Today I did one of the things that is hardest for me - thinning plants. Each of my seedlings is like a baby to me and I have a hard time getting rid of them. Last year I carefully separated each extra tomato plant and then replanted them. Almost every one of them survived. But that meant I had a LOT of tomato plants. Way too many. I had a hard time even giving them all away.

So yesterday I was working on transplanting zucchini and squash into bigger containers. However, I forgot to make certain that every set of 6 seedlings had a marker in them. So about 20 minutes into the process I realized that I wasn't certain which plant was which. And have you ever tried to tell what plant is a crookneck squash, a straightneck squash, and a pumpkin plant? It gets easier once the plants are bigger, but at this size they essentially look identical.

There are some items I grow from seeds that go directly outdoors when they reach a certain size. Onions and peas are two of those (beans would be a third). Regular onions I plant directly outdoors since they have a large seed onion. Bunching onions, on the other hand, are tiny seeds and seem to work best if I start them indoors. These are onions that you would grow for their stems - green onions. I love green onions and eat them on a lot of things. As such, I try to grow at least two window boxes of these every year.

It seems like every morning when I get up there is a lot more growth. Today there's lots of tomatoes popped up. Yesterday a few had just barely broken the surface and now there are more than a dozen standing over an inch tall. What a difference a day makes. I'm growing a few varieties of tomatoes this year. I always do Roma Tomatoes, as they are great for sauce. I love making fresh spaghetti sauce. And of course I need some slicing varieties. I like tomatoes on BLTs and hamburgers and it's always nice to be able to use a nice big fresh tomato from the garden. But I also like to make salsa.