Organic Tomato Success Kits…More Stuff We Love…

I used to have an earth box. This looks like an pretty version of that. I am a big fan of anything that helps people get into gardening and have success. This is just the ticket…

The Organic Tomato Success Kit in Terra Cotta. The Gardner’s Supply Company’s Our Tomato Success Kits have helped thousands of gardeners from beginners to experts grow big crops of delicious tomatoes. They recently improved the kits by using all organic growing medium and fertilizer. Field tests prove that tomatoes grown in these success kits out-produce garden-grown plants by 30% or more, with fewer disease and pest problems. The kits include everything you need for a bumper crop. The heart of the system is our patented self-watering planter with a 4-gallon reservoir that lets you enjoy self-watering convenience, while your plants receive a steady flow of water and nutrients all season long. A strong, rust-resistant steel support cage clips on to prevent plants from toppling. Also included are 40 quarts of OMRI-certified Organic Self-Watering Container Mix, 1 lb. of our Organic Tomato Fertilizer, and a sheet of red plastic mulch to speed ripening and help boost yields.

Organic Tomato Success Kit, Terra Cotta

Use the special noted previously and save money! Eat fresh organic tomatoes!

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.

Three Different Places to get Fish Emulsion..Go Figure

So my tomato plants, which I planted too early [because I am a thrill seeker, impatient, and suffer from attention deficit disorder], are already mad. They tell me they need nitrogen. How did they tell me? You may be thinking that I am bit touched in the head. You know hearing the plants talk to me and all. No No No au contraire… the lower leaves were yellow. Easy diagnosis. First I looked at them in search of bugs…no bugs. So they must need nitrogen.

Being the good, diligent aspiring organic gardener that I am, off I went in search of fish emulsion. First my local hardware store (shout out to Hillsboro Hardware on 21st avenue in Nashvegas) tells me that they only carry the powdered now because the people in the Belmont Hillsboro complained about the smell. I complained that I wanted the stinky stuff.

Then, due to the children talking nonstop interfering with the successful operation of my synapses, we went to the big box of the despot. No Joy! Then, in a fit of inspiration, the daddy thinks of the All Seasons Garden and Brewing Center. The hippie dippy organic joint. The first time I tried to patronize the establishment, I could not find my destination. Another moment of inspiration later, Sprint Navigation has an animated map up and an annoying voice giving me lovely directions to my destination some 2.7 miles hence.

Oh joy, fish emulsion…click me!. It is stinky stuff but does provide the most accessible nitrogen for your plants. The concentrate goes far. I got a gallon for about $20.00 US.

My tomatoes look a bit happier today though you can still see the yellow from the nitrogen deficit.

Top Ten Ways to Save Money with an Organic Vegetable Garden

1. Do it yourself:  Don’t pay someone else to dig, plant, cut and prune for you.  In addition to saving money, the exercise will make your feel better.  If working in the yard makes you grown – get over it.

2. Set your mower deck higher: set it at its highest setting (or at lease higher than you do now.  Don’t bag..leave the clippings where they fall.  You save on fertilizer and your lawn will look better.  Clippings don’t cause thatch, fertilizer does.

3. Make your own weed killer: vinegar, salt and dish soap, evidently boiling water kills weeds, and gin dish soap and vinegar.  Hit google…or this link: Hit Me! Evidently the vinegar kills the weed, salt keeps it from growing back, and soap sticks to the weed so the first two things can work. Amounts vary from recipe to recipe (or is it a formulation…again I digress) and do not appear to be very important. As the salt sticks around for a bit, you need to wait a little before replanting. [Didn't someone sale fields in the bible or something?]

4. Get your tools at yard sales and use hand tools. Never pay retail. Good tools last forever. Power tools use gas, stink, pollute your yard and the world at large, and leave you smelling like gasoline after you are done. Oh yeah, they are expensive too.

5. Compost. Make your own dirt. Don’t buy a bin, you don’t need one. Dig a hole. Make a pile. If you just pile up everything that was once once alive [and not an animal] that is left over from your kitchen, you will have compost in six to nine months. If you follow the rules and mix your compose and turn it, you can have some super dirt in two to three months.

6. Make your own mulch. Shred your leaves with you lawn mower. Contact a tree service and ask for chipped branches. You may get them for free since you will save the company the dumping fee. Be prepared though, it doesn’t look as nice as bought mulch but it works great on your garden and saves money. You may also consider stones or pebbles, the initial outlay is higher but they don’t have to be replaced. A truck load of local stone costs less than you think.

7. Divide plants, share seedlings, ask you neighbors. Talk to you neighbors and see if they have any plants that need dividing. Join a garden club or plant exchange. Look for sale by garden clubs and botanical gardens.

8. Watering. Get a rain barrel. You don’t need some expensive system. Contact your water department or look for recycled plastic barrels. Use soaker hoses in your beds and garden; you will use much less water. Water deeply once or twice per week. Daily, short watering make for shallow roots and unhealthy plants.

9. Grow Vegetables and Herbs. The saving will take to be realized but you can save a lot of money growing your own food. The savings will only increase over time. Especially if you follow the above tips. See my previous post for a calculator on gardening savings.

10. Cancel your cable and get outside in your yard.

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!

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