Daffodil bulbs

Hmong Red Cucumbers

Hyacinth Beans

Moneymaker Tomato

• Purple Cauliflower (6)
• Black Sea Man Tomato (3)
• Red Hmong Cucumber (3)
• Hyacinth Bean (6)
• Red Brandywine Tomato, Landis Valley Strain (4)
• Aunt Ruby’s German Green Tomato (4)
• German Red Strawberry Tomato (4)
• Matchless Tomato (4)
• Livingston’s Golden Queen Tomato, 1882 strain (4)
• Valencia Tomato (4)
• Radiator Charlie’s Mortgage Lifter Tomato (4)
• Prue Tomato(2)
• German Queen Tomato (3)
• Wins All Tomato (3)
• African Beefsteak Tomato (3)
• Grandpa’s Cock’s Plume Tomato (3)
• 1884 Tomato (4)
• Wood’s Famous Brimmer Tomato, USDA# NSL 5793 (4)
• Abraham Lincoln Tomato, Original Strain (4)

When it comes to education my focus has always been on getting people to grow something in the first place and that can often be such a task that I leave seed saving for another  season.  The truth of the matter is that I just can’t understand why more gardening people aren’t saving their seeds! Do they somehow prefer to spend three or four bucks (or more) on a single seedling that they could have started themselves for pennies?

Often one single vegetable or fruit can produce enough seeds to grow dozens of plants.  This is true for tomatoes (my favorite fruit in the world), cantaloupes, watermelons, heck, it’s true for lots of stuff.  Half of one cantaloupe from this season’s harvest yielded enough seed for me to plant a huge border of fruit at my community garden to benefit my neighborhood and the local food bank as well.  There are dozens of seeds just waiting to be started in February.  The space is there, why not use it to grow something to help feed others?  It won’t cost me anything but the time to plant the seedlings.

One word of caution to anyone who plans to start seed saving – make sure the plants you are saving seed from are heirlooms!  Hybrid plants do not always produce fruit that is true to seed.  What that means is that the fruit or vegetables you grow from the seed of a hybrid plant will most likely not be the same as the one you started with because it was created by combining breeds for various characteristics.  It is a good rule of thumb to grow heirlooms anyway as they have a lot more character and flavor than hybrids and they haven’t been bought out by Monsanto.

If you have always wanted to but you weren’t sure how to save seeds, fear not!  I am working on writing a good primer for seed saving to be included here on MEG in the near future so stay tuned!  It isn’t as difficult or time-consuming as you might think either so don’t let that thought even cross your mind!

The weather was beginning to get loud and wet as the thunderstorms approached from the West, so knowing I wasn’t going to have to water the community garden, I just took a quick stroll over there to do my daily once-over – you know, when you just snoop around to find a new tomato here or a hidden bloom there.  I discovered my okra plant is covered up with little pods and looking fantastic.  My cantaloupe vine is threatening to overtake the neighborhood but there are several little cantaloupes getting there start so I’m excited!

As I made my way out of the five foot by eight foot plot I wrangle at the Riverside Community Garden, I bent down to pinch the peppermint plant back a bit, not wanting it to be the invasive I-want-it-all goody two shoes I know it can be.  I held the freshly picked leaves to my nose and immediately it hit me – TISANE!  One fistful of bruised mint leaves, a pot of almost boiling water.  Steep.  A teaspoon of raw honey and a huge mug is all that I need to complete the wonderful evening.

I’m now piled up on the sofa being serenaded by thunder and the sound of the plentiful rain and on my second mug of peppermint tisane.  I didn’t have to go any further than my garden to get the ingredients either.  I also have a fresh picked General Lee cucumber and a handful of 18″ long asparagus beans for my lunch tomorrow.

Tell me again why people aren’t doing this for themselves?

Since the rain is due in our area any time now, I though it was timely to include this info on cheap rain barrels.  Thanks to my partner I came across a fantastic resource for anyone who wants to take advantage of rain barrels but cannot afford the expensive ready made versions that are on the market.  The Atlanta Watershed website has a step-by-step guided tutorial that will walk you through creating a rain barrel system for your home that is incredibly easy to do and is very cost effective! Check it out here.

MEG Update

I am happy to say that all but one tomato seedling has made it into its seasonal home now and I’ve also started some Boston Pickling cucumbers as well. The herbs are all doing beautifully as are my lovely marigolds.  Before we know it there will be veggies to harvest and so many tomatoes and cucumbers in the kitchen that I will be spending hour after glorious hour pickling and canning to my heart’s content!

The Garden is Growing!
I am finally able to let the cat out of the proverbial bag and announce that after my recent move into the awesome Riverside community in the suburbs of Atlanta I am in the process of preparing to break ground on the Riverside Community Garden!  What’s more, it looks like the site is going to be directly across the street from my house so I will be able to sit in my office window while I work and watch the garden grow!  I am so excited about this development that I can barely contain myself!

Fred Conrad from the Atlanta Community Food Bank will be helping us to get things going and we are proud to help support them by planting a row for the hungry, something that I have strived to do for as long as I have been a gardener.

Stay tuned to MEG; there is sure to be something new growing all the time around here and I don’t want you to miss anything!

That’s right!  It’s not even the end of April yet and we’ve had an early birth here at MEG HQ!  The first tomato of the season has sprouted forth and promises to be beautiful and delicious!  I had to post this photo as soon as I discovered the baby because I knew that Shibaguyz would be drooling with envy and I couldn’t resist!

This is my first experience growing the hybrid tomato plant variety called “Patio” but it is definitely a hearty grower.  I am generally not one to grow hybrids but my late start in the season had me grabbing the first seedlings I could find and this one one of the first.  Thankfully I supplemented my three hybrid tomato seedlings with four heirloom tomato plants all of which are thriving already!

Happy Earth Day everyone!  Be happy and be green!

I’d rather quickly dropped my early season tomato seedling purchases into larger pots a few weeks ago and hadn’t paid attention to the fact that one of the pots had no drainage.  Yesterday a cursory check revealed the need to plant my beloved Mr. Stripey heirloom tomato plant immediately or risk losing it to rot.

Plant, we shall!

This is the first tomato plant to be planted in the ground this year so it was a milestone day of sorts.  You can read more about my love for tomatoes and my ongoing tomato-centered chatter in my weekly posts at Tomato Casual where a community of like minded folks await.

In my mailbox today I discovered this beautiful reusable shopping bag that I won from Jason James (sorry dude, I was spacing out that day) and Shala at Double Danger and Maegan from Be Smart, Be Green.  It’s wonderful, it’s durable, it’s spacious and I can’t wait to take it shopping and show it off!  Compared to the puny reusable bags you see in the supermarkets these days that are made from really cheap materials, this one is hands down a far superior bag and it is incredibly cool, to.

In other news, Shannon from Shibaguyz and I have agreed to become the inaugural members of the Floppy Hat Society to show our true love and devotion to the time honored tradition of gardening and bad hat wearing.  It takes a real man to wear a floppy hat, folks; just wait ‘til you see me in mine!  I’m actually a bit worried though because Shannon is making the hats and he has been known to get a little Bedazzler happy from time to time…

My mother used to joke that I must be part rabbit because of my love for salads.  Of course back then a salad consisted of iceberg lettuce, some tomato, perhaps some cucumber and a bit of onion and some dressing.  As the years progressed so too did my taste for the salad to the point that now I am likely to put just about anything that grows into my salad bowl at some point.

The thing that makes me most happy about the photo above – which was the salad I made for my lunch today – is that everything in it will be growing in my garden in the next few weeks.  That means I will just have to step outside to pick my lunch instead of a weekly trek to the DeKalb Farmer’s Market.  Don’t get me wrong, I adore the farmer’s market and will always be a fan because I simply can’t grow and/or make everything I need (yet).

I’m in the process now of plotting out the plans for our yard because I think some raised beds are called for this year, beds that will be perfect for the lettuces, spring onions, broccoli and cabbage.  Given the poor condition of the soil here, raised beds will offer the best overall solution for my first year at the new MEG HQ in Atlanta while Barry and I work to improve the soil.

A compost bin is another must-have that is high on my priority list.  I’ve always been a huge proponent of composting because throwing organic matter into a landfill just doesn’t make good sense.  I love the full circle feeling that  comes from growing my food from seed, nurturing it to nourish me, then taking the remainder and returning it to the soil.

A rain barrel for water reclamation is in the works as well; With the drought that the Southeast has experienced for the past several years I want to be able to use as much natural rainwater as possible, not to mention it is much better for the plants than the chemical-heavy city water.  It will also be nice to have access to my own water to give to my plants whenever they need it instead of when the city of Atlanta says I can.

Courtesy of James & Shala over at DoubleDanger.com (an amazingly fun and ultra hip place to be) yours truly has won a reusable eco-bag from Be Smart, Be Green!  I know, right?  I never win anything!  Rest assured I’ll be posting photos when it arrives; I’m just that eco-geeky.

In other news Carebear (that’s my partner) leaves after work today to spend the holiday with his family in Tennessee so I’ll be spending Easter here at the new MEGHQ on my own with Jackie & Cleo for company.  My plan is to make my first visit to Farmer D Organics and hopefully arm myself with a couple of heirloom tomato plants and some other fun edibles for the garden.

It is time to get a few new containers as well since I have a feeling this will be a big year for container gardening at MEGHQ. Since Carebear and I are both fairly adept in the kitchen the fresh herbs will be aplenty, as will the tomatoes, peppers and other delectable edibles…and since I made my first trek outside of the neighborhood yesterday and lived to tell the tale (I’m notorious for getting lost in new surroundings) I feel strangely confident in my ability to venture out without major issues so I’m going shopping, kids!

It is hard to believe it is already April of 2009 and yet that’s exactly what the calendar tells me is the case.  I am indeed in a new home in Atlanta, Georgia and aside from the ungodly pollen count early on this year and temperatures that continued to dip down into the freezing zone as recently as two days ago, I am in love with this city.

A few weeks ago my partner and I spent a weekend getting some of the yard ready for Spring by prepping a new planting bed in the front yard and along one side of the house.  We also bought a few tomato seedlings since my move and travel schedule made it impossible to start seeds myself in January. Because of the previously mentioned freeze issues, those plants have been in temporary housing for the past three weeks though I hope to have them in the ground over Easter weekend if the Farmer’s Almanac agrees (I still haven’t opened it this year).

The image above is of one of the tomato plants, a Patio tomato that will reside this year on our back deck.  As you can see it is already beginning to bloom and I am hopeful that this is a harbinger of the good things to come with this year’s gardening endeavors!  Also on the list (so far) of tomato seedlings that have come to live at My Earth Garden this season are a Big Boy, a Better Boy and an heirloom Mr. Stripey tomato plant.  I am a huge fan of heirloom tomato plants so I do hope to have at least two more heirlooms in the garden this year, possibly even in hanging planters, but I’ve found them a bit difficult to find around town so far.

With a long list of what I hope to have in the ground in the next few weeks I’m sure I’ll have to make a few alterations to the list but I am confident that I’ll be able to have a respectable garden (by my standards) with some extra work and a bit of this Georgia clay under my fingernails.

If you are in the Atlanta area and have any tips or links to great local websites, be sure to let me know.  Here’s to a great and fruitful 2009 growing season!