Tomato Season Is Here!

It may seem early, but it’s time to start planting tomatoes if you want to harvest early fruit. Unlike peppers and eggplant, tomatoes will tolerate cool evenings as long as they are protected from frost. Peppers and eggplants don’t like to be planted out until the evening temperatures are consistently above 50 degrees. Planting too early can stunt their growth. Although tomatoes are much more cold tolerant, I recommend protecting them if the temperature is predicted to drop below 35 degrees. The small, young plants can be easily protected by placing an upside down pot, or halved plastic milk carton over the plant.

Homegrown tastes best!

Tomatoes seem to be a common entry plant for beginner vegetable gardeners. Why are tomatoes so seductive? The varieties of flavors, colors, shapes and sizes that are available to grow at home greatly surpass what’s available in your grocery store. The quality of flavor is also worlds above store-bought tomatoes. I am always resentful if I have to purchase a store bought tomato in winter. I usually avoid it, as even the expensive, heirloom varieties sold in stores cannot compare in flavor to a delicious, sun warmed tomato plucked at its’ peak of ripeness.

Tomatoes are also fairly easy to grow-even for beginners, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. Choosing the right variety is important for first-time success. Unfortunately, I see a lot of beginners choosing the large, beefsteak varieties to try for their first tomato plant. This is usually a mistake. I always recommend beginners plant the cherry-type tomatoes their first year. The larger the fruit, the more difficult it is to grow. Cherry tomatoes are more vigorous, pest-resistant, drought tolerant and shade tolerant than larger tomatoes. Some of my favorite cherry varieties are Matt’s Wild Cherry, Sungold, Risenstraube and Black Cherry. Slightly larger tomatoes like my all-time favorite, Jaune Flamme, are also easier to grow.

‘Jaune Flamme’ Tomato

As usual, I will be planting some of my tried and true favorites this year like Jaune Flamme, Eva Purple Ball, Sungold and my newest favorite, Mandarin Cross. This year, however, I will be saving space for some exceptional new varieties I am really excited to try. In December I purchased seed from Brad Gates at Wild Boar Farms in Napa, CA. He has carefully cultivated these unique varieties through crossing and selecting plants from different heirloom varieties. He selects for production, disease resistance, striking looks and “outrageous” flavor.  His tomatoes definitely look different, but they have been getting rave reviews across the country. They all have interesting names like Dragon’s Eye, Red Boar, and Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye, to match their striking looks. The AAA Sweet Solano looks particularly mouth watering to me! We will only have a limited amount of these tomatoes plants grown from the seed I purchased, as it is still limited and expensive. However, all of his varieties are open-pollinated. This means you can save seed from your crop this year to replant, knowing that you’ll get a plant next year with the same attributes.  I will be planting one of every variety we are trying, and I’d love to hear how they do for other Tallahassee growers.

Happy planting to you all and may you soon be swimming in a sea of tomatoes!

Autumn and Winter Berries Attract Flocks of Birds

The bright red berries of Yaupon olly provide abundant food for birds and are useful for holiday decorating. Photo by Lilly Anderson-Messec

Bird feeding is an enjoyable hobby; it gives us many hours of enjoyment watching birds up close just outside the window. However, I get even more satisfaction when I observe a bird dining on berries or seeds of trees and shrubs that we have planted in our yard. At our last home, we planted an American beautyberry shrub outside our bedroom window. Each autumn it produced many bright purple berries. One December morning, my daughter and I watched a hermit thrush, a male and a female cardinal and a whitethroated sparrow all feeding at once in this beautiful shrub. That was a colorful sight I will always remember.

Yaupon holly is another favorite of mine. We often see large flocks of robins and cedar waxwings feasting on its shiny translucent red berries. Weeping yaupon is a cultivated form of yaupon that makes a pretty accent plant in the landscape. Savannah and East Palatka hollies are also stunning this time of year. Plant hollies in sun for best fruit production.

The red fruit of the flowering dogwood is among the first to be eaten by both birds and squirrels. Remember to plant your dogwood in good, well-drained soil in some shade. They become stressed when planted in full sun.

Many years ago, we planted a native highbush blueberry just outside our home office window. Every summer, we enjoy watching cardinals and mockingbirds selecting ripe berries; I am happy to share the delicious bounty with them.

There are many other great berry producing native plants that birds love – magnolia, wax myrtle, cherry laurel, and viburnum to name just a few. Cabbage palms, bluestem palmettos and saw palmettos also produce fruit for birds and other wildlife. In early October, my husband Jody and I walked along a short trail at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge that was naturally lined with cabbage palms loaded with ripe fruit. We saw at least 8 catbirds, lots of boat-tailed grackles, a red-bellied woodpecker and a thrush feasting on the berries and a yellowthroat and other birds in and amongst the thicket of cedar, yaupon and palm.

A word of caution: choose your non-native fruiting plants carefully. Many, like the Chinese tallow tree, may be beautiful and attract a multitude of birds. Unfortunately, the birds spread the seeds and the trees take hold outside of your yard in natural areas of forest and wetland crowding out Florida's native species and upsetting the balance of nature.

The Joy of Feeding Birds

Autumn bird migration brings many beautiful species south to spend the winter in North Florida. These birds come to warmer climes joining others that stay with us year ‘round. The easiest way to attract and view these interesting birds up close is to offer the correct types of bird food.

Most ordinary mixed birdseed is loaded with red millet which has actually been bred to be distasteful to birds, but is included in some mixes because it is cheap. Chipping sparrows and white-throated sparrows, both winter migrants, along with resident rufoussided towhees and brown thrashers, prefer white proso millet. These four birds are ground feeders, often preferring flat, platform type feeders.

You cannot go wrong with black-oil sunflower seed for cardinals, bluejays, chickadees, titmice and white-breasted nuthatches. If you offer these birds standard mixed seed, they will throw out 90% while looking for the 10% sunflower. Use a tube feeder for sunflower distribution; you may want to spring for a squirrel or raccoon baffle to protect your investment in quality food.

Goldfinch and orioles may require special foods and feeders. Though goldfinch eat sunflower, they love nyjer seed, sometimes called thistle. Nyjer is a very small seed dispersed from a special feeder with small openings. An inexpensive goldfinch feeder is a nylon sack called a thistle sock. Orioles prefer four unique foods – sugar water, grape jelly, oranges and suet cakes made from beef fat. Some oriole feeders can dispense sugar water, jelly and an orange at the same time.

Suet cakes are also favorites of yellow-rumped warblers, ruby-crowned kinglets and orange-crowned warblers, all winter migrants. These are some rather exotic names for some very small birds! Resident pine warblers and yellow-throated warblers seem to partake of suet only in winter when insect populations are down. These two species are strikingly beautiful and are always a joy to watch outside our window on the suet feeder.

The other dimension to attracting beautiful birds is the vegetation in your yard. Having a variety of trees and shrubs is desirable. Your yard should have both overstory trees like pines and oaks and understory trees such as dogwoods and redbuds. Lots of shrubbery is also desirable, offering cover from predators. Many shrubs and trees provide berries and seeds that sustain birds through the cold winter months. To attract robins or cedar waxwings, you must have berries on plants like holly, dogwood, cedar, pyracantha or Oregon grape.

Being aware of bird migration makes the changing seasons more interesting and enjoying the beauty and antics of birds at our feeders is a great way to spend a cold winter day. Providing them with a consistent and clean supply of food is rewarding, knowing it makes their search for sustenance a little easier.