Tomato Growing Class at CSUN, March 6!

I received an email for this year's tomato growing class at Cal State Northridge. My wife and I plan to be there.

If you would like to sign up, send me an email or post a comment and I'll forward your email to the correct email address at CSUN. I won't publish their email address here because spammers will eventually find it. Send it to me before March 6 (ideally, before February 6) and I'll forward it.

See you there!

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: CSUN-al Gardening 2010 announcement - Crazy for TOMATOES!
Date: Mon, 1 Feb 2010 15:59:20 -0800
From: bgarden <----@csun.edu>
To: bgarden <----@csun.edu>


CSUN-al Gardening Class: Crazy for TOMATOES!, Saturday, March 6, 2010
9 - 11 a.m. - Scott Daigre, PowerPlant Garden Design.

Regular registration begins February 6. (Note you are not registered until you receive confirmation of your place in the class. Friends of the Garden, new/renewed in 2009/2010, may register now. Not-yet-Friends must wait until February 6 to submit their requests.)

The irrepressible Mr. Tomatomania, Scott Daigre, will delight us with his practical tips on tomato growing and selecting the varieties best suited to the San Fernando Valley. As well as enjoying his own home garden, Mr. Daigre is the proprietor of PowerPlant Garden Design and the annual Tomatomania! event in Encino. His garden designs have been featured on DIY and HGTV programs.

Registration for the class begins on February 6; however, Friends of the Garden (new/renewed in 2009/2010) may pre-register now (for information on joining the Friends group, see the second paragraph below). While the class is free, registration is required. To register, please e-mail ----@csun.edu to request a space in the class. Due to the popularity of this class, it is suggested that you register as early as possible - the class is expected to fill quickly once the press release goes out to the local newspapers. Driving and parking instructions, as well as the classroom location, will be sent with confirmation of registration. The same email address may also be used for questions about the class.

The Cal State Northridge Botanic Garden is operated by the Department of Biology and serves as a field site for botany, entomology, photography, painting and other classes. In addition to geographically themed plantings and a butterfly garden, there are greenhouses where noteworthy botanical specimens are grown. The garden is open to the community. Visit the Botanic Garden website: http://www.csun.edu/botanicgarden for more information.

Friends of the Garden provide financial support for the special projects of the CSUN Botanic Garden, including the CSUN-al Gardening Series. For those of you wishing to join the Friends group, annual membership is $30 individual and $40 family. Checks should be addressed to "CSUN Foundation - Botanic Garden", and mailed to CSUN Botanic Garden, 18111 Nordhoff St - MC 8303, Northridge, CA 91330-8303. Your donation is fully tax deductible, and the CSUN Foundation will send a letter acknowledging your charitable contribution.

The Flag Has Dropped!

It's been a busy weekend....

On Saturday morning my wife and I went to the “Tomato Temptations” class at Cal State Northridge. The teacher was Scott Daigre, the operator of the TomatoMania web site. As always, Scott was both entertaining and informative.

After speaking with Scott after the event, my wife and I went to a birthday party for the son of our “seed lady”. The event started at ten in the morning so we missed most of the party. But we did catch the last hour or so, in time for the cake to be cut and the birthday boy to receive his present.

On the way home we picked up a crape myrtle given from a friend's house.

We went home and I began to catch up on things. The crape myrtle was planted in the front parkway. After about 45 minutes, our neighbor came by with the rented rototiller. (Oh yeah, he was going to rent one this weekend!). He was done with it and Bill, feel free to use it for about another 90 minutes, when I have to return it.

So I started it up in the back yard and let her rip...and more or less I was ice skating with it. The rototiller was skimming the surface dirt. A pin fell out with held another pin in place, which left the depth bar loose. This became a problem so my wife called the neighbor.

He came over with his two children. My wife watched the two children while we worked the back yard. We found the missing pin and reset everything. Based on his suggestion, we made it a two man job – one to break the soil and the other to run the rototiller. It worked beautifully! We alternated – one breaking the dirt in front and the other rototilling. Without his help we would never have finished in time.

After such an active day, my wife and I zombied in front of the TV for the evening.

Sunday morning we went out for breakfast and visited Green Thumb. We bought four tomato plants: Sweet 100, Sweet Olive, Cherokee Purple and Patio. Also, we bought three bags of planter mix, worms and worm castings.

I needed to do some work for my consulting clients, so my wife worked out while I did computer work. After she came back, she planted Cherokee Purple in the front yard and cleaned up the brick border surrounding the “koi pond”.

At that point I needed a break so I helped my wife plant the other three tomato plants in back yard containers. Also, I distributed the worm castings over the recently rototilled back yard. I started the internal tomato documentation.

My wife has just informed me that we have 95 seedlings growing. She's the new “seed lady”!

So there you go! I was sort of planning to rototill the back yard but didn't expect it to really happen. It did. There was no plan to buy tomato plants, but we bought four of them and they're already planted.

The flag has dropped and the race is on!