Last Tomato Plant Pulled

The last tomato plant, the back yard Husky Cherry Red, was pulled on Saturday.

We started working on the raised bed over last weekend but didn't get very far. We bought screws to hold the redwood together and will take the bolts/nuts back.

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.

Back From Vacation; 2 More Plants Pulled

Recently we came back from a 10 day vacation, coming back to the middle of a series of heavy storms in SoCal.

While away, our gardener pulled out two more tomato plants, a week ago Saturday, Black Cherry and the second Green Zebra from our back yard, leaving the back yard Husky Cherry Red as the only surviving plant of 2009. The day after our return I found four ripe tomatoes on the plant and gave them to our Manchester Terrier. On Saturday I found about a half dozen more, split open because of the excess water from the rains, and gave them again to our Manchester Terrier.

Putting down all of the mulch before our vacation turned out to be a very smart thing. At the start of our trip I was still having back pain and stiffness but by the end of the trip it had almost completely went away. All that mulch must be leaching in to our soil, providing nutrients and ground cover for 2010.

It looks like a very good start for our garden in 2010.

But...why does something things happen around our vacation?

The night before this latest vacation, my wife was called over to our neighbor's house across the street. This is the house with the two daughters, now 3 and 2, with whom we had a falling out with their parents last year. Things had gotten better, though not to the point where we were invited over for dinner anymore.

So my wife gets a call and goes across the street. At this point I'm not paying too much attention to this, as we're packing to go on our trip as well as the fact we have company. Later on my wife calls me over. I come over and my wife says to take the two kids over to our house and take care of them for a while. Based on how she said it and what isn't being said, I took it to be “Something's wrong right now, get the kids out of the middle of this and I'll tell you later.” That proved to be accurate.

But first, I brought the two daughters over and chased them all around our house. They had a fabulous time, running, laughing, screaming and having an all around good time. I don't remember the exact time line, but eventually my wife made it back home, we fed the daughters some soup and brought them back to their residence happy and fed.

Without going into all the detail, our neighbors broke up that night and my wife was getting pulled in the middle of it.

On the night before our honeymoon there was an incident with another neighbor – the one to the north of us, Mr. Alongi. He had to go to the hospital that night (he's diabetic and at the time not in the best of health). Again, we had to postpone packing as we had to get a hold of his family to let them know what was happening and get him to the hospital. I forget if we brought him to the hospital (it might have been an ambulance that came to the residence, which is what got us involved) but we definitely picked him up from the hospital that night. We lost valuable time trying to find him at the hospital. My wife called the closest relative and spoke to her husband, whose attitude was roughly “Why are you wasting our time?”

We packed very hurriedly for our trip, tossing things into our bags.

A few weeks after our return (I believe the exact date to be November 13, 2007), my wife and our “seed lady” quite possibly saved Mr. Alongi's life by checking up on him and finding him passed out on the ground in a diabetic coma.

In early 2006, my then girlfriend (now my wife) and I planned a trip to Maui. Her brother had a time share available and we used the facilities. A day or two before the trip I introduced my girlfriend to my brother Jim (whose birthday is today) and his fiancee Evie.

Was there a problem with the meeting? No...we spent about 90 minutes together and had quite a nice time. They liked my girlfriend, my girlfriend liked them and everyone enjoyed each others' company.

When we got to the car to head home I got very quiet. In short, I immediately told her my youngest brother will find out about our meeting and get extremely jealous. “Because 1) I now have a girlfriend 2) We met Jim and Evie, we got along and had a good time and 3) We're going on vacation in Maui. He won't be able to handle it and he'll retaliate against you.” A few minutes later I added “And Jim and Evie will stop talking to us as well, due to the pressure from my youngest brother.”

While I wasn't 100% accurate, I was quite close to 100% accurate and certainly prescient.

Off to Maui we went.

Some time during the vacation (my wife remembers this as the day before we returned to the mainland) my girlfriend went shopping while I checked my messages at home.

On the machine was a message from my mother. The gist of the message is as follows: “Bill, this is your mother. My brother has told me to tell you that unless you learn how to get along, he needs to protect his children and his family from you until you do.”

I had to hear this message several times. I let my girlfriend hear the message a couple of times. I called my mother about her message as we were walking along the beach in Maui in the evening.

Everything I told my girlfriend came true, with the exception of I was the one being retaliated against more than my girlfriend.

So it appeared that Jim and my brother spoke and Jim was told basically never to speak to me again. My youngest brother couldn't directly leave a message because he had zero interest in showing his warped opinions to the light of day and instead used my mother to make the call. That also pulls my mother over to his side in his eyes and absolves him of any responsibility because it's what she said, not what he believes.

A little passive/aggressive, wouldn't you say? And how does one counteract “You don't get along!!!” You see, if you argue the fact you don't get along...that means you don't get along. Self-fulfilling prophecy.

Jim and Evie stopped answering my calls and never again have the four of us met for any length of time inside their residence. I've never seen nor heard from my niece and nephew again until their wedding. I've reported previously about how my youngest brother and their wife refused to introduce their children to either myself or my then fiancee, but still publicly insulted me to their children (and the wedding audience) when my wife went to the restroom. Jim is now very tight-lipped around both me and my wife.

Watch out when we go on vacation – something explodes!!

Oh well...

Yesterday (Sunday) we got the redwood, bolts, nuts and washers for making our raised no dig garden bed. I don't know when I'll put it together but at least we have all the pieces, save for a couple washers.

Six More Tomato Plants Pulled, Mulch Applied

The gardener and my wife pulled out six tomato plants on Saturday – Snow White(2), the front yard Husky Cherry Red, Dr. Wyche's Yellow, Babywine, Green Zebra(1) and White Zebra.

After the loose tomatoes were picked up and thrown away, I started turning the dirt in the “koi pond”. I got about halfway done on Saturday. My wife covered the turned area with the ponderosa pine mulch remaining in the driveway.

The next day, Sunday, I finished turning the dirt in the “koi pond” and turned the dirt in the fallow area of the “corner office”. Then my wife and I distributed the remaining mulch in these areas as well as other areas in the front yard, using the rest of the mulch. We have leach stains from the mulch on the driveway that we hope will go away in time.

We have three tomato plants remaining in the back yard to be pulled in the near future.

It took us a fair amount of time to distribute the mulch, but we got it done. That seemed to be the theme for us in 2009 – everything took 17 steps, but it did get done.

Our tomatoes got vandalized three times in the beginning of the year, but we replanted each time and ended up having a great harvest.

Our friends Liz and Ricardo put up a patio cover frame for us. It took months for me to prime the wood twice and paint the wood twice, but it got done. Note to self: Prime and paint the wood first before assembling.

The ignition lock in my car broke in August. I needed to bring in my car to a local mechanic, who did the job. When I started the car, though, the ignition was catching. In fact, when I got home it caught again, requiring me to start the car in order to turn it off the put the key back in the release position.

After a couple of months I got a chance to visit my normal mechanic. They couldn't recreate the issue. First time I tried to start the car, it stuck. They recommended going back to the original mechanic and ask for it to be replaced with a factory part.

About a week later I did just that. They thought it was a factory part but they needed to put it on a rack to tell. Okay, fair enough, but I couldn't leave the car yet.

A couple of weeks later, I coordinated dropping the car off while my wife took me to work. They looked at it, discovered it wasn't a factory part, ordered it, but it wouldn't come in until the next day. I told them I couldn't come in the next day, but they understood, they'll just hold the part until I came by.

And about two weeks later after that, I arrived with the car. While I dropped it off, I had them look at a very slow tire leak in my wife's car that she had been dealing it for months. The found the leak and patched it. Later on my car was fixed and all was well.

I changed my business bank from a major bank to a credit union. There was a big problem getting the money transferred, getting checks printed and fixing all of the automatic deductions from the account. But it's all straightened out now and there's no artificial minimum balances on the account.

We looked to replace our windows in 2009. We had three people come out and give estimates through the months, eventually settling on one company. They replaced the windows and we were very happy with them, though one screen didn't fit and the spring was broken in another window. It took three visits to get it perfectly correct, but it's perfectly correct. Similar to the new mechanic, we were happy with the aftercare support and would use them again.

Our treasurer for our computer user group quit in 2009. It took a little while to find a replacement. More importantly, it took a bigger while to unsnarl everything. We weren't getting statements, a reissued debit card was never received, and so on. I got the bank to change our address, reissue a new debit card and get the new treasurer listed as a second signatory (that took several visits, we needed support documentation). We got our first statement in December in I don't know how long. It's pretty much straightened out.

We recently replaced our toilet. It required a follow up visit but all is well now.

None of these are a big deal and it all turned out for the best. We're happy to have overcome these challenges and others, laying down tracks for a happy 2010.

Pulled Out Four Tomato Plants

After work on Christmas Eve I pulled four more tomato plants out of the ground – Snow White(1), Green Grape, White Currant and Garden Peach.

There were about a half dozen tomatoes on Snow White(2) that were ripe enough to harvest.

One thing I didn't mention – we had our ponderosa pine tree trimmed earlier this month. Most of the tree trimmings were put through the wood chipper and about half of the wood mulch was placed in our driveway.

Then the freeze came. I decided it was more important to prepare the ground for next year. Then the rains came, it continued to be cold, etc... The gardeners took out a couple and trimmed along the “koi pond” fence for the last trash run, and I took out some for this run. The remaining Snow White(1) tomato plant nearly took up the whole green trash can. It was massive!

We've distributed some of the mulch in the back yard but there's still a pile left. We have about 10 tomato plants remaining to pull.

I've Lost Interest for the 2009 Tomatoes

Not much has happened with the tomatoes. The front yard tomatoes look worse than the back yard tomatoes but it all doesn't matter – we're pulling them all. We went through about three rain storms and there was an extended drying period. Then we were busy. The zombie plants just sat there.

Yesterday our gardener took out Mong and Old Ivory Egg. Also, he got rid of all the branches that were hanging over the “koi pond” fence. That has more than filled up our green trash can. We'll wait until they are emptied and if time permits, we'll pull out some more plants.

I actually did harvest about a half dozen tomatoes in the back yard...but because of the freeze followed by about a week of rain I've lost interest.

Here's the top 10 harvest totals for 2009:

Snow White(1): 1419

Red Currant: 1278

Snow White(2): 1110

Black Cherry: 946

Yellow Perfection: 545

Babywine: 517

White Currant: 448

Husky Cherry Red (back yard): 409

Red Grape: 370

Jaune Coeur de Pigeon: 365

Total counted harvest came to 11,155 tomatoes. It was a really good year!

Tomato Plants Show Significant Damage

It wasn't quite as cold last night/this morning, but it did get below freezing again. The low was 30.1 at Pierce College at 6:30 this morning.

The plant damage was obvious on all the front yard tomato plants. Even if I pull them I don't plan on doing so until the ground is more dry – and we have two more storms headed our way.

All the front yard plants have a black tinge near the top of the plants and have sagged significantly since a few days ago. If these plants aren't dead, they're close enough that any fruits to come won't be something to look forward in anticipation.

Right now we're at 11,155 for the year, but we're quite likely to find some matured tomatoes as we take out the plants.

Temperatures Below Freezing Last Night...

Today's harvest: Mong and a back yard Husky Cherry Red for 2 tomatoes.

After Monday's rain, a serious cold front came in behind it. My wife and I went to our computer user group's board meeting that night in Marina Del Rey. When we came back there was already frost on my car's back window.

At 11:00 PM last night it was already down to 33.3 degrees at Pierce College, a mile away. It got to freezing at 11:50, rose very slightly and dipped below freezing at 1:00 AM. The low was 27.0 degrees at 7:10 AM this morning. It got above freezing (32.1 degrees) at 8:00 this morning.

The temperature was below freezing for nearly seven hours and near freezing for quite a while. The weather report we heard last night indicated that tonight would be even colder. We'll see about that.

The tomatoes in today's harvest were picked on Sunday and left to mature on a window sill. They're now mature.

There's frost on the tomato plants this morning. There will certainly be damage to all of them but whether it's fatal hasn't been determined. When the damage is bad enough the plants will turn black, but that hasn't happened – yet.

This may be it for the 2009 harvest...

Tomatoes In The News

Here's the latest installment of Tomatoes In The News...

MarthaStewart.Com – Outdoor Lighting: Hanging Trees

ThePacker.Com – Study Pits Bacteria Against Salmonella In Tomatoes

Kitsap Sun (WA) – Chris Smith | Rating My 2009 Tomato Crops

Garden Center Magazine – How To Prevent Tomato Seedling Diseases

Harvested Over 1100 Snow White(2) Tomatoes!

Let's catch up on the tomato harvest...

On Wednesday no harvest was done.

Thursday we had 3 back yard Husky Cherry Red, 2 Babywine, 2 Black Cherry, Snow White(2), Snow White(1) and Garden Peach for a total of 10 tomatoes.

No harvest was done on Friday. The temperature was just above freezing at daybreak. There was a very light frost on the cars. It got down to 32.1 degrees at 5:50 AM at Pierce College. Too cold to bother with the harvest!

Saturday we harvested 15 Snow White(2), Mong, Garden Peach, a back yard Husky Cherry Red and White Currant for a total of 19 tomatoes.

Sunday we harvested 2 Snow White(2) tomatoes.

Today no harvest was done because it was raining.

We've now harvested over 1100 Snow White(2) tomatoes (1110)! There's actually several hundred new tomatoes on this plant but I doubt many of them will get ripe. If the temperature drops below freezing for any length of time we'll lose the rest of the crop on this plant. Nevertheless we'll be happy for what we get between now and then.

Our Manchester Terrier has been picking off the remaining White Zebra and Green Zebra tomatoes. When we can we'll pull these plants from the ground.