Mark your calendar to join us next Saturday, September 11th, for our 8th Annual Tomato Festival.  This is one of our favorite days of the year here at FG, as we celebrate our favorite summertime vegetable….or is it a fruit?  As in past years, we will gather together as many varieties of locally-grown tomatoes and organize them by type, so that you can sample them side by side to determine our favorites.  People are always blown away by the differences in color and texture and taste – we always think a tomato is a tomato is a tomato; but when you sample them like this you really appreciate the subtle differences.  And you will find favorites!!  This is a great way to figure out what you would like to grow next year.

There will be LOTS going on:

• 9am – noon – Enter the Tomato Contest – bring in your entries and register to win.
• 11am – 4 pm ~ free sampling of tomatoes – vote for your favorites.
• 11am ~ Chef Dan Brophy will cook up tasty tomato recipes – samples and recipes to take home.
• 1pm ~ Tomato Talk ~ Learn the secrets to growing the best tomatoes in our region, and strategies to get them to ripen in a cool wet year.
• 2pm ~ Chef Dan returns for a second session of new recipes to feature – more sampling and recipes.
• 3:45pm ~ Judging of Tomato Contest and awarding of prizes.

Admittedly, this has been a poor year for tomatoes – I really feel for farmers when weather wrecks havoc with their harvests.  I guess it is important to have this reality check from time to time; to remember that there are strategies we can implement that will help us achieve ripe tomatoes.  Things like using Walls-o-Water, which warms the soil and protects the plant from cool night temperatures.  Using plastic mulch around tomato plants to heat the soil.  Cutting out excess foliage.  Selecting varieties that have a shorter maturation time.  We’ll be talking about these and more at our Tomato Talk – hope you’ll join us!

And sometimes it is just a good idea to be a realist and decide to cut your losses.  If that is you, and you are ready to part with this year’s tomato vines, then we can help you get a fall garden going – we’ll have a full display at the tomato festival of great fall veggies you might want to try this year.  We’re here to help.

I hope to see you all at the Tomato Festival!

Attention all vegetable gardeners:  We’re bringing a new element to our fantastic Tomato Festival – a contest!  We know how it is with home gardeners – we all want bragging rights for what we do.   This friendly contest is meant to encourage you all to show off your harvests, even if they have been less than stellar this year due to weather issues.  We are especially encouraging children to take part!  So start babying that huge tomato still on the vine, and bring it in next Saturday - details below.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Contest Details 

• 9 am – noon ~ Drop off your entries and register 
• 3:45 pm ~ Announcement of winners

Gardeners need not be present to win.  Tomatoes must come from your own garden, must be ripe, and not frozen or previously frozen.

 Categories

• Best in Show (taste)
• Biggest in Show (weight)
• Ugliest Tomato
• Prettiest/Most Perfect Tomato
• Best Cherry
• Best Salsa

Prizes

First place in each category will win a Farmington Gardens Gift Card. 

Second and third place winners in each category will be awarded FG certificates good for tomato starts in 2011 season.

 Each child will receive a special certificate of participation.

Tomato Contest Criteria

Flavor: The perfect tomato should have a strong tomato taste, be slightly acidic, juicy and fresh tasting with a tender skin.

Firmness/Slicing Quality: A desirable tomato should have a dense uniform thick wall with many seed cavities, completely filled with a jelly-like mass. The firmness of the tomato should be such that it will bruise if dropped, yet is not over-ripe or soft.

Exterior Color: The winning tomato has a uniform color, is free of green shoulders and has no evidence of blotchy ripening.

Shape: Tomatoes come in different shapes and sizes, depending on the variety. Their shape should be symmetrical, but most important, the tomatoes in each entry should be uniform in size.

One of the cool things that the “eat local” movement has spawned has been a return to food preservation.  Whether you grow it yourself in the summer or buy it direct from a farmer, being able to store healthy, tasty foods for winter consumption allows you to eat local when not much is going on in the garden.  If you’ve been paying attention to this latest craze, then you’ll know that food preservation today is different than in Grandma’s day.  There are awesome salsas and chutneys and pickles and sauces — you are only limited by your imagination.  Having these ready on your shelf makes meals fun and easy.

Chef Dan Brophy will be here to show the steps to canning safely- once you know how to do it, it isn’t hard or scary.  He’ll take a couple of recipes from start to finish, as well as sharing samples from other batches.  Last year, Dan made an incredible salsa verde from green tomatoes – it was sooo good!  You’ll go home with lots of recipes and ideas, as well as a happy tummy!

Click on the link below to register for this class.

If you are a viewer of KOIN TV’s Garden Time program (Saturday mornings), then you will know William McClenathan and Judy Alleruzzo.  Now is your chance to meet them in person!  They will be here at Farmington Gardens on Friday, September 10, at 11 am, to share their interest in dwarf conifers.  These versatile plants make terrific additions to a landscape, and are very happy in containers.  We have an excellent collection of these plants here at FG, and this class will be a great introduction into how you can use them to the best effect.

This will be a fun, hands-on workshop!  Marinda will lead this class on creating a container garden that will not only look great throughout the winter, but by early spring will be full of a variety of colorful spring bulbs.  What’s not to love about that?! 

We’re not setting a price on this class – you can go as elaborate or minimalist as your budget and preference allow.  Bring a pot from home or we’ll help you select one here.  You select  the assortment of bulbs you will plant, and we’ll provide the soil, the fertilizer and the expertise!

Thursday, September 9th – 11 am

Perfect timing for getting a fall garden started:  lots of new veggies have arrived!  As you pull the finished summer vegetables from your beds and space is freed up, keep that soil working for you by planting some veggie starts that will give you a fall crop.  The soil is warm and inviting, so fall crops grow quickly.  Be sure to give them plenty of water as they are getting established: remember they have delicate, small root systems; if they dry out, they’re toast.  This is a quick list of what I found here today:

• cauliflower
• broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• cabbage
• beets
• turnips
• scallions and onions
• carrots
• spinach
• arugula
• lettuces and mesclun mix
• basil
• choi poi and pac choi
• Chinese cabbage
• kale
• mustard greens
• collards
• peas

This week’s Grower’s Choice, commonly called Silver Knight scotch heather, is a terrific small shrub for the garden.  It is a slow growing evergreen with a neat, upright habit.  It produces lavender blooms which has a 2-3 month bloom season, beginning in early summer.  They are in full bloom right now and are spectacular!

I think the heather family is great planted as a mixed collection, or in combination with dwarf conifers or other dwarf shrubs.  Because they are evergreen, they provide year round interest and structure, filling in those bare places in the garden.  (If you are like me, you have a disproportionate amount of perennials which disappear during winter - I need to be adding more evergreens, and this is definitely one that has a place!)  They would also be fantastic in container gardens, especially for the early or late season containers.

Silver Knight is easy to grow, and hardy to -15 degrees F.  It prefers well drained soils; mulch to conserve moisture and to keep the roots cool.  Once flowering has finished, prune to encourage new, thick growth.  That’s about it – a no fuss, no muss kind of plant!

This Grower’s Choice selection in a one-gallon size, is normally $5.99; now through September 2nd at $2.49.  Cannot be combined with other discounts, and good only while supplies last.

We had such a terrific response to the willow furniture class in June that, by popular demand, we have scheduled another session.  For those of you who missed it the first time around, this is an all-day workshop lead by Brian and Samantha from The Willow Station.  You choose the project you’d like to make: garden bench; garden chair; fern stand; end table; garden plant trough; or garden trellis.  Each of of these would be great functional additions to a garden, and would provide a one-of-a-kind focal point.  And of course, the bragging rights to say, ‘Yep, I made that!’   Take that, Martha Stewart.

Brian and Samantha make a great team, working one-on-one with each class member to see that they create a successful product.  They will bring all the tools and materials needed – and you are guaranteed to take home a finished project.  Talk about instant gratification – I can’t tell you how happy our June class was with their furniture.

The all-day class is Saturday, September 18, from 10am – 4pm.  A $10 registration fee will secure your spot, and the materials and instruction fee of $125 is payable directly to The Willow Station on class day.  Space is very limited for this one, so if you’d like a spot, please register at the button below.

There is really nothing better on a summer day than being barefoot on a nice lawn, is there?  It is cool and relaxing, and maybe a bit primal.

So in order to enjoy a beautiful, green expanse it is important to show the lawn a little love from time to time – and fall is the PERFECT time to do this!   Brian Schiffer will cover all the basic steps to planting new lawns or rehabilitating existing lawns, so that you are sure to have a healthy, green turf next season.  A little time spent now will reap great rewards!

Saturday, September 4 ~ 11 am    Fall Lawn Care

This is a free class – please just click on the button below to register!

I hosted a family dinner party the other evening, and since it was one of those hot, hot days, I planned a menu of cold salads.  I was fortunate to be able to harvest much of the menu from the garden:  a green bean salad with Julia Child’s vinaigrette dressing; a big tossed salad; cold grilled chicken; and pickled beets.  Many of my dinner guests that evening have very discerning palates, so it was interesting to me that the beets were the hit of the night.  I thought I’d pass along the recipe for those of you who love pickled veggies – it was easy to make and yummy.  Thank you to the Food Network’s website for the recipe!

Pickled Beets

• roasted beets, recipe follows
• 1 large red onion, frenched (not being sure just what ‘frenched’ meant, I cut onion in half, and sliced in long thin strips)
• 1 cup tarragon wine vinegar (I used a fruity pomegranate vinegar instead)
• 1 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 cup water

Remove the skin from the roasted beets and slice thinly.  Arrange in 1 quart jars or deep bowl alternating layers with the onion.  In a small pot boil the rest of the ingredients and pour over the beets.  Tightly lid the jars (or cover the bowl) and place in the refrigerator for 3-7 days before serving (I made mine in the morning, and served that night, and it was still awesome).

Roasted Beets:

• 6 medium beets, cleaned with 1 inch stem remaining
• 2 large shallots, peeled
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 2 teaspoons olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large bowl toss all of the ingredients.  Place into a foil pouch and roast in the oven for 40 minutes.

So, how have your tomatoes fared this year?  It has not been a stellar tomato season for most in the Pacific Northwest.  In a good year, most of us start harvesting the early varieties in mid-July, but that has been pushed back by a few weeks due to our cool spring.  If you are experiencing late ripening of your tomato crop, I have a couple of suggestions for you:

1. In a ‘normal’ year, I recommend this around the first part of September, but I am doing it now in my own garden and think you should try it too:  it is time to prune out a lot of the excess foliage on your tomato vines, especially if the tomato cage is packed full of foliage.  Take at least half of the leaves and their short branches off, exposing the green fruit to the sunshine, and opening up the plant to more light and air generally. (I know this seems severe, but trust me and do it.)  This will also have the effect of slightly stressing the plant, which also hastens ripening.  A couple of weeks from now, remove a few more leaves.  By the end of September, remove practically ALL the leaves.  I have done this every year, leaving naked branches full of green fruit, and by the time of the first frost all of my tomatoes ripen.  It works.
2. As you know, indeterminate tomatoes are vines – they continue to grow in length and flower from the tips as they go.  This takes a lot of energy for the plant to continue pumping out blooms, so it is time to prune the ends.  I cut off the blooming ends right down to the first set of green tomatoes.  This will give the plant the energy to ripen the fruit already on the vine, rather than continue to try to produce more.

You should also take a realistic look at each of your tomato vines.  Some might be doing better than others at this point in the season.  I had two tomato plants in my home garden that for whatever reason had NO fruit on them.  What did I do?  Yanked them out and put in broccoli raab, which will produce a nice crop for me in about a month and a half.  Keep your soil working for you – if something is not productive, cut your losses and move on.  There are plenty of fall veggies that you can plant in those vacant spaces, and fall is a great time for many things.  Just ask us and we can give you lots of suggestions!

It is Friday – time for another great Grower’s Choice!  This week we are featuring a fantastic evergreen, Sungold False Cypress.  It is a dwarf golden threadleaf cultivar which has a weeping habit – perfect for cascading over a pond or embedded into a rock garden.  It has gold to lime-green finely textured needles with enhanced winter color if given a sunny location.  This shrub is pretty drought tolerant once established, but plan to give it regular water for a year or two before reducing that.  It offers year-round interest in the garden, and really brightens up those darker areas.

You can expect it to eventually reach a mature height of 3-8 feet, and a mature spread of 3-5 feet wide.  However, it prunes easily and so can be maintained at a smaller size, if you choose to do so.

This week’s Grower’s Choice, Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘Aurea Sungold’, in a one-gallon size, is normally $7.99, but just $2.49 until August 26th.  Naturally, at this low price, this offer cannot be combined with other discounts.  Good only while supplies last.