Greenhouse: Andrina Tomatoes

This heirloom cherry tomato originated in Russia and is one of the earliest tomatoes there is. The plants are extremely dwarf reaching 6" high and produce good yields of tasty cherry sized fruit. Great for containers! Determinate. (60-65 days from transplant)

Planted today (2017-05-17 in Greenhouse

Tomatoes and Squash

From my greenhouse and at the Campbellton Community Garden

Greenhouse: Peppers and Tomatoes

Monday, August 29, 2016

Tomato Flowers

The greenhouse tomatoes have grown in the past 48 hours. Tomorrow I will post pics, for today this.

Peppers & Tomatoes in Greenhouse

This tomato plant had broken , so I placed it in a separate pot and it  is now flowering. We will see if it produces fruit.

All photos were taken this am Thursday August 4, 2016.

Greenhouse Tomatoes; Thursday June 23, 2016

Chalks Early Jewell Tomato

I planted 50 seeds in peat pots this am in the greenhouse. The tomatoes will grow there until mid-June when they will be transplanted to the Campbellton Community garden.

Seeds of Diversity; Tomatoes

This year, the Inspire Coop is taking part inf The Canadian Seed Library- Tomato Project Grow-Outs. The tomatoes will be planted at the Campbellton Community Garden. Updates with photos will be posted here regularly, once the project begins, most likely early May.

Chalk's Early Jewel is what we will be growing.

Season's Final Harvest

First Greenhouse Tomatoes

Greenhouse: Tomatoes and Pepper

Greenhouse: Peppers & Tomatoes

Tomatoes

I find myself thinking about tomatoes, more often, than not. This year I will be planting heritage varieties and testing them. Use them myself for the many things tomatoes can be used for and give away some to get feedback. I will let you know what I am growing and how this all goes,in future posts.

Heritage Seeds

A Garden Tale

I will tell you a story, a tale of how a child grew into a gardener. Our story begins some years back when the child was just learning how to walk. His parents love to spend time outside and the family enjoyed picnics, swimming and having fun under the sun.

Their backyard was a good size, at least, from the child's point of view. The boy's father showed the boy how to dig a compost pit and explained that compost provided the soil with good food and this helped the plants grow. Tomatoes were the father's favourite vegetable and he grew big beefsteak varieties. they made very good sandwiches.. to be continued.

My Garden Memories

My gardening experiences stretch back over several generations. The gardens of my youth were primarily tended my father, mother and her mother, my grandmother. I have vague memories spending hours in the back yard watching them and helping in my own way, tend to tomatoes, peonies, lilies, flags and more.

One vivid memory is of the snapdragons that grew in the crack along the driveway whiel another, is of the hollyhock, which inhabited the space between the houses and which came back many years later after the house next door had been torn down.

In later years as I entered, what is now known as the pre-teen years, I remember tomato sandwiches from fresh picked beefsteak tomatoes with lettuce provided by a neighbour. This was a late summer treat.

When I moved away from home in the late 1960s I wandered far from the garden physically, but now and then when I visited my parents, especially during the gardening season and sat in the backyard or lent a hand deadheading or harvesting, I was reconnected with the wonder and mystery that is a garden.

The magic that is alive on a mid-summer’s day when all is movement, light and sound stayed in the back of my consciousness until the mid-1980s, when I began to care for plants first hand, once again. True, they were houseplants, but a plant is a plant and while the process may be different a plant’s needs are the same no matter where it is growing.

When we moved to Thunder Bay, not only did I have a balcony garden and a garden plot in the backyard, but the furnished apartment came with a spider plant and a dracaena. These two plants soon had companions and at one point I had to remove a chair from the living room to make room for the collection. My wife is very understanding and a plant appreciator.

The gardening experience grew as I became part of a community garden project in Thunder Bay, going on to become the garden co-coordinator. Community gardens are a positive experience and do so much more than grow flowers, herbs and vegetables.

I also gave workshops tot he gardeners and otehrs on organic gardening and was a speaker at a number of community events.

When we moved from Thunder Bay, Ontario to Saint John NB, I was a member of a community garden, a large, well-organized and friendly palce. I made the arrangements via email before leaving Thunder Bay.

This year I have the opportunity to transform a double lot which is the backyard of the house we are currently renting into a food forest. Last summer I had a small raised bed garden on the property, but there is room for so much more. This is an exciting and enticing project. There are no community gardens here and I am talking with people about starting one.

My gardening experiences over the years have taught me much, mistakes yes I have made them and will continue to do so., for how else do we learn if not by doing and often we do not get it right the first time but need to keep on keeping on.

From A Friend's Garden

zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, onions

Best Vegetables for the First Time Organic Gardener

The five top crops for the home vegetable organic garden are and this is not in order of importance: leaf lettuces, radishes, snow peas, tomatoes and cucumbers.

The snow peas, cucumbers and tomatoes can all be grown vertically in containers if your space is limited or if you simply do not want to bend over to tend them.

Leaf lettuce is a lettuce with an open growth habit, which forms loose clusters of leaves rather than a tight head of lettuce, red leaf lettuce is an example.

Leaf lettuces reach maturity before other lettuces and are ideal for the short season garden. I like growing several plants that are early producers, because where I live the winter is long and begins in the fall and drags into spring so having something fresh from my own garden as soon as possible is most welcome.

This is why I also grow radishes. Radishes can reach maturity in 28 days. This means I have something that I grew something fresh and healthy quite early in the growing season.

Snow peas are great in a stir fry served with rice or make a great addition to a salad. In fact, all these vegetables can be combined in a number of ways for salads.

Cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce make a fine sandwich. Cucumbers are one of the foods that remind me of my youth and a garden just would not be complete without them.

Tomatoes can be grown up trellises and in tomato cages stuck into a container. You can grow quite a few cherry tomatoes in a container that is 24 inches across and at least 18 inches deep.

If you need to keep it simple then the five top crops for the home vegetable organic garden are leaf lettuces, radishes, snow peas, tomatoes and cucumbers.

The Home Vegetable Garden News: July 1, 2014

" Do you have the summer gardening blues? Has the heat wave turned your cucumbers vines into rope and left your tomatoes as brown as the cracked dirt they're growing in?" read on in


The Home Vegetable Garden News

From A Neighbour's Garden 2012