Heirloom Tomatoes – Great Tasting and Easy To Grow

	What’s an Heirloom? Modern supermarket “hybrids,” are bred for their long shelf-life, but classic “heirloom” varieties are picked for their superior flavors. There are hundreds of varieties of heirlooms that gardeners around the world have carefully selected and preserved for generations, so you’ll find much more than just red tomatoes – you’ll discover green, yellow, orange, purple, and even black ones (man say these tastes best). Some will be sweet, some spicy and others smokey; they’ll range in size from tiny cherries to giant fruit that weigh over two pounds.
	How Do I Pick? With so many heirloom varieties, nurseries and chain stores are only able to carry a limited selection, so small gardeners have been stuck with just a few options. Recently though, specialty farms have begun shipping sturdy young plants direct to gardeners. Some even offer themed collections made up of popular varieties, so picking which plants to grow is easy. You can find these collections and a huge selection of individual varieties through websites like the online gardening center, Windowbox.com. They offer a range of packs, each with a different theme, including: beefsteak tomatoes container growers, high yeild plants, huge fruit plants, Italian paste & sauce, weather tolerant, cherry tomatoes, and more.
	From UPS to BLT Once you’ve got the right plants for you, it’s just a matter of raising them. Thankfully, heirlooms are hardy (they have to be to have lasted so long), and they’re easy to grow. Most heirlooms are “indeterminate,” which means they grow like a vine, and they’ll produce fruit all season long – until the first frost. “Determinate” plants are more like a bush, and they typically produce all their tomatoes in one batch. Depending on which you’ve selected, they’ll require slightly different care. Basically though, with sun, water, a little fertilizer and pruning, you’ll be enjoying delicious tomatoes all summer long.
	Where Do I get Help? Many tomato growers share their knowledge on the web, and this increased communication has helped the heirloom community expand significantly. Many sites feature growing hints and tips as well as discussion forums. Windowbox.com offers a detailed tomato growing guide (download here) that is a great help throughout the season, and if that’s not enough, their group of online experts shares basic growing tips and answers specific questions.

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The EPA and Pesticides

According the to United States Environmental Protection Agency, there are over 20,000 pesticides containing 620 active ingredients on the market in the US.  More than 1,000,000,000 (One billion) pounds of active ingredients in conventional pesticides are applied each year in the United States.  Thats over three pounds for every man, woman, and child who is a citizen of the United States.  That in itself is alarming.  Even more alarming is the government’s information on the potential health effects of pesticides.  I am quoting the EPA’s own FAQ here: “The health effects of pesticides depend on the type of pesticide.  Some, such as the organophosphates and carbamates, affect the nervous system.  Other may irritate the skin of eyes. Some pesticides may be carcinogens.  Others may affect the hormone or endocrine system in the body.”  Stay away from the commercially grown food!  Save money and eat healthy and – grow your own organic food!!

The EPA is in charge of our safety from pesticides.  They get a large helping hand from the manufacturers of the pesticides.  The EPA is charged with setting maximum levels of pesticides likely to be found in food.  That is not a typo, I took it straight from an EPA page…”maximum levels likely to be found in food”…not actually found in food, but likely to be found. “The EPA accomplishes this by requiring pesticide manufacturers to submit data that answer basic questions about what residues are present in foods and in what quantities.”  The manufacturers submit data regarding the residues of pesticides found on crops grown in the field when applied using the highest rate allowed by the product label.  So the manufacturer of the pesticide delivers the data to the EPA and the EPA decides on how much pesticide is okay for us to eat. I love the taste of orthophosphates in the morning! Do you trust the pesticide manufacturers with the safety of your food?  If not, the only way to make sure that our food supply is safer is to grow you own organic food.

The EPA also requires a battery of toxicity tests in laboratory animals to determine a pesticide’s potential for causing adverse health effects, such as cancer, birth defects, and adverse effects on the nervous system or other organs. Tests are conducted for both short-term (acute) and long-term (chronic) toxicity. For chronic effects other than cancer, laboratory animals are exposed to different doses of a pesticide to determine the level at which no adverse effects occur. This level is divided by an uncertainty or “safety” factor (usually 100) to account for the uncertainty of extrapolating from laboratory animals to humans and for individual human differences in sensitivity. The resulting figure, termed the Reference Dose, is the level of exposure that EPA judges an individual could be exposed to on a daily basis for a lifetime with minimal probability of experiencing any adverse effect. [Quoted from EPA Factsheet].

So let me get this straight, the EPA finds a pesticide that makes us sick and then they decide how much of that we can eat.  Who checks on the farms?  Who checks at the grocery store?  Anybody want some peanuts?  I am not saying that the EPA is bad.  They do a commendable job.  I think that we should be surprised that there are not more serious health problems and outbreaks of food related illness;but how many chronic illnesses and “adverse” health effects are the cause of pesticide exposure over the course of a lifetime?  Could neurological disorders be the result of  exposure to organophosphates and carbamates?  How would you know?  If you grow your own food, you know exactly what was put on it.  You know exactly what your children are eating!  What if you could save money growing your own organic vegetables at home?  You can! Read a book and go outside! Feed your children healthy food and lower your grocery bill. You can do it.  You just have to go out in the yard and get started!

Your Garden Journal: The Best Book Ever

There are numerous gardening books available…in your home, at the library, in your local independent bookstore, and online. The contain very helpful information and encouragement.  In the you can learn things about what to plant, when to plant, how to germinate seeds, how to make your own compost, how make your own insecticide, etc. The are most helpful if you remember to read all the words and plan your garden using the information available….but they are not the most helpful gardening book available. Those books are written with excellent general information.  They are not specific to your yard or garden plot.

The books in the stores have good information and much inspiration for your organic garden.  They tell you about soil pH, air temperature, gardening climate zones, plant mixing, interplanting, new ideas; however, the most helpful garden book is not available in bookstores or online.  You have to write the best organic gardening book.  Only you will actually garden in your yard or plot. If you take good notes and create a thorough gardening journal, you will have the best gardening book ever written.  It will be customized just for you.

In order to have the most successful organic vegetable garden possible for you and your location, what should you record in your journal?

Soil and air temperature at different times of day including the daily minimums and maximums will give you information that helps in choosing plants for your garden in the future.  More immediately, that information will assist in determining whether you need to shade plants or soil for optimum garden production. If you use row covers, record the temperatures under the row covers and/or your plastic mulch.
Record unusual weather events [storms, droughts, deluges, very hot and/or very cool weather].  Several years of regular “unusual” weather events become regular weather events.
Be sure to keep a watering record.
Keep track of the dates your seeds germinate.  Then track and record your planting and transplanting dates for each crop.
Make sure to keep information on cover crops and times that you leave an area fallow.
Journal your composting piles [the dates started, when you water, material added, and the finishing date for the pile].
Track your pests and diseases making sure to note the number, duration, severity, what you treated it with, and the outcome.
Track your soil maintenance [crop rotation, compost addition, rock powders, leaf mold, other soil supplements.
And finally, track and record your harvest notes.
How much did you end up with? Several years of comparing what you did and what happened to the output will result in excellent information of maximizing your garden production.

If you are interested in the more existential aspects of gardening, journal how different events make you feel, your reaction to hardship, your reaction germination, harvest, pests, dogs, cats, moles, etc. Gardening is a process.  The journey is excellent and a lesson in patience and letting go.  You cannot control nature.  You can help it.  There is frequently no why as to the events in nature.  It’s okay not to understand.  You don’t have to understand here to be here.

Gardening can be a great help in understanding and getting in touch with now. A journal can track your past help improve the present. Make sure to review your journal regularly.  Most importantly, a garden journal assists with planning and is invaluable when the snows set in, the seed catalogs come in the mail, and your plan your spring, summer, and fall planting schedule. Go outside and garden. Save money with your own organic vegetable garden.

Deep Beds, Double Digging, and Organic Vegetable Gardening

Deep Bed Gardening  The How and Why for Increased Yields in Your Organic Garden!

I have always had a limited amount of space in which to garden… well except for when I summered at my grandparents farm in Lone Hickory, North Carolina; but I was eight years old then. There was plenty of space out there…but I was small. The amount of space I used for pole beans and such amounted to a couple of rows out in the kitchen garden.  I don’t remember exactly, but I don’t recall using pesticides and fertilizer.  I think we may have been organic back then in the early seventies.  Go figure…

Now that I have owned a couple of homes and grown into a fresh vegetable lover and semi tree hugger, I have had to figure out the best way to grow the most organic vegetables in a limited amount of space. I guess I got lucky because I was always drawn to raised beds.  It just seemed to me that if the soil I had was questionable, the best way to grow good food fast was with high quality soil in a raised bed.  Little did I know  that raised beds and wide rows have been shown to allow closer crop planting and vastly increased output of vegetables grown in this manner.  The reason is all in the roots.  How far do you think that a carrot root will extend from the carrot?  Up to three feet down and one and a half feet sideways!!! You have to give’em room to grow!!

Plants are much happier growing in loose deep soil. [you also get fewer weeds and pests when your plants are happy making organic vegetable growing even easier].  The plants have room to stretch out.  Aren’t you happier when you have room to stretch?  Who likes being crammed into a plane with no room? Your garden feels the same way… So, exactly how do you make your plants happy and give them room to grow?

First, pick a good spot to grow your organic vegetables.  Full sun and good drainage are important.  Remember, don’t tie yourself to squares and rectangles, your bed can be any shape – try a circle, a parallel-o-gram, or a star.  You can even plant your vegetables intermixed with some flowering annuals cottage garden style.

After you pick your location and shape, you need to make friends with double digging.  Lay out your bed with twine, lime, baking soda, or stakes.  Then across one end of your bed (the shorter way), dig a trench the width of your shovel and about a foot deep.  Put that dirt in a wheel barrow – you’ll fill in the last row with that dirt.  After you have removed the soil, take a garden fork and loosen the soil in the bottom of the hole by working it with the fork.  Move to the area directly adjacent to your dug out trench and dig another trench across your bed.  The trench is again the width of your shovel and about a foot deep.  Put the  soil from this trench back into the first trench that you dug.  Loosen the soil in the bottom of the second trench with the garden fork.  Rinse and repeat until you get to the end of your bed.  Fill in the last trench with the soil from you wheelbarrow.  Hooray!! You have a deep bed. [Note bene: you probably want to work some compost into the soil as you refill your trenches.  This will increase your soil quality and, conveniently, your vegetable output.]

How big should you make your rows in your organic vegetable garden?  I make mine four feet wide.  Yours should be as wide as you can make them and still comfortably be able to work in the middle of the beds/rows.  The walkways are narrow.  Thus maximizing your growing areas and minimizing your wasted space.

So, get out there and garden!!! Grow your own organic vegetables.  Feed your family good food and, most importantly, have fun!!

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