The last thing to be planted out were the heirloom tomatoes. I am new to the world of heirlooms and have only planted hybrids in the past. Heirlooms are typically preferred because of their seed saving properties, their superior flavor, and wide variety. The downside to many heirlooms is that they do not have the disease resistance that many hybrids seem to have. However with a little coddling and care I hope to see my heirlooms to success this season. Since this was the first time I have tried heirlooms I wanted to start off with some premium plants (which means I spent a little extra than I would spend for the usual nursery plants).

I ordered this year’s heirlooms from Seed Savers Exchange whose catalogue offered a six-pack variety box. My order came Friday and I planted Saturday morning. The plants looked very healthy right out of the box with only some slight discoloration on a few leaves. My six heirlooms are Mexico Midgets, Hungarian Heart, Green Zebra, Cherry Roma, Stupice, and Beam’s Yellow Pear. I will talk about how I planted them in a later post.

Heirloom Tomatoes From Seed Savers Exchange

To say that Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, was an avid gardener would be a monumental understatement. Jefferson was on the cutting edge of American agriculture and gardening, sowing seeds from around the world and cultivating unusual varieties of plants and vegetables. The website of his estate has a great amount of information about his garden which has been restored and is still fully functional. Be sure to check it out here.

For Jefferson, the vegetable garden was a kind of laboratory where he could experiment with imported squashes and broccoli from Italy, beans and salsify collected by the Lewis and Clark expedition, figs from France, and peppers from Mexico. Although he would grow as many as twenty varieties of bean and fifteen types of English pea, his use of the scientific method selectively eliminated inferior types: “I am curious to select one or two of the best species or variety of every garden vegetable, and to reject all others from the garden to avoid the dangers of mixing or degeneracy.”

This phrase sometimes puzzles new gardeners. When can the soil be worked? In most regions workable soil comes when the ground is not only free of frost but also sufficiently dry to prevent your seeds from rotting. Even more important, the soil’s structure can be damaged by working it while it’s still mucky and compacted. Digging it while wet will compact it all the more, preventing the free movement of water and air that’s necessary for plant growth (pg. 254).

Mike McGrath is the former editor of Organic Gardening Magazine (1991-97) and a former editor for Marvel Comics. He is the author of a number of gardening books. I recently checked out from our local library his Mike McGrath’s Book of Compost which is loaded with great information. I thought I had read everything about composting but McGrath brings a humorous flare and an layman level explanation to the science behind the art of the compost heap. I hope to read some of his other books very soon.

There is a treasure trove of free insight from McGrath at Gardens Alive and I just learned that he also hosts his own radio show called “You Bet Your Garden” which to my delight has a podcast (see here). Keep up the good work Mike.

(garden person): “As much as I possibly can.”