Tomato Standouts 2012

I’ve heard it said that it can take a good 3 or 4 years to really get new garden soil to where it needs to be for the most productive gardening.  This year was a glimpse of that.  While I didn’t have a great year, production wise, I got at least a taste of almost [...]

Garden Update: End of June

What a beautiful garden!  Every time it rains, the garden shoots up like gangbusters.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t been doing that much, and watering has had to suffice.  I’m really enjoying my garden this year, and I’m already planning how to deal with the abundance that will be rolling in soon!  Let’s take a tour! This [...]

New Beginnings

January.  Synonymous with cold, snow, frigid temperatures, and dark days. And yet there are the little things that brighten our days and get us through this long month as we wait for seed-starting season. Take this tomato plant, for example. A gift from the Minnesota gardeners, this is a dwarf tomato which seems very happy [...]

The Unscientific Tomato Experiment

Unscientific because there are way too many variables at stake with these two tomato plants.  However, the results of this experiment are definitely enough to make me pause and give some thought to next year’s garden. Far and away, THE healthiest tomato plant in my garden is the one that’s not in the garden.  It’s [...]

Planted and Thriving

Everything is planted and growing. All of the tomato and pepper plants were planted on Memorial Day. I ended up planting 4 of my tomato plants and 6 of my pepper plants. After planting I was out of town for the rest of the week, and got back late Friday. I took a look at [...]

Decimation And New Hope

I’ve been putting off updating here on the garden blog.  In fact, the Minnesota gardeners have been putting off updating as well, because we’ve been stymied this year.  After growing like gangbusters, for apparently no reason at all, my tomatoes began dying.  And not just a little wilting or leaf-dropping, but full out keeling over [...]

Erika’s 2010 Tomato Report

Despite my poor growing year, I do need to take the time to reflect on this past summer’s tomato harvest.  I had a few stars, a few that were a waste of time to grow, and still others who didn’t produce well for me, but did awesome in the garden in Minnesota.  I have a [...]

Hardening Off

It’s finally warmed back up here!  The sun has come out to play- and seems to plan on sticking around for a while.  My tomato plants, while still growing, just have not seemed anywhere near as healthy as last years plants.  I’m going to have to do some researching and learn how to properly grow [...]

Growing Tomatoes Indoors

I have determined that growing tomatoes indoors, in the off-season, is entirely do-able. Over this past weekend, I discovered that one of my cherry tomatoes was actually beginning to change colors.   A second one followed suit shortly enough, and now I have a pair of cherries marching on towards perfect ripeness. These plants will be [...]

Tomato Seeds Are In!

Today was the day!  I had about an hour all to myself this afternoon and I decided that time would best be utilized to start some more seeds.  My peppers are doing quite well, and it’s about time for the tomatoes to be on their way too. All told, I have planted 42 tomato seeds, [...]