Hello everyone, I just joined these forums and would like to introduce myself. I live in Providence, RI (USA) and I am 55 years old. My father was a backyard gardener for most of his life, but passed away at 92 in 2007. I always had an interest in gardening, and I now want to carry on my father's legacy by maintaining a garden in the very spot that my father had his garden for decades. So far this year I have about 16 Rutgers tomato plants, and four 10-foot rows of corn. Both are doing very well. However I tried planting onions, but they are not turning out well. (I will post a question about that in the appropriate forum later). Anyway, I hope to get a lot of advice from the members here, and possibly contribute a thing or two as well. :-D Tony
Welcome, and glad to have you here at the Stew! Lots of really nice folks with gardening experience, stories, and pets. We love photos, so if you get the urge to post a few, go right ahead!
Welcome from another part of SE Texas. The East coast is very different climate wise from any part of Texas but we give advice anyway. How are your tomatoes doing? I had a tomato jungle with just 14 plants but the heat is getting to them now. dooley
Hi Tony and welcome to the Stew. Glad to have you with us and please ask away and don't hesitate to contribute. we all just try to help one another
Hello Tony and this time a warm welcome from Scotland. It's so good to hear that you are gardening where your fater used to. I'm sure he'd be very proud of you. I look forward to getting to know you.
Hi Tony, Welcome to Garden Stew. I too learned my love of gardening from my Dad. It's really cool that you are growing your garden in the same spot. Hope your Dad is smiling down on you from heaven.
Hi Tony, so great that you will carry on your father's tradition. We will be here to help you whenever you need it. Don't forget to check out our blogs, member map and perhaps upload plant images you have to GardenStew PLANTS for all to learn from Details here: http://www.gardenstew.com/plantstew/help#3 // frank
Hi Tony from Chelmsford MA, welcome to GardenStew the friendliest group of gardeners on the internet. Jerry
Hi everyone! Thank you to all who responded to my welcome message! I really was touched by how many of you appreciate my carrying on my father's legacy. There's an interesting story about the Rutger's tomato plants I am currently growing. My father had been propagating these Rutgers plants from seeds year after year, for many decades. The taste of these tomatoes was like no other - absolutely tangy and delicious. When my parents fell ill, I took care of them at home. During that time there was no garden, since I was extremely busy, and my father was unable to do it. After their passing, I was able to find seeds my father had made that were 3 years old. They were stuck to a paper towel. So I planted them, and got a good crop of plants. However, I put them outside too soon to "harden them up", and all but one plant died ( my inexperience ). But that one plant grew, bore fruit, and I was able to make more seeds. And the rest, as they say, is history. I like to tell people that I resurrected this old Rutgers variety "from the brink of extinction" :-D Sorry for the long winded post. Tony
Greetings, Tony, from Wyoming. That's a great story about the seeds. I'm a first generation gardener, but I can truly appreciate the legacy you're continuing. You'll find a lot of great gardeners and friendship here.
Hi Tony, welcome to GardenStew from Toni in north Texas. It's great that you had a gardening parent to learn from and carry on his legacy. Great too that you were able to save those tomato seeds.