Moving on to élanterra: The Art of Resilience & Wellbeing

By Jami Scholl | December 28, 2012 | 6:34 pm | Comments (0) |

You’ve not heard from me in many months. This is why… I decided to receive training to be a coach.

Beginning in August and ending just a week ago, I was in two training programs: Wellcoaches for Health and Wellness coaching, and the Robbins-Madanes  training in Strategic Intervention (which is widely known through the work of Tony Robbins). This I will integrate with my Permaculture Design Certification. Before Spring 2013 I will likely also add training as a First Responder so that I may be able to work in areas of natural disasters, which will become more frequent as we feel more and more the impacts of climate change. The challenges our society is facing come from numerous realms, including financial, environmental, societal, and more. Gardens were only a small part of a broader perspective, and I wanted to work in an integrated way where I could bring my full being.

I am really excited about élanterra and how I can help people and the world simultaneously as this new field of Permaculture Coaching develops. We are in the beginning stages right now, yet interest is growing, and the message, information, and coaching we offer is much needed.

This is an excerpt for what I have written on the homepage:

“élanterra exists as a business designed to assist you prepare emotionally and physically for uncertainty. The vision is one where people live with health and vitality, wellbeing and resilience in both personal and environmental ecosystems. How to do this? Through an integrated approach that sees the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, relationships, economics, and environmental as equally important in creating balance and congruity, beauty and harmony.”

Read more: http://www.elanterra.com

I hope you decide to come over to check out the new site. I am still working on getting rid of all of the bugs (slowed down by numerous holiday closings of businesses for backend customization), yet you may sign up for email notifications for either/both the blog posts and updates for classes that are to come. And if you feel compelled, please feel free to share this message and news about élanterra with family, friends, colleagues, neighbors and the communities to which you belong.

This will be the last message you will be receiving from me via My Edible Eden. Thank you for your support throughout the years, and may the future be kind & bright for us all!

Godspeed!

jami, The Permacoach

ps. my new email address is jami@elanterra.com, and you can click to find élanterra here. Ciao!

; } ?> | Categories: Alert! News on the Move.,Business,Community Food Security,Permaculture | Tags: élanterra, PermaCoaching, Permaculture, resilience, wellbeing

SALE in the shop going on NOW!

By Jami Scholl | August 12, 2012 | 12:23 am | Comments (0) |

Spring Mill State Park, garden in autumn.

It’s such a beautiful weekend for planting I decided to put all of the products in The Shop on sale.

NOTE: This will be THE LAST YEAR for the gardeners planting calendar. Next year I will most likely offer subscription email service for this information so that you get it directly to your inbox right before the weekend.

; } ?> | Categories: Alert! News on the Move.,Community Food Security,Gardens,Permaculture,Planting List,Plants,Potager,Urban Agriculture

A Journey and a Taco

By Jami Scholl | August 10, 2012 | 10:44 pm | Comments (0) |

Gardens, of their many virtues, one of the better ones seem to subvert profits from large corporations, including Monsanto. As I continue to write for GoodVeg I will be exploring international links to the United States. While traveling abroad I realized that our news coverage in this country is very focused on this country – as if we exist in a vacuum. I hope to bridge this as I shut-down My Edible Eden and create Sprezzaterra. I have high hopes that both through individual and collective action we can make a positive difference, as it is obvious that we have created a negative influence in many ways.

It is of utmost concern that I continue to be a resource for the individual in any way I can in empowering through knowledge, so be assured I will continue to have a shop in the Sprezzaterra site with garden planning products in addition to classes that are meant to give you more than just tidbits of garden information that you can find in various locations throughout the web. I have realized that my service to you and the earth is broader in scope, so please contact me with any questions, requests, or concerns throughout this transition.

Therefore I want to give you a taste of where I am going as I want you, if you so desire, to come along this journey with me in a way that fits you best. And if we no longer fit, then all my best to you as we make the world a better place for our children and the generations to follow. Below I am giving you a preview to my latest article on GoodVeg’s Subversive Plot that you can follow to the publication is you so wish.

Happy reading!

Jami

Do you know what is in the taco you are about to eat? To find out let’s go on a journey into the unknown land of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), otherwise known as the land of agri-technology. These country-road farms are not the idyllic ones imagined when contemplating country-living bliss. Country life has changed.

In this land of agri-tech, gardens are safe havens for a farmer’s family meals. The acres of fields around the home consist of patented highly sprayed corn. Some of that corn will likely be in the taco you are about to crunch. These facts you may already know from documentary films that show images of great swathes of fields, a green manicured swathe …   read more here.

; } ?> | Categories: Business,Community Food Security,Food Traditions,Gardens,Permaculture,Plants,Urban Agriculture,water | Tags: Africa, American History, Climate Change, Empowerment, Food for Thought, Food Security, Gardens, Monsanto, non-gmo, Permaculture, racism, seeds

Another Metaphoric Beginning

By Jami Scholl | July 29, 2012 | 10:22 pm | Comments (0) |

The Metaphoric Fence.

Pulling the fence around the round wood fence posts I feel my body grow warm, my brow grows hot and moist. My hands hurt. I keep tugging on the 5-foot tall fence, but the top and bottom will not line up along the next post no matter how much of my body weight I lean into it. The top sags a bit, loose and a bit floppy. The look I desire is clean and tight fitting modernist meets innovative farming… a look that speaks quality craftsmanship and definite style.

Six years ago I sat in a poetry class taught by a professor whose wisdom comes from a battle with breast cancer, among other things. From her I learned that I must be present in my poems as she asked, “Who wrote this poem? I can’t tell who it is. It’s ok to be in your poem even when you are talking about something else. People want to know you are not a disembodied voice!”

I learned to be present in both my writing and my life, slowly ridding the inner voice that whispered “selfish.” Showing up is not selfish, I learned, but necessary to live within the parameter of life that we are gifted.

The following year I sat in another poetry workshop. This professor taught one class with a film called The Five Obstructions, where my classmates and I learned that limits, or parameters, make for the best art in any media. The Five Obstructions is a film by Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth. In this film Lars gives challenge after challenge to Jorgen, his friend and mentor, in order for Jorgen to improve upon an original work called “The Perfect Human.”

Another thing I learned is that dreams are metaphors for the challenges we are facing in life. Poetry contains metaphor as well as boundaries. Dreams may be used for inspiration. Sometimes verbalizing dreams keeps them ready for us to use in our everyday lives.

This past week I decided to sign up for “Why University” since metaphors have not been forthcoming in my dreams. I have felt for the past few m

onths that I have lost my “Why,” my purpose, my cause or belief as Simon Sinek says. But I don’t think I have lost my Why so much as my Why is changing, because I have changed. 

Throughout the inception and growth of My Edible Eden the business has had to change in order to meet the parameters of this place and time, as well as to meet the needs of my children. But all of that has changed. My children are older and don’t need me in the same ways as they had when they were younger. With diligence I, and others, have worked to change urban agriculture rules and regulations so that agriculture within city limits is accepted.

My hands are not aching so much now from the fence pulling. I am sitting, looking over my fence work while drinking a glass of iced tea. I see my professor’s face in my mind, smiling with his eyebrows raised. I know what you’re thinking, it’s metaphor. The fence is meant to protect tomatoes, lettuces, and green beans and other yummy edibles from deer, opossum’s, groundhogs and skunks, but it also defines the spaces around it. I will be creating gateways and entryways to special corners of the yard, a pond, a hillside shady edible berry patch of native black raspebbies, a grassy area with dappled sunlight in summer that will transform into a persimmon collection area in the autumn and welcoming bird habitat in winter.

And that saggy fence, what of that?!?

Does this saggy metal fence have anything to do with my “Why?”

My mind is racing within itself, looking into those dark corners, racing into rooms it hesitates to enter, you know, those places of deep hurts, the wounds you don’t know if they are completely healed or not. There is a web of experiences and interactions I live within… we all live within, and this is where continuing to ask myself “why” is leading.

Last week, I was pleasantly surprised, or let me rephrase – I was shocked and dismayed in the most positive of ways by being accepted into the Wellcoaches program of study to become a certified Health and Wellness Coach! So Eden will be changing just all other things in life do. Although I am still looking to become really clear on my “why” and not just my “how.” When I am ready to unveil these changes, be assured you’ll be the first to know!

In order to help me, if you would take the time to answer a few questions of a survey, it will help me to know should I change the name of Eden, and as I continue to offer support for those interested and involved in foodie issues and products, what options should I keep and which to let go of. Click on this sentence to be taken to the short questionnaire.

This post is part of a blog hop that the awesome, and talented, Brigitte Lyons set up. Yesterday’s post was Laurie at Yarns for a Better World, and tomorrows’ is Michael at Me and the Boss.

; } ?> | Categories: Gardens,metaphor,Plants,Potager,Urban Agriculture | Tags: 28 Days to Abundance, Climate Change, Education, Food for Thought, Gardens, metaphor, Permaculture, Poetry, Urban Agriculture

Tomatoes

By Jami Scholl | July 23, 2012 | 3:38 pm | Comments (0) |

‘Tis tomato season!

Although with the heat and drought gripping much of the nation growing tomatoes is a bit more challenging a proposition this year than in the past. With climate change these weather patterns are predicted to become the norm, punctuated by “large weather events.” Last week a friend, Ed, and I were discussing a perplexing problem that was happening in regard to one of the tomatoes at a Garden Partner site location – The Fire Station garden.

One of the tomato plants, a variety that I did not plant and had no knowledge about, was an absolutely gorgeous 7-8 feet tall dark green and loaded with small pear tomatoes beginning to turn red. The problem was that the plant was progressively getting limp and then wilty. Was the cause of this malady early blight? Was the plant being over watered by the fire fighters?

The plant had no indicators of any typical disease, therefore the soil was probed down to about 10-12 inches to find if the moisture content was sufficient – not too wet or too dry and not settling in a hardpan rotting the deeper roots. All looked good. Given the location and the intense heat we have had (106 degrees Fahrenheit) this was likely the culprit. Rather than completely removing the plant, I thought I would try something a bit different. I pruned the plant down to about 1 foot in height. Perhaps it will produce as the temperature begins to cool in September. Through the rest of the summer it has an opportunity to regrow. Allow there are barriers that we will need to confront in regard to climate change, such as this, there are some recommendations for growing that will benefit us all. Below are the instructions that Ed, an experienced organic farmer and entomologist recommends:

1) Water to wet soil to the depth of 6 to 8 inches deep in the field (not in a container).

2) Rule of thumb: provide 1-inch of water per week split into 2 applications

Ed noted that we can be more precise with providing the appropriate amount of water with evapo-transpiration rates. Also note that blossoms will fail to set during really hot weather.

Best of luck in growing your tomatoes! Take advantage of the comments section below to share YOUR experience so that we may all learn some techniques for adapting to the local effects of climate change.

; } ?> | Categories: Urban Agriculture

Something for You! (time sensitive)

By Jami Scholl | July 16, 2012 | 7:28 pm | Comments (0) |

Greetings!

There are changes afoot in the garden, as I have been hard at work indoors while the heat has ravaged the outdoors. Please click on the link to find out what I’ve been up to!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P28M8L2

This survey will be up for ONE (1) week, so hurry over to the survey so that I hear your voice before a time runs out!

All my best,

jami

Ps. Remember, July 23rd is the LAST day you can access this survey to know what all the buzz is about!

; } ?> | Categories: Alert! News on the Move.

Sand blows from Ostrich’s head

By Jami Scholl | July 12, 2012 | 2:45 pm | Comments (0) |

The only thing to do for those who don’t “believe” in climate change is to close their eyes while living in a climate controlled environment. Are you, or do you know, of ostrich’s who had the thought that changes in the climate were not of human origin, and therefore did not exist? Regardless of whether the change is caused by people or not, here it is.

We are in the thick of it as “drought tolerant” corn from Monsanto makes no difference to the farmer’s growing it. The soil has been so corrupted, used rather than nourished, that it cannot hold water nearly so well… that is if rain would come. Expect rising food costs in the near future as the corn that is being plowed under feeds conventional meat animals. To me, a long-range planner, I wonder if there is much we can do to prepare.

And then I glance at my wall where I have my planting calendar hanging. There are still many items that can be planted. And then there will be the August and September plantings for winter harvest. You can find the planting calendars for climates zones 4 through 9 in the shop. Many plant seed companies have some seeds up to 50% off, if there are some still left on the racks. It’s not too late if you act NOW!

But yet, there is still the issue of water. Below is an article I wrote for GoodVeg back in March. I feel that it needs to be reprinted and shared. Please share this article widely as we want to take care of others as well as ourselves. Life is lonely if we are all alone.

In solidarity,

jami

Assumptions, I have been told, will “make an ass out of you and me.” In regard to food production what is an unspoken assumption by many who are not farmers, is that we will continue to have the same abundant water supply. Springtime is the time for abundant rain to get crops started. But what if we didn’t get the rain… what then?

Rain and flooding plagued the eastern coast of the United States not long ago. Photos of flooding appeared over the media outlets, news related and social. Facebook posts from a high school friend of mine would state that electricity was off. Then on, briefly, and finally remaining on a few days later. Like many, I searched the internet for information. I stumbled upon a site from a person in Canada that referred to a report about water and climate change. Curious, I followed the link.

National Security and the Threat of Climate Change, a pdf document produced by the CNA Corporation, is now within close reach on my desktop. The CNA Corporation is a “nonprofit institution that conducts in-depth, independent research and analysis. What is most notable about this research document is the Military Advisor Board. This group of retired military personnel represented from all branches of service, include those with titles such as “General” and “Admiral.” These leaders were asked to assess that which was most critical to National Security in the face of climate change. The research and assessment is briefly summed up on page one, which states:

The nature and pace of climate changes being observed today and the consequences projected by the consensus scientific opinion are grave and pose equally grave implications for our national security. Moving beyond the arguments of cause and effect, it is important that the U.S. military begin planning to address these potentially devastating effects.

These leaders have experience with national security challenges that range from the Soviet nuclear threat during the cold war to the more recent issues of terrorism. The stance of addressing the problem rather than debating the cause(s) I appreciate. Should we delay in national and personal action then climate change can act as a multiplier and will “almost certainly get worse if we delay.”

In Appendix 2 is a brief overview of consensus: human induced addition to greenhouse gases are playing an increasing role in climate change, the changes from these human activities have already affected various natural systems and that future changes are inevitable. Further, increased carbon emissions increases global temperature and that temperatures have already begun to rise, precipitation patterns have changed and there will be more frequent large weather events. Ice and snow cover is disappearing, oceans are warming and sea levels are rising.

From various climate models, it has been determined: that the average temperature will rise by 2 degrees, sea level will rise between 7-23 inches, water will become a stressor in many areas of the world as glaciers that populations have depended upon for fresh water will no longer be available, heat waves will increase leading to more floods and vector diseases, with agriculture productivity increasing in mid- to high latitudes but cause problems in the tropics and subtropics. There is a “Wild Card” in this entire scenario, and that is the possibility of sudden shifts in the global climate.  I have known many people (including myself) that have gotten overwhelmed with this information.  We can make a conscious choice to set our emotions aside for a few moments  to review the chapter titled “Findings and Recommendations.”

I have listed the 5 most important “Findings and Recommendations” below, with the main recommendation for action from the report. Following this I took the recommendations one step further to speculate on what each household in the United States can do to help prepare for the effects of climate change.

1)   Projected climate change poses a serious threat to America’s national security.   

National Recommendation: The national security consequences of climate change should be fully integrated into national security and national defense strategies.

Personal Recommendation: Do not wait to act until a precise answer is available as to what to do, as it may never arrive. With current information update the way you live to include working with family, neighbors, and business-to-business cooperation to provide the capacity and resiliency to respond and adapt to predicted changes, including: drought, flooding, rising sea levels, weather-related events, etc. Food storage, clean water, and shelter are paramount issues to address to enhance personal security.

2)   Climate change acts as a threat multiplier for instability in some of the most volatile regions of the world.

National Recommendation: The U.S. should commit to a stronger national and international role to help stabilize climate changes at levels that will avoid significant disruption to global security and stability.

Personal Recommendation:

1) Mitigate climate change in your own life by thinking about how personal decisions, such as lowering energy usage at home, choice of transportation, or other areas where emissions can be reduced or eliminated. Do you live within a few miles of work? Biking is a great way to get fit and help create a healthier world.

2) Adaption to climate change. Be aware that there will be challenges to the water supply and food system when there are disruptions to energy or water. Harvest rainwater, if it is legal to do so where you live, and buy locally produced food or begin to grow yourself. Remember, food needs water to grow, so make sure this crucial element is a part of your plan!

3)   Projected climate change will add to tensions even in stable regions of the world.

National Recommendation: The U.S. should commit to global partnerships that help less developed nations build the capacity and resiliency to better manage climate impacts.

Personal Recommendation: Learn about local disaster preparedness and take steps to help your neighbors with their own disaster preparedness plans. Cooperation between households and neighborhoods within your town or city will help everyone be prepared in the face of difficulties caused or magnified by the effects of climate change. If there are neighborhoods in your city or town that are not secure in regards to food, shelter or water, neither will you be.

4)   Climate change, national security, and energy dependence are a related set of global challenges

National Recommendation: The Department of Defense should enhance its operational capability by accelerating the adoption of improved business processes and innovative technologies that result in improved U.S. combat power through energy efficiency.

Personal Recommendation: Higher demand for fuel makes the whole system more vulnerable. Use technologies that make efficient use of existing fuels and energy, such as an energy dashboard that measures in real time energy usage, with graphic elements as well as data. And, if you can, change to a renewable power source, such as solar energy.

5)   Overall Review of the impact of issues related to Climate Change:

National Recommendation: DoD (Department of Defense) should conduct an assessment of the impact on U.S. military installations worldwide of rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and other possible climate change impacts over the next 30 to 40 years.

Personal Recommendation: Find out what the possible extreme weather events are for your area. Here in southern Indiana flash floods are likely in some areas, tornadoes and drought to be anticipated throughout the entire region. Once you know what the possibilities are in your regions, then prepare for each event, considering that there is a possibility for two weather events happening simultaneously, such as a tornado after a time of flooding in early spring for my area. The need to have food  and water storage, and a place to go for warmth for the household (including pets) is something to have planned out. Copies of important documents should be  sealed in plastic bags, and maybe a bit of cash for emergency use should electrical lines be down with no way to process an ATM or credit card. And if not all members of the household or family are not in one location, have a central place to meet and, if possible, an alternative communication method. Remember walkie-talkies when you were a kid? This is a good time to bring them out. And have fresh batteries on hand, too.

Although impacts of climate change in regard to food supply are rarely discussed since it is not sexy, people often leave the discussion before it even begins. Feelings of helplessness and overwhelm are often firmly rooted in all the predictions of change. As a child I remember hearing how we live in a country that is the home of the brave. Bravery is facing an obstacle, with fear, and choosing to act in the face of adversity.

The effects of climate change present us with an opportunity to live up to that creed, to be brave in the face of adversity by acting. Above I have very briefly presented the findings of this committee, given their assessment and overview, and translated this into possible actionable steps for each of us. Now it is up to us to take steps toward creating our own personal security, and the security of our communities.

Personally I am making slooow progress towards my own personal security, but progress is being made. How far along are you in creating your personal household security? What information do you have, and what do you need to know?

Resource: National Security and the Threat of Climate Change, by the CNA Corporation.

; } ?> | Categories: Community Food Security,Garden the City 2012,Gardens,Plants,Urban Agriculture,water | Tags: Climate Change, disaster preparedness, Food for Thought, Planting List, water, water collection

News from the Yarden

By Jami Scholl | June 14, 2012 | 7:18 pm | Comments (0) |

This is an excerpt from A Subversive Plot on GoodVeg online magazine.

Here is the doe in my neighbors yard… her fawn is in the backyard behind a shed.

White tailed deer can be bold, and can possibility become aggressive. I give wide berth to the bucks during the rutting (mating) season, and females after fawning has occurred. I have heard local stories of deer attacking dogs, although local authorities say that this is improbable. Based upon my own encounters with these creatures, I tend to believe the dog owners.

Just a few days ago, my nearly 1 year old puppy, got free to chase a doe… to then be chased by this same doe as the two animals came around my neighbors house. A neighbor, Daniel, grabbed Hermes by the collar. Each time I took a few steps towards Hermes, the deer came closer. I finally had him in my arms, carrying him into the house.

Beyond eating gardens, landscaping and scaring dog owners, is another threat: the rise in the possibility of acquiring Lyme disease in our own city gardens.

In the human quest for that look of manor house set in the woods, we allow trees, shrubs and vines to grow along property lines, often lined with fences. These plants intertwine the fences, whether metal or wood, like snakes. Is it no wonder we are bitten if we create a near perfect habitat for deer, even if unintentionally?

Bitten by ticks, that is, not deer. (Although I have had a few encounters with bucks that leave me to think that if they weren’t going to gore me with their antlers that they may consider biting.) Actually, it’s not just a bite, is it, since ticks are arachnids, a.k.a. spiders. The deer tick has three occasions in its two-year lifespan where it needs a host to have a blood meal. The last meal the tick takes when in its adult form is from the largest host, usually deer, sometimes human or dog. But even before this there is disruption in the ecological system that increases the numbers of deer ticks and our likelihood of getting Lyme disease while gardening.

This disruption in the ecological cycle occurs in the ticks larva and nymph stages. During the larva stage voles have been the traditional host, while at the nymph stage the chipmunk would be the host. But since there exist much less forested type areas in urban areas, the populations of chipmunks and voles have decreased, having been replaced by mice. This change has a two pronged effect: 1) Chipmunks and voles do not carry as much Lyme disease as mice, and 2) the transmission of this disease occurs more frequently when mice are hosts rather than voles and chipmunks. The result is that Lyme disease is neither diluted nor stopped, as it often is when voles or chipmunks are the hosts. With more ticks carrying the pathogen of Lyme the more likely that humans will be the next host. Deer just help with the propagation of subsequent generations of ticks, and we help the growth of the population of the deer by how we design and care for our urban lots.

The spread of Lyme disease carrying ticks has expanded to include nearly every state of the United States and into Canada. The tick is controlled through environmental changes: heat, cold, and moisture. When not attached to a host, the tick receives moisture from the air. If the air has a very low humidity level, then the tick cannot survive. According to an abstract in 1998 by Elisabet Lindgren of the Resilience Alliance regarding Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis (TBE).

“Increased incidence of tick-borne encephalitis is related to a combination of two successive years of more days with temperatures permitting prolonged seasonal tick activity and, hence, pathogen transmission (i.e., daily minimum temperatures above 5ºC-10ºC), and a mild winter preceding the year before the incidence year (i.e., fewer winter days with minimum temperatures below -7ºC).”

Below is a list of organizations that give more information about how to treat Lyme disease (with antibiotics) and to check for ticks (best removed immediately to lessen infection), but I am going to have a call to action for prevention. How to do this? Here are a few options:

1)   Help in reducing the deer population in your community. Begin by NOT feeding the deer or setting out salt licks. Salt licks not only encourage deer, but they can spread disease between deer.

2)   Create habitat for chipmunks and voles… think about replacing your lawn (and freeing up your time) with a forest garden created by building up the soil with bacteria and fungi, then populating it with ostrich ferns, wild ginger, spring beauty, may apple, and many other wonderful plants native to your area that not only are not palatable to deer, but are also fairly drought tolerant.

3)   If you like poultry, tick control is a good service that they provide, in addition to adding nitrogen to the soil and providing eggs.

We live in a symbiotic world as the development and spread of Lyme disease illustrates. Yet we can each be a part of the solution right at home. What method(s) of Lyme disease control do you think you will implement this year?

Resources:

http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/transmission/index.html

http://www.ct.gov/dph/lib/dph/urbandeer07.pdf

http://www.aldf.com/deerTickEcology.shtml

http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol2/iss1/art5/

http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/lyme-disease/risk-factors.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/health/20tick.html

; } ?> | Categories: Gardens,Urban Agriculture | Tags: A Subversive Plot, Food for Thought, Urban Agriculture

Tomatoes without Cages

By Jami Scholl | June 7, 2012 | 5:02 am | Comments (3) |

When it comes to growing tomatoes, there is inevitably the discussion of what to do with your tomatoes… do you: let them grow all over the ground? (this can lead to yucky messes of tomato seeds shooting from beneath your foot as you try to reach into grab that ripe one), do you use the tomato cages sold in most shops? (that will likely fall over onto the ground, but at least the tomatoes are less likely to get stepped on! they are caged, you know?), or do you make your own tomato cages that are so big that you can’t quite get in there to get that one just out of reach… but hey, the deer can’t get it either!)

There are other ways to grow tomatoes, and that is to trellis them. There are different ways to do this, some of which is determined by whether or not your tomato is a variety that is determinate or indeterminate. Most varieties are indeterminate, which means that they will continue to grow like Rapunzel’s hair until the plant is killed by frost.

The varieties I am growing this year include Rutgers, an old-timey canning tomato that has a high acid content for canning, fairly uniform size and shape and is semi-determinate. Another variety is a roma patio variety that I am experimenting with, and lastly is the continually reseeding Matt’s Wild cherry, a plant that grows in the strangest way, even for an indeterminate. This is a variety that at the end of the leaf may decide to grow another stem and cherry tomatoes… you just never know, and it seems that the plant doesn’t either as not every leaf will transition into a stem.

For varieties that are not the wild cherry I typically trellis them, removing the suckers that grow at the intersection of the stem and the leaf. Below are some photo’s of how I do this.

Here is the Rutgers tomato with a bamboo stake next to it. When you put in the stake, attempt to avoid damaging any of the plant roots. Having a gentle touch as you install the stake will let you know if there is resistance, if so then move slightly to the side of your original attempt.

This is the part of the plant you should remove in order for the tomato plant to continue to grow upright on a central "trunk." This is easily removed by pinching it off or pushing it back to where it will break off the stem.

In this photo you can see how I push the sucker back for it to easily snap off the plant. If these have grown very large you can experiment a bit by placing this broken piece in the soil or moist starter mix. Often roots will grow and you will have another tomato plant!

One thing to remember when should you decide to use this method of support is that you are training the plant. You cannot force the plant to be close to the bamboo, otherwise the stem will either be bruised or a stem will completely break off. Plants can be flexible, but only up to a limit before they suffer serious damage that will affect the growth of the plant and its production.

Twirling a tomato around bamboo is like a dance where flexibility is required, and should one hold too tight to the other? The partners will not have a good relationship!

This training will work for determinate and semi-determinate tomato varieties. This technique can also be used with more of a trellis type set-up for the non-determinate varieties, which I will illustrate in another post.

One last thing, be sure not to water your tomato plants too much. Frequent watering encourages shallow roots. When roots are shallow, it does not matter how nice the layer of mulch you incorporate, when heat and even the slightest drought come at midsummer, the tomatoes leaves will likely curl and production drop off. As the season continues, the possibility of disease and insect damage increases since the plant is already stressed. One or two deep waterings per week should suffice unless the plant is loaded with fruit in mid to late summer. For this time of the year, let the roots go deep by relying upon good soil conditioning before planting and rain after the plants are established.

Do you have other tips for growing tomatoes that you would like to share? If so, we’d love to read them!

; } ?> | Categories: Community Food Security,Food Traditions,Gardens,Homesteading,Plants,Potager,Urban Agriculture,water | Tags: Education, Food Security, foodscaping, Planting List, Potager, tomatoes, Urban Agriculture

Does Food Policy Affect YOU?

By Jami Scholl | May 31, 2012 | 6:37 pm | Comments (0) |

As many of you know, I am very interested and active in local food security issues, and am a member of the steering committee for the Bloomington Food Policy Council.  I found that this young attorney, Emily Broad Leib’s overview of the issues in regard to the food system and social justice is very good.

And by the way, the Bloomington Food Policy Council in Indiana is looking for co-chairs for a few groups. Or if you’ve not that much time to spend, we would still love to have you join us!  If you are an attorney, as this young woman is, we would love to have your involvement!

; } ?> | Categories: Community Food Security,food preservation,Food Traditions,Gardens