Great way to reuse things. The idea of succulents is perfect since it needs less water.
16+ More Creative Garden Container Ideas
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Category Archives: General Ramblings
13 Tips for Growing Beautiful Roses!
Where In The World Is The Tomato Lady? Air Force Academy (In The Afternoon)
One of the coolest things I learned was that they still teach falconry there. I guess you could call them the originals drones!
The Chapel is what I really came ot see. Everyone said it was stunning inside. Unfortunately, they were having a wedding so we weren’t allowed on the top floor. It is a most unusual looking building with 17 spires.
We were allowed to see the downstairs portion where they have a Catholic, Jewish and Buddhist worship center. This picture is of the floor by the Synagogue which is composed of real stones from Jerusalem.
This next picture is of the a Holocaust Torah
Here’s a shot of some new cadets, 2 days off the boat learning to march.
This is picture of the 911 Memorial. It is a piece of the girder from one of the towers. It was very moving.
This for all of you who know jets. Can you name what kind these are what they were used for?
The Letter of the Day is X: “X: is for Xtra Large Tomato Varieties
My Love’s Pink Oxheart
Vigorous vine produces big bunches of huge pink tomatoes which are oxheart shaped, meaty, and have fantastic flavor. They have a good balance of sweet and acid. The plant is unlike otheroxheart tomatoes, it has sturday foliage, not wispy like some oxhearts. This tomato has several large, large fruits that weren’t yet ripe. I was hoping to take them to the fair last year but they didn’t turn until several days right after the fair. I would have won the largest with one of them, it topped out at over 3 pounds!
Indeterminate
Mid-season
Rose
I won the largest tomato of the 2011 Spokane County Fair with this one.
A large leafy heirloom that produces deep, rose-pink, 3″, meaty globes with a taste that rivals those varieties heralded most for their luscious taste.
Seed is from a doctor in PA who got it from one of her Amish patients.
Indeterminate
Delicious
A favorite
An excellent slicer, with most fruits over 1 pound – many 2 to 3 pounds – and still holds the world record of 7+ pounds for a single fruit! Not in our neck of the woods, probably somewhere south where they have lot sof heat and a way longer growing season.
Produces smooth and solid fruits that seldom crack, with small cavities, nearly solid meat, and excellent flavor.
Developed from Beefsteak after 13 years of careful selection.
Rocky
A favorite despite the late maturation date. We had loads of them for canning in September.
Simply amazing! These were enormous tomatoes in my garden. Some were so big, you could have used 3 or 4 in one quart jar and a joy to slip the skins for canning.
Good producer of 2 x 3-inch (and bigger), 1 lb., red, paste tomatoes.
Sweet, tangy, meaty fruit. One of the best flavored sauce tomatoes.
Indeterminate
Late season
The Letter of the Day T: “T” is for the Tomato, Tumbler and the Pepper, Tabasco
Tumbler
Specially bred for hanging baskets. Bushy plants look fantastic mixed with lobelia and alyssum. Sweet, bright red fruits. We sell them in the small pots and as baskets. Perfect for someone who wants to hang it on their balcony or patio. Determinate, early
This is a picture of one I had hanging on my patio. It is planted with flowers. Who says veggies can’t be pretty?
Tabasco- HOT
Originally from Mexico—and taking its name from a Mexican state—this small, very hot pepper’s a favorite in the South and East, where the plants can grow tall and are covered with the petite light yellow-green to red fruits. Best known as the pepper that lends the kick to the namesake hot sauce from Avery Island, Louisiana.
The Letter of the Day is N: “N” is for Nebraska Wedding and the North Star Bell Pepper
For those of you who might have gotten the post iwth a red tomato, all I can say is WordPress is fast. I noticed it was the wrong tomato and changed it out to the appropriate yellow pic but apparently not fast enough!
Nebraska Wedding
I know these are yellow…again. We grew these for the first time last year and I was impressed. No cracking, great flavor, decent size. I am beginning ot think I have a an obsession with yellow and gold tomatoes. didn’t set out to do that but when someone asks me my favorites, most of them seem to be that color. In the reds and pinks, my faves are Rose, Mortgage Lifter, Aussie, Willamette, Sweet Treats, Black from Tula and Sub Arctic Plenty to name a few. Ok, so maybe I do like more than the yellows!
An old Great Plains heirloom Produces huge, globe- shaped fruits of a deep orange color, weighing up to 10 oz. each. Vigorous plants yield a heavy, concentrated set of fruit. In the old days The seeds were givento the married couple to help them start their lives and start their farm together.
80 days
North Star
Extremely early, and ideal for short-season areas. Plants are particularly well adapted to set blocky fruit even under unfavorable conditions. Deep green fruits become bright red at full maturity.
For more information on these and other varities, check out my website at www.thetomatolady.com
Nifty Way to Plant an Accessible Kitchen Garden
Aside
Here is a picture I saw on facebook about a different way to garden. The only caveats: the bag will weigh a lot so make sure that where you put it, is where you want it (you might try putting it on a cart with wheels if you want to move it to catch sun) and that what you put it on, is able to hold it’s weight. Also, PUT DRAINAGE HOLES UNDERNEATH, LOTS OF THEM!
Try shallow rooted veggies like radishes, round carrots, lettuce, spinach, beets etc.
First Seeds of the Year
Aside
I planted Candy onions in plug trays and Walla Walla Sweets in a broadcast method, the way I have always done them. We will see which does better when it comes to transplanting.
I also seeded some Lisanthus, Lobelia, Crytal Palace and Blue Wings, pink Brugmansia, snapdragons and several varieties of Impatiens, including the uber expensive rosebud type.
Some Interesting Trivia About Tomatoes: First Part
Black Prince
They were once called a love apple and were thought to be poisonous
Tomatoes are native to the coastal highlands of western South America. The early American colonists brought them to America but most people still viewed them with suspicion. Thomas Jefferson mentions planting them in 1809 but they weren’t widely cultivated until after 1830 when tomatoes started popping up in American cookbooks and gardening manuals. America has had a love affair with tomatoes ever since.
Flea Beetles are on the loose in the Inland Northwest
Flea Beetles, A common problem this time of year. It has come to my attention that they are afoot. If your leaves have what looks like little shot holes you might/probably have flea beetles. They seem to attack the lower leaves first. Here is a link ot a site that gives you good information as to what they looks like, how they overwinter and what to do about it.
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05592.html
flea beetle damage
Notes From The Tomato Lady 
