Frosty is ready...

What? Thinking Frosty the snowman and Santa already? Snow will do that to you.



But I'm talking about Frosty Pink, one of my brugs. Her seed pods are finally ready, and I've harvested at least 50 nice fresh seeds. I've promised some seeds to friends. This year, I also have a noid white with a huge seed pod, and another noid pink with a pod as well. So if anyone is looking to experiment a bit, I am offering for free, packets of 5 brug seeds. The only thing I ask in return, is that you keep me updated on the babies' progress if possible. These are a labour of love, and a love of experimenting. There is absolutely no guarantee on the color these babies will turn out to be, and most likely they will not flower until the third year, which makes them a long term commitment. The noid white babies will probably be white. Frosty Pink is a roll of the dice. I didn't pollinate these myself, so I don't know who is the other parent. Frosty was in the brug bed (how appropriate!) when she got knocked up, so it could be the Candida, the other pink, or even self-pollination (I won't go there!) I'm not sure if Frosty is self pollinating, I'd have to look that up.

So if anyone would like some seeds, either from Frosty or the others, or a mix, they are yours for the asking. I also have cuttings, but would rather not mail them out unless you ask really really nice and pay the postage. Seeds are just so much easier, and I don't mind covering the postage for them. Anyone in Aylmer/Ottawa area is more than welcome to come and pick up a few cuttings.

Garden chores for a rainy day...

This morning was spent finally, finally, organizing my tomato seeds. Peeling the little seeds off of the paper towels wads that I had thrown into an old coffee tin to keep together until said organizing day. I did manage to save quite a few varieties this year, despite the not so great growing season. I never did bag any of the flowers, so chances are some of them may have gotten crossed. I guess I'll find out next year when I grow them out. If I do trade seeds with anyone, or send seeds, I'll be sure to mention that fact, so other growers will know what they are getting.

Seed list 2008

Box Car Willie
Prudens Purple
Purple Cherokee
Kellogs Breakfast
Black Cherry
Silvery Fir Tree
Jaune Flamme
Bloody Butcher
Meg's Orange Cherry (a Galina X, F2)
Galina's
Japanese Black Trifele
Canabec Rose
Rhoades
Green Zebra
Orange LSL ( a mislabeled or crossed tomato, LongShelfLife it wasn't, but amazingly good)
Vova Yellow
Zigan
Santalina F2
Black Pear

There are a few that seem to have disappeared into the void somewhere. I don't know what happened to Mortgage Lifter, Eva's Purple Ball (I know I saved seeds from it!), Black From Tula, Black Krim (wait, did I even grow that? or just that I wanted to?) note to self: keep better notes!!! As for Hillbilly, Pineapple, Gold Medal, Carbon, Omar's Lebanese, just don't even go there. I have no idea what happened to them.

I still have many seeds left from all the trades I made this year, and lots of saved seed from last year, and some seeds from the Great Tomato Growers,
wonderful people who started me off on my obsessive heirloom tomato journey. They have an incredible variety of tomato seed, and are very generous. I encourage everyone to check out their blog, and follow the links to their lists of tomatoes.

Overall, I am slightly more organized this year. And now that winter is coming, I can't wait to start gardening again. Figures.

I have been waiting for a good oportunity to do a final yard cleanup, and to winterize my roses. I have a few bags of hay to pile up around them this year. I want to finish cleaning up the brug bed and dig in a lot of horse manure to overwinter. I need to plant some garlic that I got this fall from my mom, who bought it from Mennonites at a farmer's market. I hope it's not too late, but I have a feeling I may be really behind with that. I've never grown garlic before, but I love to cook with it, and tend to use a lot so I thought it would be worth a try. Any help there would be appreciated!!

One final note, please contact me if you are interested in any seeds. I am always glad to share them.

Happy Halloween!!!

What's that got to do with tomatoes? Absolutely Nothing!!! (Does anyone else have music running through their minds, when they write certain things done?) Ah, never mind.

Pumpkins are a pretty easy thing to grow. Especially accidental out-of-the-compost pumpkins. They thrive in a rich, moist soil, which the compost pile provides magnificently! No matter how inconvenient a spot that may be to have pumpkins growing, it is ideal! Which leads me to garden amendments, top dressing, and composting.

I've talked about compost and additions to the garden before, but I'll touch on it again, because this year I have a special offer for any one in the Aylmer/Ottawa area. Free horse manure!!! Now if you find this offer exciting, you are either a freak, or a gardener, or both. Welcome to the club! Please send me an email for further directions. This offer is open to anyone, large or small amounts, and did I mention, free??

One reason I've been so MIA around this blog is that my days are filled; with feeding, turning out, occasionally mucking out, and general horsey stuff. Even riding once in a while. And big animals like horses produce a lot of really great potential compost. I have yet to take advantage of this fact, but I'm planning to this weekend. We have a window of opportunity weather-wise, for a really good clean up outside, which should include top dressing and/or digging in amendments into the beds. With manure, you want to make sure you get the oldest, well-rotted stuff possible, fresh is too strong and will burn the roots. If you're digging it into a veggie bed that is empty, overwintering fresher stuff should be okay. The worms and other little buggies will do the job for you. If you are side dressing shrubs, trees or perennials, the older the better the manure.

You can't get much better than horse manure. Horses are fed purely hay and grain (and the occasional bunch of carrots), unlike what is considered 'food' for cows or pigs. And the use of antibiotics and such is purely medicinal, not an every day ocurrance as it is with many other farm animals. To my mind, other than possibly mushroom compost, this makes it the safest, purest, most 'organic' compost available. Now's the perfect time to dig in!!

It's been forever....

I haven't been posting much lately, for a variety of reasons. It was a really busy summer, I never did get those blossoms bagged, and it was a terrible season production wise. Literally very few plants produced much of anything. I kind of lost hope there, and lost interest in posting much about the disastrous garden. I still managed to save a lot of seeds from the few that I did get, and I'm hoping next year will be better. I have access to all the horse manure a gardener could dream of and will be digging a lot of it in the beds this fall. Hopefully some good soil ammending will help the plants next summer. A late blight hit them, and pretty much ended the season for me. There was very little that could have been done to save them, with the weather that we had. I know I wasn't alone, looking at other gardens and talking to others, we all had a pretty crappy growing season.
What can you do? Make plans for next year!

Quick July Update

A happy little bee, and one of the reasons why I needed to bag the flowers (and didn't!) As I watched this little bee, he visited more than ten different tomato plants. Cross pollination at work! I keep telling myself there is still time to bag them, but I'm starting to think I am lying to myself!

Peaches n Cream :
variegated brugs tend to grow at a slower rate.
This one has been proving that for the last three years!

Cherokee Purple

Black Plum

Surprise Potato Patch

Frosty Pink:
Won't be much longer!

The garden and the plants are running amock. This would include the weeds, that I really should be out pulling right now, but have been putting off this post for much too long! We have had so much rain in my area for the last four weeks. And enough sun, when it comes out, that it balances out nicely, and everything seems to have double in size in the last week while I was away!
There are many little tomatoes forming on the plants, the brugs are loading up with flower buds, and I've even found a surprise potato patch in the brug bed. I got confirmation from some other gardeners, that potatoes can indeed overwinter in my zone, given the right conditions. So some little taters that were not found last fall have sprouted up into a very healthy vigorous looking potato patch.

If it ever stops raining...

I will get out there and bag some of the blossoms, taking some pictures to illustrate what I plan to do. But so far, it has rained every day for the last two weeks or so. The plants are loving it, and are growing at an incredible rate. It is enough to keep things lush and green, without drowning everything. The sun comes out for a couple hours everyday, just to remind us that it's there. Very English weather. Almost all the tomato plants have flower buds if not flowers, so it's looking good in the department.

I have found homes for a few more plants, but still have extras, if anyone is still looking for plants! Brandywines are all gone, but I still have some of the ones I mentioned in a previous post. And a couple of extra Black Cherry or Black Krim, or Carbon, or Palmira's Italian Heirloom. You know you wanna!! Give in to the temptation. You know who you are!!!

Save a Tomato Plant

Gold Medal:
large to 1 1/2lb, beefsteak tomato,
orangey-yellow, blushing with red,
superb sweet and mild flavor,
very low acid, 80 days

Omar's Lebanese:
Huge, pink beefsteak, up to 3 -4 lbs,
one of the largest tomatoes you can grow,
good disease tolerance, good yeilds,
sweet old tomato flavor,
a rare Lebanese Heirloom, 80 days

Hillbilly (RL and PL - I have both)
aka Flame
Large bi-color beefsteak, yellow/red marbled
1 -2 lbs, large yeilds,
Heirloom believed to be from West Virginia, 85 days

Okay, here's the deal:

I still have tomato plants, nice, fairly large plants, that will produce amazing tomatoes! Most are still in 4 inch pots, some are in larger than 4 inch pots. They are organic, very healthy, and promise to behave in your garden, giving you out of this world tasting tomatoes, and a rainbow of colors, as long as you treat them right! There are about 50 of these, that I cannot pitch. If they must, they will stay in these pots, producing what they will, for the rest of the summer. If you would like to adopt a few plants, with the promise that you will give me an update at the end of the summer, please contact me. The adoption fee will be waived at this point!

I can leave the plants out front for easy pick up, for anyone who wants. I also still have a few Carbon, Brandywine, and others to choose from! Please find it in your heart to give one of these lovely little plants a home!