So I have a confession to make. In the 7 years I have gardened (4 years in Houston, 3 years in South Carolina), I have managed to do so without having a soil test. A lot of folks do not…
2017 Tomato Update #1
Like all bloggers, I must apologize for not posting more often. I confess that most of the little updates I do end up on Facebook in the Growing Tomatoes group. So far it has been mostly drama-free and there are…
Gardening Folklore: Egg Shells & Coffee Grounds
Every new gardener seeking out knowledge will eventually be subjected to their fair share of folklore and superstition. I actually went seeking out some of more outlandish tales and stumbled upon the Blind Pig and the Acorn. Some of the…
Labor Day 2017 Garden Update
We’ve just past Labor Day here in the US, and other than a Sungold plant which keeps on cranking out sweet day-glow orange cherry tomatoes, the rest of the garden has pretty much ground to a screeching halt. I’ve pulled…
Watermelon Success!
I love Watermelon, but I cannot say the feeling has been mutual over the years.
My Current Garden Plan for 2016
If you’re curious about this year’s garden plan, here’s the details. I’m definitely tomato-heavy this year. If I end up putting a zillion jars of sauce, then I will back off and try other crops next year. The broccoli, brussels…
Sweet Corn: Why You Should Ignore the Seed Packet
In a traditional farm setting, sweet corn is planted in rows three feet apart with plants every 8-12 inches. This spacing is designed to accommodate mammoth harvesting equipment. However three foot spacing is implausible in a home garden. The male and female…
May 25th Update: Ambrosia Corn, 2nd Batch of Tomatoes Planted
It’s long since time to get sweet corn in the ground. In lieu of using a tiller, I thought the next best thing would be to add a couple bags of GardenPro Topsoil. Normally topsoil is rather heavy stuff and a…
May 15th Update: New Gate & Sod Cutting the Old Fashioned Way
Last year I had huge germination problems with sweet corn. After sowing countless seeds of Ambrosia and Bodacious in the loose, friable soil I’d established at the remote garden and getting virtually no result, I tried planting some in the…
May 4th Update: Transplants In, More on the Way
Raised beds have been built and cardboard placed under the trucked-in soil to smother the weeds. Of course Sebastian helped! Fence and gate have been built and installed (which Sebastian did not appreciate). I started my tomato seeds in February…
Seed Starting Mix — When Leftovers Go Really Really Wrong!
Well I’m officially behind on getting ready for my gardening season here in the Piedmont of South Carolina. After 2 years co-gardening at a friend’s house down the road, we’ve gone our separate ways and I am now starting from…
Parsnips: Just Add Water
The instructions on the seed package for most carrots and parsnips are deceptively simple. Scatter seeds (or barely bury a seed tape impregnated with seeds) and “keep soil moist for several days”. What these instructions omit is that the seed…
Introducing the Unconventional Tomato
Now that I have moved from Texas and have resumed gardening, I thought it would be a good time to relaunch a website for my gardening endeavors. Gardening in the Carolinas has presented new challenges but also new opportunities to…
How to Survive a Tomato Tasting
Here is the To Do List that Suze and I developed for the South East Texas Tomato Festival over the years. All told, it takes about 10 hours of planning and execution to put on an informal tomato tasting, yet…
No SETTFest for 2013
I am sorry to report that the originators of the South East Texas Tomato Festival (SETTFest) are no longer able to operate this event. And despite a plentitude of motivated gardeners in and around Central and Southeast Texas, all attempts…
2012 SETTFest Cancelled
EVENT CANCELLED We have had some unforeseen scheduling issues and other commitments come up that make hosting the event this year impossible. Putting on a tomato tasting for this many people requires our full attention and organization, so we apologize, but…
SETTFest 2011 a Huge Success
A new venue for our 5th annual SETTFest brought with it a much larger crowd and more tomatoes for everyone to try out! We lost count at 70 people in attendance, and also saw a welcome increase in the number…
SETTFest 2010 Sizzling Flavors
The 4th annual South East Texas Tomato Festival (SETTFest) was our third visit to picturesque Washington on the Brazos state park. Despite the unrelenting heat, it’s still a great venue to hold this event. This year, the date (June 19th,…
SETTFest 2009 Best Year Ever
The 3rd annual South East Texas Tomato Festival (SETTFest) returned to the historic Washington on the Brazos state park on June 13th, 2009. We had our best turnout yet, with familiar faces, new folks, and unexpected guests. We had a…
SETTFest 2007 a Great Success
Columbus, TX — June 16th, 2007 We had 25 attendees at the inaugural South East Texas Tomato Festival. There were close to 90 tomato varieties, cucumbers, peppers, herbs, homemade cold-pressed olive oil, mustard, fruit preserves, bread, pickled peppers, pasta salads,…