The 2022 Tomato Review

Yes that tomato is 1 lb 5oz!

I  know you've been waiting.  Those who have read this blog over the years know I do a tomato review at the end of the season.  I love heritage tomatoes.  There is so much variety.  You can pick from an assortment of attributes such as taste, size, colour - there's a tomato for everyone.  When I had to decide what I wanted to grow for seed this year I had a hard time choosing.  Some are old favourites but I also gave a few new plants a try.  

On a side note, I used red plastic mulch this year to see if worked to ripen fruit earlier.  Advertising says it does but in my garden it had no effect.  Instead I found the sun created a greenhouse effect and weeds grew very well under the plastic sheeting causing it to rise like a ghost in the garden.  Certainly not what the advertisers proclaimed.

What did work well was bio film.  This black film is made out of biodegradable products like cornstarch and not only kept weeds at bay but made a recognizable difference in the health of the plants.  I occasionally have trouble with early blight and there was not a spot to be found this year.  But I digress - on to the tomatoes!

Minis

I'll start with the smallest.  You may have heard me list all the things I love about Mexico Midgets before but I'm here to tell you again.  These tiny little morsels are simply packed with sweet flavour.  The size of a blueberry they are excellent for fresh snacking or sprinkling across a salad.  They work well in pita pockets too.  

I will admit the plant is not small.  Unlike most tomato plants the Mexico Midget grows more like a shrub in a horizontal direction.  Branches will grow up to ten feet if you let them.  I would suggest regular pruning to keep the plant in check and the fruit accessible.  

Yellow Pear is another regular favourite. They look like miniature pears with a bright citrus flavour.  Super cute and they taste good.

These tomatoes are aggressively healthy.  Indeterminate plants reached up to 8 feet high in my climate before frost finally killed them back.  Even after frost green tomatoes ripened and produced more tomatoes than I could pick.

Sugar Lump is a cherry tomato I have tried in the past and I gave it another go this year.  While I liked the meaty texture and ultra sweet flavour our tomato connoisseur was not as impressed.  Himself prefers a more acid taste.  I found the plants grew very quickly but weren't unusually tall - 4 feet at their maximum - and produced nice clusters of fruit, albeit a little late.

Acadian Cherry is a diminuitive plant.  Barely 6 inches tall the plants are very sturdy and produced clusters of tart fruit.  But you can't produce much when you're so small.  Jody loved the flavour of these, and I admit they would make great plants for baskets, but there's just not a lot of tomato for each plant and they were late to ripen so I'm not sure I'll try these again.

U

Black Plum is possibly my favourite tomato ever.  They are susceptible to blossom end rot which is a shame but with a little care produce amazing tomatoes whose flavour cannot be beat.  They are a purple tomato with dark green shoulders that has a bold smokey flavour. They make a perfect sun dried tomato or addition where you want a big punch of rich tomato flavour.

Mid-Size

So I know I just said Black Plum was my favourite but for a big tomato Cosmonaut Volkov is my other favourite.  It's early, productive, and healthy.  Everything you want in a tomato plant. Not only does it produce early, it keeps producing.  Perfectly round gorgeous red fruit that can weigh close to one pound each.  For value there's nothing like it but they also taste wonderful.  Just like a tomato should.

I've grown Copia before and was frustrated with the difficult plants.  They are susceptible to early blight, fruit produced late, the stems were brittle and broke easily.  So why try them again?  Because they taste AMAZING.  Jody called them the champagne of tomatoes and the taste cannot be beat.  For a fresh BLT this is the tomato you want.  They have a bright citrus flavour that's acidic and melts in your mouth.  

Plus they're beautiful.  Bright yellow with red striping both inside and out.  For this reason I'm working on the seed - collecting only the best and hoping the plant health improves because this tomato is worth it.

A new challenge this year was Ruth's Perfect Tomato.  They were supposedly the perfect red round tomato.  Plants were definitely healthy but the fruit experienced some issues, such as blossom end rot.  It was also the last to ripen in my climate and I found myself cropping plant tops in attempts to get them to ripen before the weather got too cold.  Generally the tomatoes were a good size, taste and colour but there was nothing wonderful about them and considering the other complications I wasn't impressed.

The last tomato was also a new to me challenge.  Amish Paste is known as the largest paste tomato out there and surely it was a monster.  In fact it did not look or taste like any paste tomato I've ever grown.  Indeterminate plants were 6 feet in height but were quickly pulled down by giant fruit.  The tomatoes themselves were plagued by stink bugs which suck the fruit juices, and blossom end rot.  The fruit was also inconsistent, to the point where I wondered if there were multiple plants growing together.  Some were perfectly round, while others had the more traditional paste tomato shape.  I'm not overly fond of paste tomatoes anyway so the flavour and texture wasn't something I was impressed with.  I think I'll stick to more traditional paste tomatoes in the future.

welcome to tomato alley

That's a wrap for the 2022 season.  I hope you enjoyed this and let me know if there's a favourite tomato you have that I should try next year!

Goodbye Fiona

The garage stuffed with plants pre-hurricane

 

Some of you may know that Hurricane Fiona touched down in the Canadian Atlantic Maritimes in the wee hours of September 24.  It was a long sleepless night but it's been an even longer recovery.  Personally we were without power for 11 days after the storm, at the height of harvest season, with frost on the horizon.  To say we're exhausted would be an understatement.  

 

 

 

We are incredibly fortunate, the house weathered the onslaught of wind admirably.  Shingles were torn loose but no leaks.  The attic windows blew out but it appears the insulation didn't get overly wet.  Trees came down, but nothing on a building or car. 

Apple trees were no match for the wind

 Sadly across the island others were not so lucky.  Barns collapsed, animals were hurt, roofs came off, crops were flattened, cars and homes were damaged by falling trees.  I am still in shock when I look at all the destruction surrounding me.  

The attic window broke into pieces

I have thought many times in the last two weeks how crazy I was to try and start a seed business.  This year of all years, as I stand looking at my fallen sunflowers, tomatoes thrown across the yard.  Was this the right thing to do?  I don't know if it is but I do know that I will continue to try.  There are seeds crammed into every nook and cranny of this house right now.  Beans drying on racks in the garage, sunflowers basking on trays in the living room, buckets of tomato seed fermenting.  Despite the many setbacks I know as a gardener, this is what a growing season looks like.  Some plants don't make it, there are surprises and hurdles.  You experience despair, frustration and glorious happiness.  The perfect carrot.  Sun setting on a flower. Bees swirling around blooms.  These all make it worthwhile.  So while my harvest isn't setting any records, it is there.  And I can't wait to share it with you.

Today, after winds and frost, a couple blooms still remain

Weeds and Mulch

We all have to deal with them - weeds.  The question is how.  Any healthy garden soil will produce great plants but inevitably the weeds love that good soil too.  Gardeners spend a lot of time weeding and trying to prevent weeds.  Mulch, I believe most everyone would agree, is key.  If you don't want to spend your summer on your knees pulling weeds you need to put something down on the bare earth to slow their growth.

  

More than a few weeds here!

Flower gardens typically use cedar mulch.  It comes in a variety of colours and allows water to seep through to the ground below.  It can also define the edge of garden beds in an attractive way.

Black cedar mulch defines beds

In my vegetable patch I have traditionally used straw to mulch my plants.  Like cedar, it's an organic material that allows water to seep in, but unlike wood chips it breaks down quickly.  This is actually a benefit as it can be left in place and adds nutrients and structure to the soil over time.  

Strawberries mulched with straw

This year, faced with a much larger garden space, I had to determine how best to combat weeds.  Wood mulch is expensive and I find that straw itself often starts to sprout and weeds take hold.  Given I was tearing up a piece of ground that was inhabited by goldenrod and thistles last year I figured I would try something a little different.  Plastic.

 

Now I realize it's not organic, and it doesn't breakdown.  Plastic can be detrimental to sea life, clog up landfills and we need to find ways to reduce using it altogether.  These are all good reasons not to use it as mulch.

But on a small scale farm plastic can be used repeatedly if you're careful.  It warms the soil in a way that other mulches can't.  It completely blocks out weeds and provides a clean surface when your growing melons and squash.

After weighing the different factors I decided to try it as an experiment.

I didn't use just any plastic though.  I found something called Bio Film.  It's a 100% compostable, biodegradable film made from cornstarch.  It looks like and acts like plastic in the garden.  However, by the end of the season it starts to break down.  What hasn't degraded can be tilled back into the soil, broken into smaller pieces and left to degrade completely.   

 

 

I wasn't sure how to lay out such a large space and using plastic was actually quite useful to me for this task.  Four foot wide plastic was easily laid out and tucked into the dirt creating clean rows. 

I did find working with the BioFilm had some quirks.  As it isn't really plastic at all it has different qualities.  It's thin.   You can put a finger through it without pushing too hard.  You can see where there are rocks in the beds it stretched the film.  I had to start removing as many rocks as possible to save my film.  Strong weeds will actually push through the film and pop right through it so it doesn't create a perfect weed barrier.

You also can't direct seed with plastic.  So some rows were bare and I used the plastic strictly where I was putting transplants.  A quick cut with an exacto knife created the hole for the transplant.  Sometimes the hole got a big stretched by my hands trying to dig plants in though. 

It worked though.  I would absolutely use this film again.  The black colour warmed the soil really well.  Well enough that I grew watermelons for the first time this summer!  Additionally my melons are clean as they are not sitting directly in dirt.  Although I will admit some watermelons got so heavy they broke through the film just by their sheer weight.

A few holes have appeared in the film and weeds broke through in places but nothing so bad that I had a real problem.  It will remain to be seen how well it breaks down in the ground over winter.  I will keep you posted on its environmental impact.

In addition to the BioFilm I also tried a row of red plastic.  This is a traditional plastic but the red colour supposedly boosts growth in tomato plants and increases your yield.  If I'm careful this plastic can be used year after year.

It's hard to tell if it's been a help to the tomatoes or not.  They have begun to ripen in the last week but honestly it's been a banner year for all kinds of plants.  We've had lots of rain and heat and my tomatoes are 6 feet high in places and 4 feet wide.  Where they can't climb they have stretched across rows.  So regardless of the plastic I will be bringing in a productive crop. 

What I did notice about the red plastic is that it promoted weeds.  Too much light was able to seep through, unlike the black, and it created a greenhouse effect under the plastic.  The weeds growing underneath literally lifted the plastic off the ground by 3 or 4 inches.  I had to reach my hand in the plant holes and try to rip out the weeds underneath in a sweeping action.  It was a giant pain and not something I particularly want to do again.

 

Attempting to weed UNDER the plastic!

The other issue with plastic is watering.  Generally when you're using plastic people use drip irrigation.  There's no other way to get water to plants easily under that barrier.  I couldn't afford that so decided to do things a little differently.  Again, my garden is relatively small so I can get away with this.  In a larger scale farm it would not work.  I hand watered down each plant hole for much of the summer.  This allowed me to check plants regularly for health.  My husband said if we do this again we need to mark the holes with a stake as we couldn't find the holes by August!  The other tool I used was water stakes.    You can see pop bottles sticking out of the ground in the photo below.

Each pop bottle is attached to a plastic stake with holes drilled into it.  You fill the pop bottle and it drains slowly into the stake and seeps into the ground.  They are easy to see and fill and give a slow deep watering to plants.  This little tool was my life saver this year.

If you're interested in the BioFilm I found it at Williams Dam Seeds, located in Ontario, Canada.  Plant stakes are available through Lee Valley.  I would recommend both.  Happy Gardening Everyone.  I hope you're having a great season wherever you may be.

Poppies - A Classic for your Wildflower Meadow

Poppies have long been a favourite of mine.  There is something decidedly elegant about their tissue thin petals, when the sun hits in just the right way you can see right through them.  They appear so fragile with their large flowers waving atop tall thin stems.  Yet poppies are incredibly resilient and are probably best known as a common addition to wildflower meadows.  Not exactly the place for a fussy flower.

I have been playing with poppies this year.  I have been growing a simple pink variety for some years but decided this was the year to expand my horizons.   

 

 

My standard pink poppy

Papaver somniferum is of eastern Mediterranean heritage.  They have been known by many names throughout history.  Breadseed poppy for their edible seeds.  Opium poppy for their drug producing capabilities.  For those who love flowers they are known for their beauty. 

Corn poppies

 

Now there are a number of other poppy species.  California poppies, Icelandic Poppies, Corn Poppies, Himilayann Poppies, Oriental Poppies.  The list goes on.  All are beautiful but I have focused on the Breadseed Poppy as a personal favourite. This is an annual flower that combines well in my country garden.  Flowers appear in my veggie beds as well as the flower beds and are equally at home. 

 

Not only are the flowers gorgeous but the seed heads are equally interesting.  Dried they make a great addition to fall bouquets.

 

 

 

This year I received a packet of poppy seed as a gift.  As poppies can be crossbred and there are numerous cultivars available I thought I would give it a try to create my own cultivar.  My mother had a double variety growing in her garden for years that I loved but I was unable to replicate the conditions of her garden to make it happy here.  So I planted seed from a number of different sources this year to see what I might create.  

 

Bees love poppies and simply planting them together can create conditions for cross breeding.  Dusting poppies together by hand can also work.  The possible combinations are endless.  Colour, petal shape, doubles.  Each year I intend to select for beauty, sturdiness and health in our maritime climate.  I don't know what the end result will look like but I'm excited about the possibilities.

I started collecting seed in the last couple weeks.  I fall planted numerous poppies so I have seed already.  Poppies easily dry on the stalk and it's a simple task to shake them to release the seed into a bucket.
 

 

The weather being a bit rainy I did snip some heads and laid them to dry in the garage so mold wouldn't take over.

I'm looking forward to next year already.  What exciting flowers will surprise me I can't wait to see.

My Love for Borage

Borage isn't a common garden flower.  There are no poems about the beauty of its petals.  No songs waxing poetic about it as a symbol of enduring love.  That's fair really.  The flowers are only a couple centimeters large, forever facing downward so that you don't normally see their fair faces.  Worse still they don't bloom in large masses, creating a riot of colour.  Rather the bunches of flower buds open one by one, just giving us a glimpse of sky blue petals.  For these reasons I don't believe borage has ever risen to great heights of popularity.

 

Yet I still plant it each and every year. Not in my flower beds, but in my vegetable garden.  Not that these starry blue flowers wouldn't be at home in any flower bed.  Woven through other plants the bright spots of blue (and sometimes pink) flowers are eye catching, and the soft silver coloration of the leaves provides a welcome and interesting foliage addition.  Personally though I like to plant it in large clumps.  This year I have one such clump on the far edge of the small vegetable garden.  Another large clump is smack dab in the middle of my tomatoes.

 

There's a reason for this.  Some of you may be aware that borage is edible.  Flowers make a pretty garnish on drinks and desserts.  Flowers and leaves can be steeped for tea.  You can cook the leaves like a green, or even make soup.  There are plenty of medicinal properties as well.  Borage is classed as a herb and can be used in poultices and salves.

I've tried eating it and wasn't too fussed honestly.  The plant has fine prickly hairs from tip to toe and I didn't particularly like that texture.  What I really love about borage is what it does for my other plants.  It attracts pollinators. 

If you have a vegetable garden you want to make sure that your plants get pollinated.  I have found over the years that bees love borage and will visit my garden in droves when I plant it.  Subsequently they venture into my tomatoes and do some good work there.  By planting borage I ensure good pollination of my crops and provide a healthy food source for bees.  Since borage doesn't bloom in one quick explosion, it also means that insects are able to find food all summer long.  A mass of plants provides flowers over a two or three month span in my climate.  

One downside as a seed collector is that seed ripens very haphazardly.  Some is ready to drop while other flowers are just starting to bloom.  For the home gardener it means that borage will spread on its own and you will never be without plants if you grow it once.  The seedlings are easy to spot with their large silver leaves so if you don't like volunteers they are relatively easy to pull. 

 

Borage has become a standard in my garden. I look forward to those bright blue flowers every year and watching the bees hum along from plant to plant.  I hope it becomes one of your favourites too.

A New Garden

You may be wondering if I dropped off the map again and that would be fair.  I'm surprised to see that several months have gone by and I haven't managed to write a word.  The reality is that I have been obscenely busy!

Turns out starting a new garden is hard work.  Some of you may recall that back in 2010 I started my first vegetable garden here in PEI.  It was just an empty spot of land then, situated between the house and the garage.

It's so funny to look at that empty space now.  It feels like so long ago.  It took me several years to go from an empty bit of lawn to a garden.  I wasn't in a hurry and I wasn't sure about shape, tilling, or raised beds at first.  I took my time trying out various methods and in the end I did both.  Some beds feature perennials, others are dug each year.  Raised beds have proven wonderful for carrots and other root veggies.  I added a plastic hoop tunnel, trellis, and compost bin.  Today it looks like this.

 

I experimented with different plants over the years.  Corn has become a favourite.  Strawberries got the boot for requiring too much effort.  Certain varieties of plants like Queensland Blue Pumpkins and Mexico Midget tomatoes are planted again and again.

 

 

This year has been very different.  The garden you see in the photo above I now refer to as the small garden.  The real work has occurred in the field to the right.

Tractors were brought in back in April.  First they plowed the ground, then they came back and tilled.  And tilled again.... and again.  Leaving me with a beautiful patch of dirt to really work at.

The first plow

Since then I've had to make lots of decisions in short order.  How do you weed this amount of ground?  How do you water?  What should I plant?  Rows or blocks?  Plastic or straw?  It's a lot to take on but I've been enjoying every minute.  Today the field looks like this.

It's been quite the journey but well worth it.  Despite having gardened for many years I'm still learning.  I love that.  Just when you think you know how to do this mother nature throws a curveball.  Some of it's not fun.  I had a cucumber beetle invasion this year.  It decimated my pumpkins and I wanted to cry.  But some is amazing.  Like discovering a watermelon seed that works in my climate!! I can't wait to try delicious fruit in the very near future.  I'm hooked on my new space and thrilled with how much I can grow here.  Like any good gardener, I'm already planning how to rearrange, change and expand next year!

The Argument for Flowers

I've been making difficult choices lately.  Gardeners will know right away what I'm talking about.  There's a pile of seed packets and only so much space.

 

 

 

So how does one decide what to plant and what to save for another year?  Food is always a priority in my garden.  I love vegetables, feeding myself and my spouse with organic fresh food.  There's nothing better than pulling corn from the garden and throwing it straight into the pot to cook.  This year particularly my priority is vegetables as I intend to grow out seed for sale.  Home gardens have taken off in the last couple years and there's a lot of people looking for vegetable seed. 

 

 

I remember my mother telling me that when she grew up on the farm flowers were a luxury.  Food crops got the high priority space and flowers were an afterthought.  It was always more important to feed your family and her family considered flowers wasted space that could have grown food.  Yet I'm still attracted to flowers.  Their beauty lifts the soul, they invite you to look and they attract insects.  Yes you read that right.  They attract insects.  That's a good thing.

 

It's true mosquitos make me itch, and I get queasy at the sight of a june bug but the reality is that vegetable gardens require bees and beetles and all manner of flies in order to bear fruit.  If we don't plant flowers what will attract the bugs that pollinate our food?  So in addition to zucchini and tomatoes I will be making room for flowers.  Between the tomatoes and the corn there will be simple flowers with open faces to attract insects.  Double blooms are too difficult for many insects to access so I will plant single poppies, cosmos, and borage.  Borage particularly attracts beneficial insects such as honeybees and beneficial insects such as ladybugs.  Bees and butterflies love poppies.

My sea holly is always full of bees and hover flies.  By drawing these insects in I am ensuring a good harvest and my garden will also be a thing of beauty.

 

Accepting Change

The world feels broken right now.  For many reasons.

 

Here in Canada, the population's conflicting medical and political views recently resulted in an angry mob descending on our capital city and conducting a volatile sit in.  While I appreciate a good protest this was different.  What I have seen in the last months is not just frustration with medical protocols but includes threats, intimidation, racist, sexist, and homophobic behaviour.  People are expressing not just frustration but hatred toward points of view they don't share.  There is a level of intolerance that, while it doesn't completely surprise me, is disturbing in its size and vitriol. 

Why this has occurred is something the experts will probably analyze for years to come.  I am just one voice among many but it seems to me that the world has changed quickly and there are many who don’t like or want change.  I will admit I have a hard time with it too.  I’m getting older and change doesn’t come quite as easily as it once did.  I find myself frustrated at times, why am I always having to learn something new?  Why can’t things be consistent?  Good grief, I even have to learn new words.  I have a pretty broad vocabulary but I feel out of touch many days.  

Rapid change can be unsettling and, I think, cause fear.  Fear leads to anxiety, aggression, or panic.  It can be expressed in negative ways such as hostility, or anger.  The world has experienced so much change these past two years.  People have lost jobs, their daily schedules are altered, new rules are imposed, they fear for their health and the health of their loved ones.  Sadly these fears are being expressed as hostility and directed at people who inadvertently represent change.  Immigrants, nurses, politicians, people of colour, minorities and the LGBTQ community are some of the many who have anger directed at them. 

 

What is happening is not okay.  You can be frustrated with policies, you can protest to preserve rights.  But threatening people because they are unlike you and don't share your beliefs is unacceptable. We need to do better as a society.  I can't change the world but I personally can change.  I have previously been uncomfortable with the declaration of pronouns.  I didn't think it necessary.  But it has occurred to me that it is necessary for some people.  By displaying their pronouns they are putting themselves at risk but also proudly expressing who they are and asking for respect.  It's a small step but what better way to show support, to let people know that I am a safe haven and respect them.  Let's leave hate and fear behind and let our fellow citizens know they are loved and supported.   Let's tell the world we have their back.  Change can be good.

Marguerite

She/Her

A New Adventure

 

 

There was a time I thought about removing this blog from the internet completely.  At one point in my life it brought me joy to share my journey in what was my new home.  But life moved in other directions and it's been years since I've put it to use.  When I looked at the stats though I saw that it was of use to others.  Weather patterns, seed collecting, the best kinds of tomatoes.  People have found bits and pieces of useful information so I have left it be.  

Now here I am years later and this blog has found it's place in my life again.  The world isn't quite so simple these days.  Changing climate, pandemic and civil unrest.  There is a lot to be anxious about, and frustrated.  In the last weeks I turn on the tv and become angry.  The state of Canada is shocking to say the least.  There's a lot I would like to say about that.  Things I would like to shout from the rooftops.  But there's already a great divide in this country and a lot of people saying a lot of things.  For better or worse.

So instead I will note that when life gets you down you must choose how you respond to it.  I'm choosing to respond by changing course in a positive manner.  Years ago I had thought briefly of working in the agricultural sector, perhaps sharing the seeds that brought me so much joy. That thought was pushed aside at the time in favour of my nine to five job.  I have continued to garden, and save seed.  Many of those seeds gifts from other bloggers and readers.  And now I am making myself ready to try a new adventure.  The garden is expanding this year.  Currently my vegetable garden contains a half dozen raised beds and as many in ground as seen below.

This spring, part of the field beside the garden will get turned over.  Approximately 3600 square feet to start.  My favourite heirloom seeds will be planted with the hope to preserve them for future generations.  Over the last two years people have begun gardening in earnest.  Growing fresh healthy and cheap food for their families.  I hope these seeds will find their way into those hands for people to enjoy for years to come.