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Dear Gardening Friends,
We hope this finds you happy and in "full harvest mode" in your gardens! While
thinking about this Newsletter, it occurred to me that so far, this has
been a year of trying big new things here at the Nursery. And here's possibly the biggest one:
ANNOUNCING OUR FIRST EVER
"FALL-WINTER" TOMATO LINE-UP!!
We
get so many requests for them, and we know that many of the varieties
which we already grow will do well in the cooler climate, so we decided
to jump in! Click here to see the full line-up:
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Pre-Sale Winter Tomatoes
As of today, they are available for Pre-Sale on our website with pick-ups beginning at our upcoming Winter Tomato Open House on Wednesday, August 26th, here at the Home Nursery. Click here for details. They'll also be available on our regular Wednesdays and Fridays at the Nursery, plus at our Farmers Markets on the weekends.
We'll have some of the gorgeous Purple/Blacks, some exciting new Reds, a stunning Orange (you know how we love our Orange tomatoes!!),
and a beautiful new Bi-Color, 16 in all. We do hope you'll try them
with us, and then report your results!! We all learn best when we share
our growing experiences!
(Above from L to R: Anna Russian, Valencia, and Vorlon)
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We've been enjoying a great Summer season and have expanded to 36 EarthBoxes and 26 Smart Pots.
This has been possible, of course, because we now have more help here
at the Nursery; our assistant, Elliot, has been a tremendous help in
getting my ever-expanding wish list planted and logged! Most recently, he planted two more EarthBoxes of Beans ( Dragon Tongue and Royal Burgundy) and another EB of Summer Squash...yes, there's still time!
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Tomato Harvest
Our
experiment of planting just one large-fruited tomato variety in an
EarthBox has been a huge success...we are trying out Japanese Black
Trifele, Kellogg's Breakfast and Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye this way, and
WOW, the production has been fantastic! We've harvested close to 40 tomatoes from Japanese Black Trifele already! Planting
2 smaller-fruited varieties per EarthBox works just fine; our Sun Golds
and Gardener's Delights have been incredibly abundant...we will
definitely continue this method with our Winter varieties!
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~Mohandas K. Gandhi
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We also planted many of our
new veggie varieties this season:
Dragon
Tongue, Blue Coco and Black Turtle Beans, Little Fingers Eggplant (oh
my gosh, they are prolific!!!), Candy Roaster, Bush Buttercup and
Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck Winter Squash, Small Sugar Pumpkin (we have
4 just now turning orange!) and Crimson Sweet Watermelon (we have two
sizing up nicely right now!)
   Photos from Left to Right: Watermelon, Butternut Squash, Little Fingers Eggplant
Seeing so much EarthBox production, I got to wondering whether they
would all like a fertilizer boost... I mean, some of the plants are
enormous, and it IS a small amount of soil... so we are experimenting
now by reaching up under the mulch covers and adding Black Gold Tomato
& Veggie Fertilizer, and then watering it all in real well with
Great Big Tomatoes Liquid Compost. We'll be watching to see if we get a
noticeable boost in production and will let you know in the next
Newsletter.
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Of
course, another big experiment has been the Hand-Pollination of not
only our Glass Gem Popcorn, but our Bon Jour as well!! Wow, what an
education! We're working with Sydney on a fun and informative video
about the procedures involved. Stay tuned!!
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!!
Another experiment we're about to undertake:
 I
got to thinking, while looking at this beautiful crop of Yukon Gold
Potato plants, that it would be so nice if Smart Pot made a taller
bag.... I mean, in the ground, you'd keep hilling the potato vines for
as long as you could (more vines underground means more potatoes)...so, I
called 'em up! They are really great folks, and they immediately asked
what dimensions I had in mind, and I told them 24" diameter x 24"
high. That's basically their 30-gallon pot, but with 9 more inches of
height. I told them I'd count the harvest from this standard 30-gallon,
and compare it to the yield from their custom sized sample and report it
all in our Newsletter. They liked the idea and  made
it up lickity split, and it arrived today! Next week we'll plant out a
round of Yukons in it, and we'll let you (and Smart Pot) know the
results as soon as we have them. Thanks, Smart Pot!!
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Jumping into some Food Preservation!
Alex eats a lot of
jam, and I love to grow a ton of beans...it's as simple as that! And we
grow way too many tomatoes to be able to eat or give away. We've been
saying for several Summers now that we're going to start canning and
freezing. Well, about a month ago, Sydney and I took a Canning Class at
the Urban Homestead
in Pasadena; it was a really info-packed evening, and we came away with
jars of 3 different types of canned food: Apricot Jam, Canned Peaches
and Dilly Beans...each requiring a different process to make. I didn't
want to lose the enthusiasm, so that very weekend, Alex and I began our
canning career making Blackberry and Strawberry Jams. The next weekend,
we canned Peaches and made Peach Jam. And the next weekend, we made more
Canned Peaches, more Strawberry Jam, and a few jars of Strawberry
Preserves!!
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Next up on our to-do list:
Pickled
Peppers, Pickled Beets, and preserving our Garlic harvest! I recently
harvested our Garlic Crop for this year...came out pretty well. It's
"curing" in the garage now, and I've decided to try a method of
preserving I found on the Internet on a lovely blog called Barefoot in the Kitchen.
(This link also includes a little video on that amazing 10-second
garlic peeling method you might have heard about on NPR.) Basically, you
peel and wash & dry the cloves, pack them into sterile canning
jars, cover with boiling white vinegar, seal and water bathe for 10
minutes.They say the garlic's natural oils don't allow the vinegar
flavor to penetrate, and that garlic will keep for up to a year.
I'm very excited about the prospect of having ready garlic on hand all year!
We'll post photos of it next Newsletter!
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As
always, at this time of the year, we get lots of glorious reviews (and
photos) about our customers own gardens. AND we also get the same
questions and concerns over and over. We've covered these points pretty
extensively in our Tomato Tips on the website, but here's some quick comments:
Blossom End Rot -Very
common. Result of insufficient calcium in the soil. Even happens in the
EarthBox from time to time. Some varieties are more susceptible. Can be
corrected by adding more Dolomite Lime, but don't delay!
Tomato Hornworms -
This crazy looking creature has a voracious appetite and can defoliate
a huge tomato plant practically overnight. In our region of the
country, we are actually plagued with the Tobacco Hornworm. They can eat
up your peppers, too. Keep a keen eye out for the worm's poop, and then
check the foliage just above... Check frequently, and hand pick!!
 Known by lots of different names, this  Cabbage Moth
is a little devil on wings! It flits around the garden, pretending to
be a pretty butterfly, lights momentarily, lays eggs, and wham!! Your
basil, lettuce and other delicates are chewed to bits!! We've lost a
fair amount of inventory to these guys. Try to swat them out of the
garden (Alex keeps a racquet nearby), look for the poop and hand pick
these little inchworms.
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Customer's Brag Book:
Even
though our Market friend, Robin, didn't "grow" his little friend, we
must start the Brag Book this month with Winston!! I swooned, he is so
cute!! He's a little Pot Bellied Pig, and he got to come to the Market
with his Dad a few weeks ago. The peaches we canned were grown by Robin
and his family!
(Above) Winston the Pig!!
~Click on the photos for larger image~
(Above) Todd's new horseshoe bed
~Click on the photos for larger image~
(Above) Westlake customers, Jim and Tami's amazing harvest
~Click on the photos for larger image~
(Above) La Canada Customer, Mark's abundant tomato harvest
~Click on the photos for larger image~
  
(Above) Westlake Customer, Leslie's tomatoes and pumpkin
~Click on the photos for larger image~
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Our "Welcome Summer" Open House was a lovely affair! Jake & Lalo had their usual good time soaking up the love. We do hope you will join us for the Winter Tomato Open House next month!!
That's it for now, stay tuned for updates, and as always, happy harvests!!
Jo Anne, Alex, Jake and Lalo
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