By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

As we approach this year’s tomato season, many gardeners will be rushing out to their garden space to haphazardly plant tomatoes.

But don’t.

A little preparation will go a long way on not only preparing the garden but also preparing the plants for a successful gardening season.

First-Know Your Tomatoes

Every tomato gardener knows that their plants become, somehow, their babies by the end of the season. A gardener can tell a lot about their plants by just getting to know them. Study their leaf development, bloom development and fruit development daily. If you see a change, address it then. This will prevent many problems by being proactive verses reactive when it comes to pests and plant diseases.

Second-Know Your Tomato Terms

When shopping for tomatoes, keep in mind what you need. If you are going to Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Many years ago, I can remember always making “collars” for the tomato plants that my dad and I used to plant together.

These little paper collars prevented the cutworm from destroying our tomato crop.

While I never saw the elusive cutworm, I always knew they were out there because my dad said so.

Years later, I learned the truth about cutworms, their habits and ways of preventing them. But before the truth is revealed on this secretive creature, lets “crawl” like a cutworm.

Cutworms like the nightlife and do all their feeding at night. You know this mysterious animal has been around by the condition of ones tomato plants. Cutworms will literally cut a plant down even with the soil. At this point, the plant is chewed above during the cloak of darkness.

So what this means for a tomato gardener is your garden will be fine today and come tomorrow, your plants will be on the ground. No warning, no signs, nothing at all that will indicate that this is going to happen.

While the enemy does not warn us of their impending plan, there are a few things one can do to prepare for the cutworm season.

Clean the Garden Space

Cutworms like weeds and leftover vegetable plants. To keep them Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

For some individuals, growing tomatoes can be a challenge.

Space and time are some of the top reasons why people do not grow them.

Another reason is experience and while tomatoes are known to be an easy plant to grow, there still exist brown thumb gardeners that fail at this task.

To help those individuals with brown thumbs and those who say they do not have the space, a simple gardening project has been designed and it all starts with getting to know your local pizza company.

One may wonder why a pizza company, well the answer is simple.

Pizza companies go through a lot of tomato sauce and the buckets that the sauce comes in are perfect for planters. They are plenty deep and the plastic is food grade, which is very important when one is using plastic containers to hold plants that will be eaten.

To begin this process, starts with drilling a hole in the bottom of the container. The hole needs to Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Gardeners can learn a lot from the gardeners who have passed.

For me I learned a lot from my Great-Grandmother, who was what I like to call a Plant Whisper.

She could take a simple twig and grow a tree or save seeds and grow enough food to feed her family, neighbors and to can.

All of this was created in an urban space full of shrubs, flowers, fruits and vegetables.

But through her skill she did have a few tricks up her sleeve that allowed her to be a very successful gardener.

My favorite trick can be described with one word and that is marigold. While this word can be used, in some situations, to describe a color, the term marigold in this situation is one that means “a nematode preventer.”

This Old World technology can be found on Amish farms. The bright colored flowers can be Read the rest of this entry »

By Mindy McIntosh-Shetter

Every tomato gardener loves the first days of summer when the weather is warm, soil is moist and the planting conditions are perfect.

I, myself, have to wait until the second week in May before I can get my warm season crops in the ground.

But this year’s unusually warm weather has caused many gardeners to consider breaking with that tradition.

But take heed from a long time gardener, while March may have come in like a lion there is still a lot of weather to get through so do not be fooled or be a fool.

I learned this lesson long ago when I was a beginning gardener and thought I knew everything. I mean, I was in agriculture class in high school and came from a long lineage of farmers, what could go wrong.

Well, that year, everything went wrong. It snowed on Derby Day, which was Read the rest of this entry »

By David Harbilas

Pureed vegetable soups are some of my favorite soups to make and eat.

They’re also very easy to make, which makes me wonder why they aren’t seen more at restaurants.

I think a lot of people are afraid of ending up with a very thin, flavorless puree, rather than one that is silky, quite thick and full-flavored.

The secret is really not much of a secret: don’t use too much liquid.

Essentially, it’s better to use too little liquid rather than too much, since you can always add liquid in the pureeing stage of the recipe. And as far as flavor goes, just use a well made stock as a base for the soup. It’s hard to make a bad soup from a good stock.

Makes about ½ gallon

3 cans chickpeas
6 plum tomatoes, halved lengthwise
1 onion, sliced Read the rest of this entry »