Tomatoes Anyone?

If you want to start seedlings yet this year, it’s time to do it. If you want to start lettuce or onions or peas, you now have the choice of starting them indoors or directly sowing these cold hearty vegetables.

If you’d like to try a indoor seeding of tomatoes, you should get a move on. It’s widely recommended growing tomatoes for 4 to 6 weeks inside before transplanting.

In central Pennsylvania, the recorded last frost date is May 4th. However, we’ve had frost after that and many use Mother’s day as a safe starting point. We have just enough time to start our seed, but we have to do it now.

Can’t do it now? Not to fear. Erica Beadle, Nursery Manager at Highland Gardens said they will stock over 40 varieties of tomatoes this year. Check out their website for a list:
http://www.highlandgardens.org/

Both Highland Gardens and Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouse will be carrying heirloom varieties as well.

Shirley Halk, a Dauphin County Master Gardener, said people shouldn’t be afraid to try heirlooms. Halk’s heirloom tomatoes have performed every bit as well as any hybrids and taste much better.

Some of the heirloom varieties she suggests growing are:

Old German – A large tomato with a pink inside
Cherokee Purple – Flavorful rose colored favorite
Amish Paste – Plum shaped, excellent for paste and sauce
Green Zebra (not always an heirloom) – Green and yellow tomato with added spice and zing

I got the sense that Halk had grown and loved many other varieties of heirloom tomatoes and would probably discover at least one other variety to add to her list this summer.

Ashcombe Farm and Greenhouses lists their tomato plant varieties at:
http://www.ashcombe.com/vegetablelist.htm

Mid-Atlantic Garden Show continued

Connected to Circa antique's booth, was The Gardener of the Owl Valley. Owner Judy Bono and her niece bustled to keep up with the steady stream of customers and to keep their booth neat and stocked. Judy created tiny gardens including moss and ferns, based in nice pottery and covered with graceful glass. She made these modern terrariums - that often contained an animal figure for a smile- specially for the show. Visitors loved them and took them home with them. I watched The Gardener of the Owl Valley customers lean in to peer closely at her hand-crafted bird nests decorated with a variety of fun objects from butterflies to colorful eggs. She also stocked books, gloves and Czechoslovakian glass bead jewelry.

Both Circa Antiques and The Gardener of the Owl Valley offer similar things in their York, PA., businesses.

Meeting several Dauphin County Master Gardeners really made me want to fire up my growing lights. Master Gardener Shirley Halk brightly sparked as she described some of her favorite heirloom tomatoes. Master Gardener Carol Schmidt was so helpful and kind that she sent me a list of websites to check out the following day.

I went to the show hoping to see some intensely creative plantings and landscaping to spring forward my imagination for my gardens. I didn't find that. Meeting the vendors, master gardeners and seeing their creativity and passion made the trip very valuable.

The show, closing today, was held in the Toyota Arena in the fairgrounds in York, PA. It ran from February 26 to March 1, 2009.
More on organic growing, the victory garden and heirloom vegetables in coming days.