sometime. My favourite at my favourite restaurant.

Growing good gardens is one thing - growing new gardeners is quite another. My main goal each year is to inspire and identify those who will follow on from my generation of seed savers - ensure it isn't just a fad, but something of a foundation in our gardens. The Seed Savers Exchange (40 years old this year) is really the starting point for the preservation and dissemination of so many great varieties that probably existed only on farms or communities sprinkled around the country - indeed, the world.

Imagine my surprise when I tasted my first Cherokee Purple, back before it had a name, in 1990 - my first inclination, after "this is a really unique color...and is absolutely delicious" - was to give it a name and ensure it was shared as widely as possible. I was just lucky to choose someone in Jeff McCormack of Southern Exposure Seed Exchange that also loved it, and was the first to sell it in his catalog.

The rest is...history!

two thousand varieties of tomatoes later, my quest and passion continues unabated!

Were at my Uncle Sonny's produce stand when I was growing up. He sold fireworks at Fourth of July.

I loved going to Uncle Sonny's!

No matter what tomatoes I try, I get weedy, thin plants with low productivity.

through their Agricultural Extension service (if I remember correctly, there's an Extension office in each county - usually in the county seat). You might check with the county you live in to see if there's a similar service where you live.

Over the years I've had to "loosen-up" the soil in my garden. I've tilled in compost and, believe it or not, old potting soil from various planters. It's help a lot in the areas where it has been mixed in - water absorbs into the soil now rather than making a big, muddy, non-productive mess. I'll be tilling the old mulch in this year after harvest.