. I can’t help but reminisce over watching Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (the cartoon version of course), and how similar these sweet tomatoes are to the adorable FT, short for Furry Tomato.

2007 was a bad year for tomatoes for the home-gardener in my area. Across the board, tomatoes were maturing very late, and producing poorly. I had the deck stacked against me as I also had to container-garden my tomatoes rather than planting them in their usual spot along the garage, as I was moving mid-summer. I decided to grow only three varieties last year. I grew a a pink, a white, and Black Krim. Unfortunately, I cannot recall what the white and pink tomatoes were. These poor tomatoes, they did really try their best. I got a few large fruit off the Krim, a couple fleshy pinks, and a few small but adorable whites. Nowhere near the amount I needed for my yearly canning endeavors, so I resorted to farmers market tomatoes for that.

This year will be better. The tomatoes will be grown in one spot, with plenty of room this year. They will be planted in rich yummy soil and watered with the finest of fish-tank water. All I need is for mother nature to be kind and do her job well. I’ve chosen to grow a minimum of four varieties this year and, as I’ve mentioned previously, I’m likely to pick up a few seedlings locally. I’d like to try my hand at a white tomato again as they are quite lovely and sweet.

While I’m on the subject of tomatoes, there are a few interesting links I’d like to share. First, for those of you interested in growing heirloom tomatoes yourself there is Garden Desk’s handy post- The Pros and Cons of Heirloom Tomatoes. There is also a wonderful blog dedicated to that favorite fruit of mine, Tomato Casual. Lastly, a sad bit of tomato news for the state of Pennsylvania. Our top tomato farmer for direct-to-market tomatoes is quitting the tomato business, citing lack of labor.

Since the feeds weren’t working, I held off making the seed-starting post that I had planned for today. I believe the oops is fixed now, and that I can return to my regularly not-so-scheduled postings. In the works are the seed-starting post I mentioned, a post on garden tools, tomato varieties I’ve grown, and the beginning of the new garden beds. I promise pictures and excitement, or at the very least pictures.

In the meantime, Colleen over at In The Garden would like your opinion: Is there widespread support for being able to nominate more than three blogs, or should I leave it as-is? Let her know- maybe we’ll all be able to add a couple more blogs to our nomination lists!

Now, that’s not to say that there’s nothing blooming in the house of the ether garden! Jeremy is having some swimming success with one of his aquatic plants, the Anubias barteri (possibly v. nana). In addition to this lovely bloom, there’s another bud stalk reaching it’s way upwards which I belive shall unfurl itself within a few short days.

Sweet Vitriol is also blooming. You may have noticed a few new items in the sidebar. Because I know how anxious we all are for something to happen in our gardens these days, I’ve added a twitter update widget. I’ll keep quick little updates running there, giving the heads-up on upcoming posts and the like. Also added to the sidebar is a handy link to the Mouse and Trowel Award nomination form. Nominations are open until April 15th, I already made my nominations- did you?