Plant Suggestions

Garden plant combinations

• Rhubarb chard and red French sorrel and red celosia.
• Purple and green cabbages mixed with blue Salvia.
• Edge beds in sweet alyssum and gomphrena.
• Hyssop and cabbages
• leeks and celery
• lettuce and carrots, onions, and strawberries
• mint and cabbages, other bassicas, peas
• nasturiums and cucumbers, zucchini, squash, apple trees
• onions and carrots, turnips
• peas and carrots
• plant lettuce around tomatos plants to keep them shaded by the taller plants

Tomatoes

Saving Seeds from Cherry Tomatoes - ferment crushed tomatoes in water for two to three days. Wash away flesh and floating seeds. Save the seeds that sink, discard water and other debris. Dry in the sun for two to three days.

Getting early tomatoes

Use breathable black landscape fabric (available at most garden centers) under tomatoes. Prepare the soil normally, then lay the fabric over the dirt as early in the season as possible. It helps warm up the planting area - tomatoes love hot soil. Make a hole in the fabric at planting time, and plant right through it; then cover the fabric with straw for a more attractive appearance.

Myth or fact? Eating tomatoes can help prevent sunburn.

FACT. This is true, thanks to tomatoes' high lycopene content. Volunteers in one study who consumed 5 tablespoons of tomato paste daily for three months had 25 percent more protection against sunburn. Even better, the skin had more collagen, which prevents sagging. German scientists also report that higher skin levels of this antioxidant correlate to fewer fine lines and furrows. Toss some on top of some romaine lettuce for the perfect skin-health salad: six leaves of romaine lettuce provide more than 100 percent of your daily value of vitamin A, which revitalizes skin by increasing cell turnover.

See also http://www.tomatogrowers.com/

To give tomatoes more flavour and less water is to roast them. Cut them horizontally and roast at 450 F for one hour.

Avoid these companions

Beans and garlic

Cabbage and strawberries

Gladioli and strawberries, beans, peas

Sunflowers and any vegetable but squash

Plants to Try (from Prairie Gardener 2009)

Easy Peas

Scatter a 10-foot square patch of ground with one pound of shorted bush peas (such as the Little Marvel variety). Two months later, harvest the 50 pounds of pods. Apparently, the peas will support each other as they grow to negate the need for a fence.

Source: Guerilla Gardening by David Tacey ISBN 978-0-86571-583-7.

Tasty Tropical Plants

ISBN: 978-1-60342-577-3

Plants I want to try growing:

• Australian Finger Lime
• Calamondin Orange
• Citrumelo - does well in cooler climates. More disease resistant.
• Kunquats fruits lots.
• Acerola or Barbados cherry. Tolerates dry cool conditions.
• June plum
• Naranjilla can be grown as an annual much like a tomato.
• Olive can withstand dryness in the air and soil. Need wintertime cooler temps and 7C.
• Pineapple can be grown from store-bought items. Takes about two years to start making fruit.
• Rose apple drought tolerant and easy to grow.
• Coffee plants do well in low light and low humidity.
• Cinnamon makes a good potted plant keeps the soil slightly dry.

Web sites to check out:

• www.crfg.org
• www.floraexotics.ca
• www.logees.com
• www.onegreenworld.com