Remembering Koda ... he left us way too soon.

On December 11, our dear dog Koda died. It was unexpected and very sudden; Sue and I are still in shock. Koda seemed to be slowing way down over the past few weeks, then was clearly in pain. A trip to the vet delivered the bad news - he had a tumor near his spine, and we made the decision right there to say goodbye to him. We still have Marlin and Betts, yet Koda’s passing is an immense loss to us all.

Koda’s life seems to have begun in the woods of a forest in Bertie County, NC. He had at least one brother and three sisters - after living in the woods, they were essentially feral when found by a park ranger and brought to a veterinarian. At some point, he found his way to a foster for Peak Lab Rescue in Apex NC. We lost our chocolate lab Mocha in December of 2017, leaving us with no dogs for many, many years. Sue persuaded me that “it was time” (it took a long time for me to get over the loss of Mocha).

Sue was perusing the listings of Peak Lab Rescue in June of 2018 - she (and I) are very soft hearted about animals, and Koda (who was named Claude on the Peak site) looked like he had a very rough life and needed a chance. The pictures above tell the story. The left hand picture was Koda just after being treated following the rescue. The second picture was the adoption pic on the Peak site that stole Sue’s heart - his age was estimated at 1 year old.

We visited Claude, now renamed Koda, who was spending time at the home of a wonderful foster named Barb. Koda stole our heart (if we didn’t exactly steal his at first meeting!). Koda came home with us - that is picture #3, above, sitting in the back seat of our car. Later that day, he was posing on our deck for picture 4, above. What a cutie he was, and we were on our way. Not long after bringing Koda into our family, Marlin, a big gawky friendly yellow lab, joined us the following March. We added Betts in September of 2020. Our dynamic trio of wonderful rescues was complete.

Koda favored women - that was clear. He bonded with Sue immediately - and was not at all interested in getting to know me for quite a long time. He was not fond of strangers either. Patience paid off big time - Sue and I became equal “pack members” to Koda, and he brought immense joy into our home. He was protective of us right to the very end and let us know when anything unexpected - such as visitors - was happening. He loved long walks and hikes, swimming, his meals and treats, and long naps in the sun. He even learned to sing when our other two chatterbox dogs, Marlin and Betts, sung along with certain songs played on our Alexa. When we said the phrase “let’s go for a walk”, he sat, smiled and tilted his head. He often could be found near a “really big shoe” - one of our hiking boots he borrowed and brought into the yard or living room.

What was a surprise to us was the magnificent coat that quickly grew in as he adjusted to a secure, healthy home. His tail was a party (once he grew comfortable with us and let it fly, rather than the tight between the back legs tuck when we first got him. With his reddish coat, he looked like a deer running through the woods on our walks.

I could say so much more but the screen is getting blurry for some reason - words do not do credit to the dog, the friend, the family member that Koda was - and will always be in our hearts.

Here are some pictures from 2018 - the year we adopted him. The third picture is Koda with one of his brothers.

Here are some pictures from 2019 - our last year in Raleigh.

These are just a few pics from 2020 - our first year in Hendersonville. Koda LOVED our back yard - and all of the great nearby hikes.

You can already see a few things- Koda was typically smiling and loved his pack mates. Here are some pics from 2021, below.

We were so surprised to see how much Koda loved snow. He got a good dose of it our first few years here. Now, on to 2022.

Sue was always trying to tame Koda’s curls - we had a lot of tumbleweeds of dog fur in the house constantly. Now - 2023.

If there was water on our hikes, Koda would find it. No matter what the temperatures, all Sue had to say is “go for a swim” and in he went - often lying down. Marlin, who is a lab, will wet his feet. Koda - a bit of a mystery breed mix, goes full immersion. The pic below is from this year - it breaks my heart - Sue’s last kiss less than 2 weeks ago. We will never forget our wonderful Koda.

Info on Two Upcoming Events. And a bit about a very sad December 11

Koda in her back yard domain on August 5, enjoying a beautiful day

I am to be on a (roughly) monthly schedule for adding to my blog. This one is being written with a very heavy heart. Yesterday morning - December 11 - we took our dear, sweet dog Koda to the vet. He’s endured a few rough weeks, clearly experiencing ever increasing pain, growing much worse the past few days. Sadly, an X Ray revealed a tumor in his neck area near his spine. With a very poor prognosis, we made the incredibly painful decision to say goodbye to him them, and were with him when he left the world. That is all I can bring myself to say at the moment - I am already working on a blog that will serve as a special memorial to a truly magnificent dog that we rescued in 2018. Our time with him was far too short and our pack is missing one of its most important members. In a very odd coincidence, it was December 11 in 2017 that we had to bid farewell to our beloved chocolate lab Mocha. I wrote that goodbye in the blog found here.

One of the countless lit trees for the holiday event at the NC Arboretum, from a visit last week

Now, on to happier topics. Here is some info on a few early 2025 events that I will be participating in.

On Thursday January 16, at 8 PM eastern I will be doing a Zoom workshop for the Master Gardeners of Greater Kansas City, focusing on many aspects of tomatoes. It is a free event, open to people beyond the local KC area - but you must register. Information regarding the event and the registration link can be found here.

On Saturday January 25, from noon to 3 PM I will be at Sow True Seeds, 243 Haywood Street in downtown Asheville NC. I will be signing copies of my books purchased at Sow True and answering your gardening questions. I hope to have some packets of seeds from some of my tomato breeding projects to give away as well.

Finally, on Tuesday February 22 I will be presenting 2 talks for the Joy of Gardening Symposium hosted by the York County Master Gardeners in Richburg, SC. Click here to register for this event. I will be speaking on tomatoes in the morning, and Container and Straw Bale gardening, as well as the Dwarf Tomato Project, in the afternoon. The program can be found here.

As to my current gardening activities - I am just starting to plan my 2025 garden, on the cusp of starting to fulfill seed requests, and once those two things are complete, dive in to writing the book on the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project (really!).

Taken December 1. I’ve no words….Koda, we will miss you so much.

One more month has elapsed since my last blog. Wow. Let's catch up...

Our new post-Helene view looking to our back yard from the deck - see the next blog pic for the “before” view

In early September I summarized my 2024 garden. We had Helene hit in late September. On October 10, after digesting what happened to our area, I posted a Helene impact summary and an update on my still growing tomato plants that involved crossing. Here we are a bit more than one month after that - we’ve had some nights of light frost, but nothing truly killing yet. There are still flowers in our perennial garden and a few tomato plants hanging on. I am starting to ponder what 2025 will look like in terms of my garden and planned events to date, and even starting to consider something of a “sabbatical”. All of this will take some explaining - so read on.

Note the density of trees in the rear. All of the tall pines blew outward due to Helene. This is the pre-Helene view.

With regard to my late planted tomato crossing experiments - the green picked tomatoes placed in a plastic storage bag with a ripe apple did eventually color up, so I do have some saved seeds, but less than I wanted. The seeds haven’t been germination-tested - they are quite small, so could be iffy.

The Peppy family plants (from growing out F2 seeds from Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy) - a chartreuse dwarf plant gave a few fruit that ripened to ivory. The plant was pulled. I have a second chartreuse growing, but am rooting a cutting to take through the winter if I can, and pulling the plant today.. A variegated normal leaf color plant provided a few green fruit that have yet to ripen - that plant will be pulled today also. The prize seedling - chartreuse with variegation - is in a 1 gallon container for winter garage growing. I am also working to root a cutting.

The Bee family (from growing out the off color Cherokee Chocolate, which is a cross with a yet to determinate potato leaf variety) regular leaf plant provided one green tomato. It seemed to ripen green, and seeds were saved (they are small, and there are not many of them).

The Triply family (crossing Cherokee Purple with the F1 plant of Dwarf Choemato X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy) produced a green fruit that ripened pink -I have a good number of saved seeds.

Finally, the Captain family (Captain Lucky X Sun Gold F1) did provide about a dozen green tomatoes as a larger fruited cherry. They ripened to pale orange, and seed is saved. There is a ton of interest in this but seed supply of both the hybrid and the saved F2 seeds is quite low. It isn’t clear how many requests can be fulfilled this year. I will grow the hybrid again next year and do a boatload of seed saving.

With regard to what’s next - I hope to get to fulfilling seed requests next week, working on 5 per day so that it is not too overwhelming. I expect that it will take until the end of January to finish filling the requests.

With regard to my gardens - we look to be getting some decent frosts within a week, so I need to dig the tender perennials we wish to pot up and save by winter garage storage.. I’ve got lots of tulips and some daffodils to plant. All tender plants need to be in the garage over the next week or so.

As far as what comes next - after the seed request fulfillment, priority will turn to my third book - on the Dwarf Tomato Project. In order to get that written in the coming months, I am considering a self-imposed “sabbatical”. This means minimizing activities such as workshops, Instagram Lives - a significant reduction in my public facing activities. I don’t know how it will all work out, but we shall see. I may move to one Instagram Live per month. I will continue with the small gardens, but have no idea what I will be growing next year.

Finally, here is a brief heads up on my 2025 events scheduled so far. On January 16, I will be doing a tomato focused Zoom workshop for a Kansas City Master Gardeners group that will be quite new, touching upon a slew of topics. It will be open to folks outside of KC - once I have the link, it will be posted in a blog, and in my Instagram Linktree. Following that I will be participating in a gardening symposium near Rock Hill, South Carolina on February 22. I will communicate registration info soon. I am working through details for a workshop in Greenville SC for a master gardener’s group on March 12 - more info to come. Finally, the Buncombe County MG symposium that was cancelled due to Helene will take place in 2025, on October 8. I will share info when it becomes available.

That catches you all up with my gardening activities. Sue and I are so excited about the impending birth of our grandson Eli, due date December 25! Caitlin is doing well, and she and Jason are so excited about this big event. We are all still processing the impacts of Helene, and thankful that its most severe impacts missed us. At the same time, knowing how many were impacted has been a very sobering experience that will stay with us all for many years.

Damage from Helene visible on our Dupont hike to Lake Julia last week

The Nightmare that was - and still is - Helene. We are fine - so many are not. Lots of weather, some garden topics

The Storm

2 of our pines that represented the border between our house and our neighbor's house. One other of these went down in the back.

Sue woke at around 4 AM on Friday, September 27. Wind, the thumps and cracks of trees falling, the torrential rain and gusty wind caught her attention. We got up at first light to see Helene in action. Winds of 70 mph with higher gusts and horizontal rain made for a frightening view. We lived through Fran in 1996 when in Raleigh, which happened at night. This was our first observation of such a storm in the light of day. The gentle little waterway at the end of our street, Shaw’s Creek (which feeds into the French Broad) was up to our neighbor’s fence and had large waves. When we opened the door, we could smell pine.

By 10 o’clock it was all over and the sun started to peek through. We lost power in the very early morning. We realized we were SO LUCKY. The dozen or so trees that fell all went outward from our property into neighboring yards. We had a gas stove, and a gas hot water heater. We had a bit of phone service - very slow, but texting, phone calls, and if patient, some websites for gaining news. It turned out that our little area of Laurel Park received over 20 inches of rain between Wednesday and Friday. That explains our back yard being a marsh, our driveway a small river. Yet by some miracle we experienced no water damage inside, no exterior damage to our home.

Once we got out and took a walk down our short street and saw the instances of huge trees broken or twisted off, or completely uprooted - once we talked to neighbors and realized that on the next street over, half a dozen trees fell onto a house, puncturing the roof in several places. The family made it out safely and were sitting in their truck from the dark of very early morning, in the height of the storm.

Trees torn apart at the end of our street in the yard of the corner home

Our daughter and her boyfriend joined us a few days later, and the four of us hunkered down and tried to make sense of this storm. News reports were horrific - places not far from us, such as Chimney Rock, experienced unimaginable damage. Hot Springs, Asheville, Black Mountain, Saluda, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Swannanoa - missing people, folks swept away, all access roads destroyed. Even now we don’t have a clear picture of the extent of horrific damage.

Finally, the reports of disinformation being reported here and there were infuriating. Disruptors, those that got off on spreading smears and lies - I simply don’t understand this type of thing at all. I have no concept of what makes certain people do this.

So here, on a sunny Tuesday morning, as we wait to go to get our flu and COVID boosters, I am listening to our superb local radio station WNCW as they intersperse great music with critical information on sending help where aid is needed. Later, when we go out into our yard, we will continue to see the helicopters and drones. We will hear the chainsaws competing with the birds as the soundtrack to this disaster. When we head out on errands, we will be patient as we go through intersections with no traffic lights due to yet to be restored electricity. We got our own power back on Friday night on October 4, along with internet. We will be in lines of traffic with utility repair trucks and tree cutting and removal services. We will be patient - and we will be thankful. We were only very slightly disadvantaged, relatively speaking. We will never forget this event, as we never forgot the horror of Fran in Raleigh in 1996.

Post storm - the few things in the garden

The Garden

It is not easy to talk about gardening when so many are still struggling horribly, so this will be short. In the pic above, you can see the two quartets of bales, front - both contain plants from very late planted experiments and crosses. The right bale - front right is a potato leaf selected from planting crossed Cherokee Chocolate seed. It will likely not fruit - a hail storm removed the growing tip and it is just starting to bud, as well as battling septoria (as they all are). Right front is a very special plant - Sun Gold hybrid X Captain Lucky (which I am calling the Captain family). I will show pic of the developing fruit, see below.

Right bale, rear left is another hybrid - my cross of Cherokee Purple onto a flower on Dwarf Choemato X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy hybrid - this one is looking good and is also pictured below. Right bale - rear right plant - is a regular leaf selection from the crossed Cherokee Chocolate seed. There are some small oblate fruit, so it may make it.

Fruit on the Sun Gold F1 X Captain Lucky plant - the new Captain family. There are 16 tomatoes coming along, so I will have a decent saved seed to distribute.

Fruit on the Cherokee Purple X (Dwarf Choemato X Dwarf Walter's Fancy hybrid) plant - this is the Triply family.

The left hand group of bales has 4 plants from F2 seed from Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy - the new Peppy family. I am growing 2 chartreuse dwarfs, 1 variegated dwarf with normal green leaves, and 1 amazing find - variegated chartreuse leaves. I’ve put that one into a 2 gallon plant so that I can keep it alive in the garage when frosts are forecast. Maybe I can bring it along into next spring, by taking new cuttings if needed. There are small fruit on one of the chartreuse, and on the variegated. Below is the variegated chartreuse plant.

This is the "needle in a haystack" combination - a variegated chartreuse dwarf?

About 8 tall trees fell outward beyond our back fence. We have a completely new view from our back yard of David Mountain.

September - what happened to August! Long, long overdue 2024 garden update and report

Strawbale garden area as of September 1

Remarkably, my last blog entry was July 8. Our very first Mexico Midgets - the earliest variety - we ready to harvest. All other tomatoes were unripe. We were eating loads of cukes, beans, shishito peppers, and about to start harvesting eggplants.

That was then - and this is now. As you can see from the pic above, most of the garden is gone. Four eggplants, 2 shishito pepper plants (all healthy and going strong), and some late planted tomatoes (more on those later) are all that remain.

It was a very unusual garden season. Insect and worm pests were nearly completely absent. July was warm leaning toward hot, humid and endlessly rainy. August was nearly perfect - warm and dry. The July rains brought on lots of foliage disease on the tomatoes. The tomato harvest envelope was very short - mid July to mid August - but the flavors were delicious and yields were fine. I really liked having just one tomato in a strawbale, and my disciplined pruning and topping carried throughout the season.

We actually had plenty of tomatoes for our needs and gave quite a few away. We didn’t can any raw tomatoes, but did make a lot of roasted sauce (which we did can), and slow roasted tomato pieces (now resting in the freezer). We are pleased with the eggplant and shishito yields, which continue to this day with no end in sight. Beans were delicious and ample, but the second planting failed due to the endless rain (the seeds rotted). We were overwhelmed with summer squash - our 2 Zephyr plants went totally wild, and it was actually a relief to finally remove them a few weeks ago.

NOTE - there are not as many pictures of ripe tomatoes as I hoped, because I tended to do updates using video clips and weekly Instagram Lives. Those are all viewable - go to my Instagram Profile and check on my Reels tab and you will find all 20 of my 2024 IG Live (my name there is @nctomatoman)

Garden in late July

Below is a detailed review of the tomatoes grown in 2024.

Dwarf Walter’s Fancy X Dwarf Choemato F1 hybrid - this ended up being a prolific tasty variety, with size varying from 3 to 12 ounces. The oblate tomatoes were yellow with red swirls, and the flavor full and balanced and delicious. The flavor doesn’t really matter - it is what we find in future selections that are important. I saved lots of seeds, and welcome folks to work on this new family (which needs a name!). The best finds will be potato leaf variegated dwarfs with fruits of good size, interesting colors and excellent flavors. I also crossed one of the flowers with pollen from Cherokee Purple - this will make for a very interesting future project. The cross took and I am growing out one of the Cherokee Purple X (Dwarf Choemato X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy F1) F1 plants as I type this, hoping for a ripe fruit and some saved F2 seeds to start next year’s work with.

Dwarf Walter’s Fancy X Dwarf Blazing Beauty F1 hybrid - this was also prolific and delicious, with the flavor more tart than that above. Fruit size was also variable, 4-12 ounces, smooth nearly globe shaped and deep pink - which was a surprise. Lots of seeds were saved for future work - this new family also needs a name - and volunteers. Potato leaf variegated dwarfs of interesting colors and flavors of good size are the targets.

Dwarf Walter’s Fancy X Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet F1 hybrid - as expected, this was a slightly taller dwarf that produced a lot of medium sized ribbed pink tomatoes with a nice sweet flavor. Also needing a name, this fun family will be interesting to explore, with the big payoff being variegated chartreuse leaf dwarf potato leaf plants. My friend Eddie and I both planted some saved seeds - and each of us are growing out some chartreuse F2 seedlings. So far, we’ve not identified one with variegated leaves. Lots of work lies ahead next year and beyond - I have loads of saved seeds.

:Late planted test varieties - seedlings of F2 from Dwarf Walters Fancy X Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet are in the left bale group.

Sun Gold F1 - This was a bit of a surprise to me. I thought giving it its own strawbale and caging (and not pruning) would lead to an enormous yield. The plant struggled with septoria leaf spot all season, and although the tomatoes were delicious and fairly ample, disease eventually took it down sooner than hoped.

Egg Yolk and Mexico Midget - These two favorite cherry tomatoes shared a straw bale, with the plants caged together and unpruned. This ended up being the cherry tomato factory, with heavy harvests of each all season long. Picking them was a real pain, though - the dense vines and rampant growth made picking them a messy challenge. Though we found them typically tasty, we may go for different cherry tomatoes next year.

Some of each of the cherry tomatoes - orange Sun Gold, yellow Egg Yolk, tiny red Mexico Midget

Cherokee Purple - This was the most disappointing of the large fruited slicing heirlooms I grew due to season long struggles with blossom end rot. At one point, I pulled nearly 30 small tomatoes that had BER. The seed lot I used is largely fine, though - the 8 plants grown at the Veterans Healing Farm turned out just fine, with not a single instance of BER. I think I harvested no more than 3-4 unblemished tomatoes. Although I did save some seeds, it is possible that I was unlucky, and that the genetics of this particular plant had a tendency to show BER. Needless to say, the saved seeds will not be shared, or be a primary source of plants for future grow outs.

Polish - No, THIS was the most disappointing of the large fruited slicing heirlooms because it died very early on with apparent pith necrosis. The plant grew quickly and set loads of fruit, but it was clear something was amiss - before any of the tomatoes ripened, the plant began to wilt. The stems felt hollow. The tomatoes did eventually ripen - the flavor was not the best due to the poor health of the plant. I saved a good amount of seeds, but they will not be shared or be a primary source of plants going forward. The 4 plants at the VHF grew fine, tasted great and seeds were saved. This was the first time I’ve ever had an issue with this superb variety.

Potato Leaf Yellow - Oh my, we love this variety. One of the healthiest and heaviest yielding varieties of the 2024 garden, it excelled at the same level as it did last year. Whether it is a variety to be grown each year, or every other year remains to be seen. Victory Seeds is growing it out this year for release in its catalog next year.

A nice cluster of Potato Leaf Yellow nearing readiness for harvest

Captain Lucky - Once again, Captain Lucky takes the mantle of best flavored tomato in the garden. Because it was grown caged and unpruned, the yield was very generous and the plant remained healthy for a long time (relatively speaking). We love this tomato - and I actually managed to cross pollen from Sun Gold on to one of the flowers. The cross took and I am growing out a plant of Sun Gold X Captain Lucky as I type this. My hope is to get a few ripe fruit for seed saving.

Captain Lucky lower left, Cherokee Green upper right

Abraham Brown - This was one of my last varieties to ripen, and shading from the Egg Yolk/Mexico Midget monster cluster probably reduced its performance. The large chocolate tomatoes I did harvest were all I hoped they would be flavor-wise, and seeds were saved.

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom - This was a very interesting mystery. Early on the plant seemed to be struggling with crown rot, alternaria stem canker, or another issue - with dark spots appearing where foliage met stem. I pruned as often as the issues arose and the plant somehow grew out of the affliction, providing a very good yield of the latest ripening variety in my garden. Flavor was superb - seeds were saved. It was also one of the last plants pulled.

Lucky Cross - It is nice to have this tomato very close to where it was when I selected and named it. Perhaps the flavor is just a tad off the Brandywine ideal, but it is head and shoulders above other bicolored varieties. The plant did fine - not great, as I lost a few early set fruit to blossom end rot, and septoria effected it a bit - but it did well enough, and I’ve plenty of saved seeds.

Cherokee Green - I was quite anxious to grow this plant, which was from 2016 saved seed - the only viable seed that traced back to my discovery of this variety in my 1997 garden. The vigorous plant was super prolific, with medium sized yellow skin, green flesh fruit with very good flavor. I noted some tiny dark spots in the flesh - this is a flaw that happens on occasion to green or white fleshed varieties. It seemed to vanish with later harvested fruit. Though it did meet its demise due to pith necrosis, I harvested plenty and saved lots of seed as well. It seems to be not quite as large as the selection released by Johnny’s just after I sent them the seeds years ago.

Cherokee Chocolate (actually Cherokee Chocolate X a 2022 nearby potato leaf variety F1)- One of the true mysteries of my 2024 garden, as well as a healthy tomato machine (the last plant to be pulled), there is an easy explanation. It is a hybrid! When it began to ripen, rather than the rich mahogany color expected, it was scarlet red. The flesh was firm, fruit were large and plentiful and flavor just fine. The big question - is this a seed mix up, or a chance hybrid? If I was lucky and Cherokee Chocolate saved in 2022 crossed with a potato leaf variety, it would show as the occurrence of a few potato leaf seedlings from saved seeds from the unexpected red fruit. Bingo - 25% of the seedlings were potato leaf. Looking at my garden map from 2022, the nearby potato leaf varieties were Lucky Cross, Lillian’s Yellow, Captain Lucky and Polish. I have a regular and a potato leaf plant in straw bales, hoping for a late harvest fruit from each. I will be asking if anyone wants to help me unravel the mystery next year.

Earl - Earl was the health and harvest (and nearly flavor) star of the garden. It seems to love the four stem, 2 stake growing method. The large pink oblate tomatoes were free of blossom end rot and had limited cracking. Flavor was superb. Earl is simply a big winner of an heirloom tomato.

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As for the tomatoes as the Veterans Healing Farm, disease struck there as well once the rains of July came, though our plants in strawbales fared far better than ones planted in the ground.

Plants grown at the farm were mainly the same as those in my garden, with a few additions - Nepal (which was splendid), Red Brandywine (very good, not great), Brandywine (superb), Big Sandy (early septoria issues, but did fairly well), and four important one-offs - Fairytale Fruit (very impressive regular leaf large yellow/red bicolor, a few tending to heart shape, a really excellent variety), Mary’s Favorite (superb - a large, bright yellow, regular leaf selection from Cherokee Purple X Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom), Lucky Bling (just delicious - a potato leaf, variegated leaf selection from Blue’s Bling X Little Lucky - yellow with red swirls and green areas), and the one disappointment, the example of Lillian Rose that I grew (potato leaf, another selection from Cherokee Purple X Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom - ended up being a medium large bright yellow with flavor a bit lacking, rather than the hoped for pink with yellow). It is back to the drawing board for this one. There were two other varieties of interest as one offs - a small purple tomato with green stripes sent to me to check as to whether it is a dwarf (it is not), and one of the regular leaf seedlings from my 2023 saved Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom seed - it produced an oblate medium large yellow with areas of red, with fairly good flavor. Oddly, saved seed did not produce any potato leaf seedlings. This one, therefore, is a true mystery.

We did a tasting at the farm, the most of the varieties showed very well, as hoped (and expected). Yield and health wise, Nepal, Captain Lucky and Potato Leaf Yellow were well above the rest. The three Cherokees (purple, chocolate and green) were first to ripen, heavy yielding, tasted great, but went down to a number of diseases fairly early in the harvest part of the season. Seeds were saved from every variety we grew there.

Dwarf Blazing Beauty X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy F1

The last few weeks from the backyard garden - it has been hot and dry!

Zinnias in one of our 2 new raised beds.

Two weeks ago I talked about the very beginnings of harvest on a few of the main crops. Things change fast, and now everything is coming in, filling our refrigerator, ending up in recipes, being canned - as always, the terror of the harvest is upon us. It is delicious, fun, keeping us busy, and occasionally stress-inducing.

Let’s go crop by crop and see where things are on this steamy Monday afternoon.

Greens in raised beds

spinach and garlic replaced

A few weeks ago spinach was removed (bolting indicated it was high time to do so) from the elevated raised bed. In its place are a few types of basil and a zinnia variety called Cupcakes. The basil is a new one called Emerald Towers, which should emulate the Greek Columnar type available only as seedlings from past gardens. So far, so good.

new lettuce seedlings

We really enjoyed lettuce from one of the new driveway raised beds right through early July, but the heat was bringing on bolting, so it too was removed. In its place are lettuce seedlings I began from seed a few weeks ago. That raised bed is in the shade from early afternoon, so we hopefully can get a month or so of harvest before it decides to bolt. I’ve not planted lettuce this late, so it is an experiment.

The original raised bed that contains collards and kale continues to provide greens, but probably for not much longer. After the garlic was harvested, cilantro was direct seeded, and it is up and growing well.

Swiss Chard

We continue to enjoy Swiss Chard from both new raised beds, and hope to keep it going well into the summer.

Potatoes in large containers filled with last year’s spent wheat straw

potatoes in large containers

The plants in all four containers continue to flourish. One the tops yellow and die back I will go digging to see what kind of yields were obtained. Potatoes will never be a primary crop for us, but Bill Minkey’s generosity provide an annual opportunity to grow some unique types in our driveway.

Fowler bush bean in a driveway container

Fowler was the first seed requested upon joining the Seed Savers Exchange; aside from being an excellent green snap bush bean, it has real meaning for me due to the SSE association. I was very low on viable saved seed, so decided to grow 8 plants in a 10 gallon container on my gravel driveway. I started them indoors in early spring, and over the last few weeks harvested quite a few pods that hung on the plants until they became yellow. I still have perhaps 10 more pods to harvest, but already have 150 or so good seeds that I can use for my strawbale bean plantings next summer.

Cucumbers in a strawbale

A perfect Deli Star F1 ready to pick

My friend Sam, from the UK, sent me seeds of a few of her favorite cukes that are not easy to find in the US. We started picking cukes from both types over the last few weeks, and they are simply delicious - sweet and crunchy and with no need to peel. The shorter one, Deli Star hybrid, is 6-8 inches long and pale green; Carmen hybrid grows to a foot long or more, is dark green and ribbed and similarly sweet, crunchy and wonderful. Sue has already made pickled out of them both. The plants remain healthy and flowering and setting more cukes. I typically lose cuke plants early due to virus likely spread by striped and spotted cuke beetles, but so far, so good this year. I have a total of 5 plants of the above. A rare Italian variety is growing (2 plants) but not provided any cukes yet.

Bush snap beans in 3 rows in 4 pushed together strawbales

Marbel bush snap filet bean

We’ve had an avalanche of beans for a few weeks now, and every day are provided with a gallon bag. Needless to say we are eating (and enjoying) them daily, though we’ve also frozen 2 gallon bags. All 5 varieties are growing beautifully and yielding heavily. We have half rows of Marbel (very slender, long pale green with lavender stripes), Maxibel (very slender, long green), Endeavor (typical bean diameter, a bit shorter, green), Roc d’Or (slender very long yellow wax), and a full row of Goldilocks (long slender yellow). We love them all, but have to be careful not to let Marbel grow too long, as it rapidly develops strings.

Summer Squash - 4 hills, one each in 4 pushed together strawbales

Zephyr, of course!

I don’t think I’ve ever experienced such a heavy yield of our favorite summer squash, Zephyr. Going to one plant per bale seemed to not diminish our squash quantity a bit (two years ago we had 16 plants - yes, that’s insane - last year we had 8 - and this year only 4). The zucchini variety we are growing is Emerald Delight - lovely, but thankfully nowhere near as prolific as Zephyr. The 3rd variety is the round dark green zucchini type called 8 Ball - it is also slower to grow and yield, thus providing us with some relief. Sue made a batch of zucchini bread and we are preparing it various ways to enjoy with our meals.

Peppers - it turns out I’ve got 2 plants of Shishito

Shishito peppers

I had a mislabeling error, so instead of Shishito and Pinata, two gorgeous Shishito plants are taking up a strawbale. They are being grown caged and today we had our first decent harvest. On to the grill they go tonight. We are going to have a lot of Shishito peppers this year.

Eggplants - harvest is imminent on 2, and 2 more were recently planted

Mardi Gras eggplant on the way

The garden strawbale containing the varieties Twilight Lightning (slender, long, white with lavender) and Mardi Gras (teardrop medium light green with a purple blush) is about to provide its first specimens of each. The plants are caged, healthy, and set to be very productive. I put into use one of our self watering containers sent by Gardeners Supply to rest and evaluate. Into that are seedlings of Midnight Lightning (slender, long, black purple fruit, heavily purple blushed foliage) and Skinny Twilight (slender medium purple fruit, green foliage). We are a few weeks away from seeing fruit on them, which is fine.

Tomatoes - it is just about that time!

The tomatoes will be more of a mixed bag than usual, as a few issues have already arisen. Let’s get to the plants one by one.

New hybrid Dwarf Walter’s Fancy X Dwarf Choemato, 10 gallon container, caged

Dwarf Walter’s Fancy X Dwarf Blazing Beauty F1

The gorgeous potato leaf dwarf plant is loaded with medium sized oblate tomatoes. A few ripened prematurely due to blossom end rot (proving to be a stubborn issue this season for me, which is very unusual). The two parents are ivory and yellow/red bicolor. The hybrid appears to be yellow with a red blush. I tasted a small piece and found it really nice (though the flavor of the hybrids is not that critical). On the plant is a tomato that is a cross with Cherokee Chocolate - I must keep track of it for future seed saving. This variety is being grown out primarily for seed saving and future work.

New hybrid Dwarf Walter’s Fancy X Dwarf Blazing Beauty, 10 gallon container, caged

Similarly gorgeous and fruit-laden, the tomatoes on this will be medium to a bit larger and oblate. One prematurely ripe tomato (due to BER) shows that it will surprisingly be a scarlet red tomato (the parents are ivory and orange). I didn’t taste any, as the tomato had very little that was appealing to it due to the extensive BER damage. As with the variety above, it is being grown primarily for seed saving and future work. I did attempt a cross with Lucky Cross, and it looks promising.

New hybrid Dwarf Walter’s Fancy X Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet, 10 gallon container, caged

This is the third of the new hybrids I made that are primarily for seed saving and future work. This will be a medium pink tomato - the plant looks great and has lots of green fruit. Work with saved seed will be interesting, as this is a starting point for a chartreuse, variegated leaf, potato leaf dwarf variety. I attempted a cross with Cherokee Chocolate and it looks promising.

Sun Gold hybrid, growing in its own strawbale, caged

Whole lotta Sun Gold on the way

We harvested the first ripe fruit today, 68 days from planted seedling. They are as expected - round, orange and just delicious. The main issue with plant has been septoria leaf spot, so the plant keeps me busy with removal of blemished leaves. I guess this has to be considered issue #1 for my 2024 tomato growing. Being grown unpruned, yield should be very heavy.

Cherokee Purple, growing on its own in a strawbale, 4 fruiting stems, 2 stakes

This long time favorite is giving me headaches (for the first time). The healthy plant is setting lots of tomatoes, but I’ve had to remove at least 20 due to blossom end rot. I still hope to have a reasonable yield, but I wonder if something is up genetically with the particular plant I decided to grow. The plants at the Vet Farm from the same seed are not having the BER issue. This is just one of several mysteries emerging in this year’s garden. This is issue #2.

Polish - growing on its own in a strawbale, 4 fruiting stems, 2 stakes

A sick Polish

Here is issue #3 - one major stem had to be removed due to suspected Fusarium wilt. It would be a shame to lose this plant because it is loaded with green tomatoes. The plants at the farm from the same seed are just fine. Am I starting to build up tomato diseases in my yard? It’s one thought I have. Polish has never given me trouble in the past, and I’ve been growing it since 1990.

Potato Leaf Yellow - growing on its own in a strawbale, 4 fruiting stems, 2 stakes

Potato Leaf yellow

All is well with this plant, with heavy fruit set and excellent plant health. The pruning on this plant allows for easy following of main stems and flower clusters.

Captain Lucky - growing on its own in a strawbale, unpruned, caged

It is interesting to compare an unpruned caged indeterminate with its pruned neighbors. Aside from some lower septoria leaf spot, this plant is growing very well and setting plenty of fruit. One developing tomato is a cross with Sun Gold, which should provide some fun to play with going forward.

Egg Yolk - sharing a bale with Mexico Midget, unpruned, caged

Egg Yolk and Mexico Midget monstrosity

The complexity of this plant with the next in a single strawbale is unreal. When the large cherry tomatoes produced on this favorite start to ripen, we will be inundated. There are no issues at all with this one.

Mexico Midget - sharing a bale with Egg Yolk, unpruned, caged

Mexico Midgets ready to pick

See my Egg Yolk write up, above. The only thing bothering Mexico Midget is some lower early blight foliage, which is immediately removed. Fruit set is heavy and we ate the first in 54 days from planting. Harvesting from this bale will be an ordeal - but a useful and delicious one. The mass of green is over 3 feet in width, and over 6 feet tall in height.

Abraham Brown - growing on its own in a strawbale, 4 fruiting stems, 2 stakes

This very well behaved, monster plant put on its first fruit clusters quite high up on the vine. Aside from some lower septoria, there are no issues with this variety (yet) - it will be quite late ripening, I believe.

Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom - growing on its own in a strawbale, 4 fruiting stems, 2 stakes

Now for issue #4. A disease seems to be slowly working up the plant and has caused some stunting of growth. There is a brown patch at the junction of the leaf stem and main stem, and the main vein of the leaf eventually turns brown. Yet, the top of the plant is setting fruit and looks fine. I have a few suspicions - pith necrosis or collar rot being 2 disease candidates.

Lucky Cross - growing on its own in a strawbale, 4 fruiting stems, 2 stakes

Another very well managed, well behaved plant, all is well with Lucky Cross save a few instances of blossom end rot on green young tomatoes. I expect that we will get a very good harvest of large, tasty tomatoes from this perennial favorite.

Cherokee Green - growing on its own in a strawbale, 4 fruiting stems, 2 stakes

This has been the densest, most challenging to prune plant in the garden. Seed for this selection is from 2016, which is the last link to Cherokee Green from the find in my garden (all others I’ve grown recently originate from Johnny’s Selected Seeds company seeds). There are some instances of BER but the plant looks great and fruit set will be heavy. I am anxious to see what this one gives.

Earl - growing on its own in a strawbale, 4 fruiting stems, 2 stakes

Well behaved Earl

This is the best behaved tomato plant in this year’s garden, and the pruning and staking technique clearly suits it well. This is the first tomato I’ve topped this year, both fruiting stems on the primary stake. If all holds well, we will get a lot of these to eat.

Cherokee Chocolate - growing on its own in a strawbale, 4 fruiting stems, 2 stakes

The largest number of tomatoes in a cluster goes to this Cherokee Chocolate plant - which, alas, looks as if it is not Cherokee Chocolate. The first tomato to ripen (due to BER) showed it to be scarlet red, indicating a cross. I do hope that it tastes good because we are going to get a lot of them. The plant is very dense, complex, and healthy.

Lots of (not) Cherokee Chocolates

The garden is smaller, but no less interesting. Things are moving along well.

Perfect weather means remarkable growth

What fun I am having! We are still harvesting lettuce, chard, collards, kale and various herbs - including that most important of home grown delights, basil. Those crops are now joined by summer squash, and within a week, cucumbers and snap beans.

The Veterans Healing Farm garden is revealing much as well. The long row of in-ground tomato plants is struggling mightily. The straw bale tomato plants are thriving. Since the ground in which the tomatoes have planted has been used for some years, including growing tomatoes, it is not surprising that diseases are hitting the plants hard. My suspicion is that verticillium or bacterial wilt are the culprits. Happily, all of the straw bale tomatoes are thriving, and fruit set appears to be very heavy. There are instances of early blight and septoria here and there but nothing that isn’t being managed with regular infected foliage removal. I need to get some representative pictures to post.

Zephyr summer squash

As for the back yard tomatoes, I’ve had time to be very rigorous with plant care. We are quite dry and warm, so the plants get a deep morning watering and a lighter evening watering to keep the plants as stress free as possible. Feeding happens weekly. I am continuing my strict pruning, and each indeterminate plant that is not caged or a cherry variety has 4 fruiting stems - the main plus 3 suckers.

I’ve had 2 issues emerge - extensive blossom end rot on Cherokee Purple (very rare, from my long time experiences with the variety), and possible pith necrosis on Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom. I’ve removed 20 small BER fruit from the Cherokee Purple plant and will watch to see how future tomato development proceeds. As for Lillian’s, I am rooting a healthy sucker taken from a Vet Farm plant in case a back up is needed.

The plants are growing roughly 2 inches per day, and a few varieties are already reaching the top of the stakes. Fruit set is reflective of the ideal weather we’ve had. I’ve experienced no damage from critters yet. The main disease issue is a bit of early blight, and septoria leaf spot, especially on lower foliage of Sun Gold.

Beans on the way

I’ve attempted several crosses. 2 look like they have taken - Sun Gold F1 onto Captain Lucky, and Cherokee Chocolate onto (Dwarf Choemato X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy) F1. I am watching Cherokee Purple onto (Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy) F1, and Lucky Cross onto (Dwarf Blazing Beauty X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy) F1. All of these will be complex, interesting and fun to work with.

I will get better with picture taking. The screen on my Pixel phone cracked, and I’ve been frustrated getting it to do what I want. A new phone should arrive in a few days and I will be back in business.

Watching our dogs watch for our cats - view from the hammock

One month from planting - here's a progress report

June 5 view of the garden

That was a really fast month. The May 6 blog detailed what was planted. This entry will take a look at the various crops and plants. We managed to squeeze a week at Ocracoke Island (lots of kayaking and seafood consumption), so the following represents 3 weeks of garden care. Please also note that I am now engaged in my weekly Instagram Live sessions (my name there is @nctomatoman), Fridays at 4 PM eastern.

Flower garden, early April

flower garden, early June - and all of this was there (perennials are such fun!)

Above are two views of our main flower garden. Pretty much everything vanishes over the winter. Warm weather wakens the various perennials planted in there, and we get the view shown in the second picture. At this point, astilbe, miniature roses and spider wort provide the color. Soon, zinnias, salvia, phlox, echinacea and rudbeckia will join the show.

Zinnias, chard and herbs May 4

June 5 view

What a difference a month makes. The small zinnia, chard and basil plants really took off over the last month in this new raised bed. We are cutting the zinnias to bring in, and using the chard and basil in our meals preparations.

Lettuce, chard and herbs May 4

June 5 view - wow!

Lettuce grows very quickly in cooler weather. We are having a lot of salads - we steal outer leaves - but the plants will bolt soon. I started some new lettuce plants so that we can take advantage of the partly shaded location of this new raised bed #2. Nothing tastes better in the spring than home grown lettuce!

June 5 view of bush snap beans that were direct seeded into the bales

June 5 view of direct seeded cukes

June 5 view of direct seeded summer squash

The above pics show the strawbales that were direct seeded in early May. Due to the warmth created by the composting interior of the bales, growth is shockingly rapid. We expect to see blossoms on all of the above very soon, and harvest of the various crops within a month or less. Strawbales really work so well!

Eggplants on June 5

Peppers on June 5

Above our pics of the eggplants and peppers planted into the strawbales on May 3. Both heat loving, it took some time for them to really catch on, but they are now growing very well. The plants were very tiny when planted. Small buds are showing on all plants.

The tomato Polish on May 3, just after planting

The same tomato plant, Polish, on June 5.

Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy F1 in mid May

Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet X Dwarf Walter’s Fancy F1 on June 5

The set of pictures above show the remarkably rapid, healthy growth of the tomatoes, from 2 inch tall seedlings in early May to 3 plus foot tall beauties on June 5. The staking and/or caging is all in place, and plants have been pruned to 3 suckers each (for 4 fruiting stems) - except to those in cages that will not be pruned (Captain Lucky, Sun Gold, Mexico Midget and Egg Yolk), and the three new Dwarf X Dwarf hybrids, that will not be pruned at all.

That is it - a tour of the garden roughly one month from planting. So far, so very, very good (knocks on wood, crosses fingers!). I hope the gardens of all of you are off to a great start.

Garden on May 11 - compare to the first pic in the blog, June 5 view!

Sue on the beach at Ocracoke during our May escape

The garden is mostly planted. Here's the scoop!

Bales planted and potting mix topped - Friday May 3

The bales were ready on Friday May 3, so in went the plants. Today is day 3 and everything looks happy. It’s been pretty consistently rainy - not downpour rain, but light and occasional. The mushrooms are really popping right now.

I only slightly adjusted my plant numbers. There are 16 tomatoes growing in my yard - two varieties are sharing a strawbale, three are in large containers, and the remaining straw bales now host 2 eggplants and 2 peppers. One bale is ready for cucumbers, four for bush snap beans, and four for summer squash. The avid mushrooming through the potting mix means seed planting is delayed.

The potted tomatoes are the three new dwarf X dwarf hybrids created last year - Dwarf Walter’s Fancy onto Dwarf Zoe’s Sweet, Dwarf Walter’s Fancy onto Dwarf Blazing Beauty, and Dwarf Walter’s Fancy onto Dwarf Choemato.

One of the new dwarf X dwarf hybrids - this one will be fun to work on - possibility of variegated chartreuse leaves!

Indeterminate tomatoes living singly in the bales are Cherokee Chocolate, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Green (from 2016 saved seed), Abraham Brown, Captain Lucky, Polish, Earl, Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, Lucky Cross, Potato Leaf Yellow, and Sun Gold. Sharing a bale are Mexico Midget and Egg Yolk.

Lucky Cross on day 3

One bale has peppers Pinata and Shishito. Another has eggplants Twilight Lightning and Mardi Gras.

Once the mushrooms cease their energetic arrivals, I will plant 1 seed in each of the four squash bales - two will be Zephyr, with the other 2 zucchini, varieties TBD. The cukes will be varieties sent to me by my UK garden friend Sam. The beans will be Goldilocks, Marbel and an additional variety TBD.

Lots of ink cap mushrooms where the beans will eventually be planted on May 6

One of the new raised beds now has nice looking leaf lettuce, basil, chard and oregano. The other has Rosemary, Parsley, Thyme, Chard, basil and various Zinnias. The older raised bed on legs has garlic and spinach. The older ground level raised bed has garlic, bloody dock, collards and kale. The potatoes sent to me by Bill Minkey, in large black containers planted in last year’s straw bale leftovers, are up and growing well. A container has some Fowler bush bean plants dedicated to seed saving.

Potato plants already appearing

At the Veterans Healing Farm, 60 tomato plants were set into 30 strawbales on Monday April 29. The bales there are also mushrooming like mad. I removed the side plastic from 5 of the bales so we could do a performance and water retention comparison.

covered and uncovered bales at the Veterans Healing Farm garden

My goodness. My last blog was February 29. Today is April 20. It's been busy. Read on...

Strawbales laid out for the 2024 garden - treatment is underway. Yes, there are less!

In my February 29 blog I discussed the various seeds I planted. Jump ahead to today and now have seedlings that will be ready to go into strawbales in a few weeks. I know that March and early April existed - a few Instagram Live sessions that I carried out prove that. Rather then rehash it all, let’s take it from today and move forward.

Work and life thus far has been in three categories - (1) Zooms, talks, podcasts, Instagram Lives, email answering and seed sending, (2) getting my seeds planted, seedlings transplanted and labeled, (3) relaunching the Tomato Team for the Veterans Healing Farm and getting the strawbales cooking, and (4) hiking, primarily for wildflower seeking.

Trilliums along the North Slope trail in the Pisgah Forest

As far as talks - after today’s workshop on tomatoes in Morganton, things really thin out for me. I will talk tomatoes at the Veterans Healing Farm in mid May, at the Etowah Library in July, and at the Buncombe Master Gardener event in Hendersonville in October, and straw bale and container gardening in Brevard in September. Please note that examples of my talks and recent podcasts are now posted as links on my Instagram Linktree, found in my profile (@nctomatoman to find me on Instagram).

Regarding my own garden, 2 new raised beds are filled and as of yesterday contain chard, lettuce, collard, spinach and kale seedlings. 23 strawbales are under preparation. This will (as I’ve said for months) be a smaller garden. The tomatoes that will reside in the bales - 1 plant per bale - are Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Chocolate, Cherokee Green, Earl, Polish, Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, Potato Leaf Yellow, Abraham Brown, Lucky Cross, Captain Lucky, Egg Yolk and Sun Gold. I will place a Mexico Midget in a large container in the driveway, and my recent new dwarf hybrids in grow bags, also in the driveway. One bale will contain Shishito and Pinata peppers, one will contain Twilight Lightning and Mardi Gras eggplants, one will grow cucumbers. Four bales are pushed together for three types of beans -Goldilocks, Jade and Marbel. Four bales are pushed together for summer squash - 2 plants of a zucchini (probably Dunja), and 2 plants of Zephyr summer squash - one plant per bale. That’s it! Basil will join parsley, rosemary, and oregano in one of the new raised beds. I will probably purchase a thyme plant.

This will still be a very interesting garden, as I will be aiming for excellence in the tomato plants. I want to try for maximizing yield and health. I’ve yet to decide how many suckers I will let develop on each non- cherry tomato plant. With greater spacing and less plants I am hoping to do a better job with issue identification and mediation - disease and critter spotting and removal ASAP.

2024 seedlings sunning themselves prior to fully labeling

Our Veterans Healing Farm Tomato Team is quite large this year, which is highly appreciated. We have a good mix of experienced and new members. Since we can not use the greenhouse this year (the current location of the Farm must be vacated by August, but we will be able to use the large veggie field next to Shaw’s Creek until the growing season ends). The VHF is seeking a new location and funding. There is a donation link in my Instagram Linktree in my profile.

We are going to keep the roots out of the soil by using strawbales. Since water is more of a challenge (we need to pump it out of the creek), we have the bales linked up in a row of 30. They were placed in large plastic bags. Holes were cut in the bottom for drainage, and the top mostly cut away, leaving all sides enclosed.

Drainage holes in the bale bottoms

We are half way through the bale treatment. On Monday April 29 the seedlings will be planted, 2 indeterminate tomatoes per straw bale. We are limiting numbers of varieties this year. Current thoughts are that the tomatoes planted will include Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Chocolate, Big Sandy, Nepal, Red Brandywine, Earl, Polish, Brandywine, Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, Potato Leaf Yellow and Lucky Cross. We will work out the quantity of each very soon. Note that we are not planting cherry tomatoes. The key is flavor, productivity and acceptance by those to whom the tomatoes will be donated.

I look forward to finding out how the bales do when enclosed in plastic to reduce water evaporation. The issue we had last year of enclosure in the greenhouse - which led to rapid disease spread and lower fruit set on the upper part of the plant - is absent this year. The plants will get full sun all day and excellent care from the team.

There it is - a full update on the goings on in my gardening life. We are going to keep up the hiking, and soon add kayaking. The weather has been mostly gorgeous. I hope all of you have excellent 2024 gardens! Be sure to catch me on my weekly Instagram Live, which should soon settle out to Friday afternoons (up to now, they’ve been very spotty and impromptu). You can watch them all after the fact at the reels tab on my Instagram profile.

Tomato team at work cutting away the tops