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A Writer's Garden, Gail Sattler, Garden blog, Gardening in Canada, growing tomatoes, Mercury Rising, tomatoes
Welcome to A Writer’s Garden where writers who are gardeners or just love gardens will be sharing their garden and flower stories, as well as a bit about their writing. Today’s writer/gardener guest is Gail Sattler, who loves to plant tomatoes!
Welcome, Gail.
To anyone who has followed me in previous years, here I am again, with yet another, and hopefully better informed, attempt at growing a small garden. Mostly, though, my goal is to grow another successful tomato garden, this time with tomato plants that I grew from seeds myself. Of course buying plants is still a possibility, but hopefully, this year I will succeed and not buy anything except packages of seeds!
Here is what I have planted, with the addition of oregano as an afterthought.
We have growth!
Even my oregano is growing.
As time goes on, everything is a little bigger. I’m pretty excited about this. I think most of them will be big enough by the time I can plant outside. A friend told me that I can plant them outside when the temperature doesn’t go below 10 degrees (Celsius) at night. For now, I’m putting them outside during the daytime for them to soak up the sunshine.
The more leggy plants 2nd from the right (below) are cucumbers. They are doing the best. I was told I didn’t need to start them inside, but oh well. They’ve got a head start. I’m the most proud of these tomatoes. They are a variety called Manitoba, which is where I am from, so I’m really looking forward to these.
This is what I’m aiming for, this is my tomato garden last year, which is on the west side of my fence in order for them to get the most sunshine. All of these were bought as plants, but I hope my home-grown ones this year will be even better.
About the Writer/Gardener:
Gail Sattler lives in Vancouver BC (Canada, eh!) where you don’t have to shovel rain. A grandma of two beautiful little girls, Gail and her husband and two dogs are staying home and social distancing despite missing the little ones. Visit Gail’s website at www.gailsattler.com
I don’t have a new book out, but if anyone is interested, please check out my last 2 on Amazon, The Other Neighbor – which is a romantic suspense, and Mercury Rising – which is an adventure with supernatural elements.
Mercury Rising
by Gail Sattler
Michael wants to save his daughter, but first he’s got to save the world.
Michael and Charlotte meet when Michael is trying to find Ashley, his missing daughter who has fallen into drug abuse, and Charlotte is searching for her son Jon, a brilliant and aspiring young scientist who has also gone missing.
Ashley and Jon should have nothing in common, but after the murder of Jon’s favorite professor, they become ensnared in a tangled web that becomes worse with every new discovery.
When Michael and Charlotte join together to figure what their children have become involved with, they, too, are sucked into a sinkhole for which there are no answers, only more questions.
When all seems lost, will they all recognize the source of strength offered to them, and… will they take it?
Catherine Castle 
Loved this post! Tomatoes are one of my favorite veggies (it is a vegetable!!!!) We love growing our own, and our grandson loves to pick them too. Lol Your books sound like fun reads! Best, Gail.
Thanks, the books are always fun to write. And the tomatoes are fun to grow. I love watching them get bigger and bigger then turn red.
Thanks for sharing this great post and your photos, Gail. Tomatoes have always played a major role in my gardening and meals. When I was little, we had a very small yard, but my father always made sure we had at least six tomato plants.
My mother always had a garden, too. She made it look so easy. Then when I tried, nope. I look forward to fall when I will have fresh tomato and Swiss cheese and alfalfa sprout sandwiches. Yum!
I have a dozen sprouts of tomatoes and some peppers on my south facing windows. It sill. I hope to put. them out. daytime all next week. This year I have a dozen lettuce plants sprouted too. That oregano reminds me! I have herb seeds to plant in pots.
PS
Great tag line.
Hmm. Some words disappeared. It is still too cold to put them out is what I meant to say.
I tried peppers last year. Fail. So did the corn. But I’m going to try the corn again. I’ve added coffee grounds and crushed eggshells to my garden this year, so I’m hoping for better results.
Sounds like the beginnings of a nummy salad!
haha, They never make it to a salad. They just get eaten, mostly at lunch time in sandwiches. 🙂
Great post. Thanks for the share. Nothing beats a home grown tomato. YUM! 😊
Yup. When ripened on the fine, not coated with any chemicals. Yum!
No, nothing beats home grown tomatoes. Ripened in the sun. No chemicals. Yum!!
Your garden is going to be fabulous! You inspired me to go pick up some cucumber seeds. We added on to our garden space this year, so I have more room for edible plants. Yay!
My cucumbers are doing the best of all so far. The pumpkin didn’t make it, oh well. Cucumbers are better!
Hi Gail, I really enjoyed seeing all of your pictures. I have always planted by seed right into my garden (except tomato plants), but now you have inspired to try some earlier inside planting for next year. I purchase organic tomato plants and set them out as soon as I can. But I live in Colorado and our growing season is very short. We usually get tomatoes in August. And I love them. Thank you for sharing! (I’m following you on BookBub and Goodreads and I’d love it if you’d like to follow me!) Also, my son-in-law is from Toronto! 🙂
Hi Becky. I’m in Vancouver BC where we also have a short growing season compared to most of the US. I visited Toronto once when I was a kid. Beautiful city, but crowded. My husband his shaking is head at my “garden”, but I know he is fascinated by what is actually growing when I put them outside on the table on the back deck to be in the sun. Last year my tomatoes were red and ready to eat in early September. This year I hope for sooner, even though the plants are still pretty small. I’ll go check you out on BookBub and Goodreads, too.
I have had luck with pumpkins and corn. This year my husband has also started tomatoes from seed. We had to move them back into the garage with a heater since it went below freezing the other night. And protect them from my cat who likes to eat the sprouts
A friend of mine who is a super gardener told me not to put the tomatoes outside until it’s 10 degrees Celcius. I continue to have high hopes that this will work. 🙂