Home Grown Tomatoes in the flower bed

This year I planted some small tomatoes in my flower beds and I have had neighbors stopping by and asking, "What are those little flowers with the bright orange and red berries on them?"

They are, of course, referring to my Tiny Tim and Red Pear tomato plants that I interplanted with my vinca and marigolds. The berries (tomatoes) are quite showy and offer a curious sight to the neighborhood dog-walkers.

I have other veggies planted with the flowers that I'll share with you another time. You may also find some references to my gardening efforts in my monthly articles in the Farming News each month. Go to ALAFARM.com and search Home Grown Tomatoes.

We all had a great time at the Alabama Farmers Market last Saturday. George Paris and Harold McLemore were my guests and the main topic of green was "plasticulture". Farmers Market Day was a fantastic event and we are looking forward to working with the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries again in the near future to promote another event; this time from the Fairview Farmers Market in Montgomery.


Coming up on next Saturday's show will be Kitty Rochester. She has been a guest on the show many times and is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to how to grow and the uses of herbs. She's a Master Gardener and I call her my personal herb Guru! Be sure to join us!

Speaking of joining, please subscribe to my blog by listing entering your email address in the right hand column. You will then get notices of my postings here.

Thanks for reading! -Kenn

WAPZ-AM 1250, The People's Station!

Beginning Saturday, July 12th, Home Grown Tomatoes will have a brand new flagship station to carry us into the network future! WAPZ-AM is a small, yet very powerful voice in Alabama and has proven to be respected, ethical, community oriented and professional. (It doesn't hurt that they actually have honest Arbitron numbers either!)

I am proud that Home Grown Tomatoes is now a small part of their BIG team!

Our new show hours for the live, call in show are from 1:00 until 3:00 PM Central Time. Go to the HGT website and find out how to participate in the show.

Thanks for reading and thanks for listening to Home Grown Tomatoes! -Kenn

What Am I? Post 2

This trivia game has been created to stimulate your minds; to hopefully let you see what Mother Nature has made for us to enjoy. I hope you'll look beyond the normal sights. Oh, they are beautiful to look at as they are shown in books. Look closer at these wonders of nature. I think you'll see things you've never seen before. At the least, I hope you'll view nature's sights with new perspectives.

Each Sunday night, there will be a new image posted for you to anylize.

Click Here to see this week's image.





Please take a guess at what you think it is. Also each Sunday night, the Home Grown Tomato Team will post the solution to the quiz from the previous week.Post your guess in the comments to this blog.

Don't go George

I wasn't finished with you yet.

"Behind every silver lining, there's a dark cloud."
-George Carlin (1937-2008)

Where's He Been?

Where I left off is not where I was last except in here.

...And, if you understand that then I hope you are sport enough to explain it to me!

All kidding aside, I have to get back on track here with this blogging and stuff so I can keep up with what I did! It's like using a Franklin Planner, only opposite. One should use them to plan future events and stuff and not write down what one did for the last month!

When I posted my June 1st blog, I said that I was headed back to the garden to do some more planting and that I would be right back. That didn't happen that way at all, did it?

I ended up getting on a roll with about a thousand or more plants; putting them into the ground. I didn't get back inside until almost dark and by that time I desperately needed to clean my typing fingers before I started here.

I had purchased some AlabamaGrown™ plants the week before and needed to get them into the garden. Normally I wouldn't buy more than I could plant in a weekend, but I wanted to grab them up before they got gone! It was the end of the spring season and I didn't want to miss out just because I was late getting started on planting.

I bought nine flats of petunias, one flat of vinca, two flats of columbine, one flat of helichrysum licorice, 3 flats of sun coleus, two flats of tomato plants, one of assorted peppers, 2 flats of mini-petunias, one of calibrachoa, two of trailing torenia, one flat of balloon flower, two flats of Dreamland zennias,two of gaillardia, one of coreopsis, one of sedum, one of ornamental sweet potato vine, one of Ichiban egg plant and two flats of ice plant. Oh. I forgot the merigolds and geraniums!

So, you see? I have been BUSY! What have you done?

It has been an ongoing project getting all of those plants into the ground. In addition, I have been negotiating with some other radio stations about carrying the HGT radio show. Also, on June 7th, the Home Grown Tomatoes team went to beautiful Fort Payne, Alabama to do a live remote for the town's annual celebration in conjunction with the band Alabama. Fan Appreciation Days is a regular celebration that is attended by folks from all over the USA. The band is there to show their appreciation for helping them become one of the most decorated country music bands in history.

This year, the City of Fort Payne dedicated four larger than life bronze statues of the four band members and presented the honors across where they will be from now on, in the City park.

Click on image to view more pics of the event

Our own Commissioner of Agriculture, Ron Sparks, native of Fort Payne, was the emcee. He joined the Home Grown Tomatoes radio broadcast after the ceremony. It's always good to have him on the show

I'll have more to tell about that event later. I do, however, want to make it known that the City of Fort Payne, Alabama really rolled out the red carpet for the Home Grown Tomatoes team and for that, I thank them. Especially, the special events executive, Mayor and councilmen. Thank you for the wonderful hospitality! I have now gone away knowing that I could live there! Thank You.

Did I say, "Thank you?"

On the June 14th show our friends, the Doctors Across the Street joined the show again. Dr. Grant Gentry gave us some more ideas about what we can plant to attract butterflies. He suggested planting host plants along with the nectar plants so the butterflies will lay their eggs and pupate there. Dr. Malia Fincher had just returned from Tanzania and told us about some of her adventures. Saying that gardening in Tanzania is much the same as gardening in Alabama. She talked about her studies of the bush-people and, sadly I might add, the life expectancy is only about 45 years.

On today's show, my good friend Davy Wright of AlabamaGrown™ plants visited the Tomato Tower and brought with him a bag of goodies from his personal garden. Ghost Buster and Black Magic eggplant, yellow crookneck squash, silver queen corn, Spanish onions and tomatoes were among the treats! Guess what I'm cooking tomorrow?

Well, that's all for today. I'll have more to write soon real soon! Thanks for reading! -Kenn

What Am I? Post 1

This trivia game has been created to stimulate your minds; to hopefully let you see what Mother Nature has made for us to enjoy. I hope you'll look beyond the normal sights. Oh, they are beautiful to look at as they are shown in books. Look closer at these wonders of nature. I think you'll see things you've never seen before. At the least, I hope you'll view nature's sights with new perspectives.

Each Sunday night, there will be a new image posted for you to anylize.

Here's this week's image.

To see a larger version of the image,
Click Here. Please take a guess at what you think it is. Also each Sunday night, the Home Grown Tomato Team will post the solution to the quiz from the previous week.

Post your guess in the comments to this blog.

Enjoy!

-Kenn

Post a comment about what you think this image is. The solution will be posted on Sunday night.

Hemoracalis-Daylily-Rocket City
Winner! krkeene

Good Morning World

Good morning, World! It's so nice to see you today!

That's what I wake up and feel every day. Oh, I have the usual aches and pains an over-forty (he-he) man would feel after a day in the garden and greenhouses, but I'm still glad to be here and am especially glad to be here with you right now ... Thanks for reading.

Today's the first of June and the Summer Solstice Holiday is just around the corner. To be exact, Friday, June 20th at 1759 CDT (2159 UTC) will be the official start of summer, 2008. I mention the solstice because it is one of my five favorite holidays, with my most favorite being Groundhog Day.


I'm rambling a bit this morning, it seems. No matter, I wanted to greet you today with some unorganized thoughts before I start my physical workout in the garden. It's going to be pleasantly warm today with a high near 90°. A 60% chance of thunderstorms could wet my flowers this afternoon and I hope it does!


Later, after a few hours of planting more of my plants by Alabama Grown™, I will write more here and tell you about yesterday's Home Grown Tomatoes show. In the mean time, here's a pic shot in the Tomato Tower Studio A yesterday. Dr. Grant Gentry and yours truly with our good friend, Commissioner Ron Sparks in the background.






I hope you spend your day in your garden. More later.
-Kenn