Another New Member in AZ

[leftylogan]

Hi everyone,

I was once an annoying teenager on the internet so some of you may recognize my username from various other tomato and garden sites. My parents let me tear up their backyard until I went to college but now I'm 30 and finally have a place with my own backyard. It's in a build-to-rent so I'll be entirely in containers and grow bags at home but am looking into a community garden plot.

I'm in the Phoenix Metro area and I'm expecting it to be one of the more difficult places I've gardened. I went to college up the mountain in Flagstaff at 7000 foot elevation where I did an internship on an organic farm. I also briefly worked at a nursery in Colorado as a grower where I had about 20,000 sq ft of greenhouse space I was responsible for, growing mostly landscaping perennials and hanging baskets of annuals. I grew up in Southern California which is, of course, one of the easier places to garden.

I'm an environmental scientist by degree and profession where I deal with commercial pesticide products and groundwater. My life revolves around dirt and water even more now that I'm getting the garden started.

A lot of my interests lie in collecting, breeding, and selection. I expect to make a few crosses this year but don't have any real goals or direction. I was pretty friendly with a lot of the breeders like Keith Mueller back then and learned a lot that I've never been able to put into practice.

Most of my plants are already started inside and I'm excited to have 2 seasons/one very long season. I work from home so hopefully watering 3 times a day in peak summer won't be an issue. I have one successful germination of ~15 year old tomato seed and hopefully some of my other old stuff will eventually pop up. I started some old Dwarf Project seed that was never given a fair chance so hopefully that germinates to have something to play with this year.

Thanks for listening to me ramble out my life story lmao.

[Whwoz]

Welcome to the Junction from Down Under @leftylogan. Sounds like you started young, which is the best time to start. Plenty of information on this forum and I am sure you will fit right in.

[Cornelius_Gotchberg]

Welcome from America's Dairyland. Spent a coupla months in Lake Havasu City in Spring 1974, preceded by a weekend of...um...bacchanalian excess on the aforementioned NAU campus.

I have resident pals in Tubac and Tucson, and seasonal ones in Parker and Scottsdale.

The Gotch

[Gardadore]

Welcome from NEPa! My son lives in Scottsdale so I am familiar with gardening issues in that area. Much easier to garden in PA! But love to visit the Phoenix Botanical Garden. Will be interested to follow your postings on gardening in Phoenix.

[PlainJane]

Wow, welcome! Looking forward to you sharing your experiences with us!

[pepperhead212]

Welcome to the forum!

[MissS]

Welcome to the Junction @leftylogan! I'm glad that you have joined us all here. I do believe that I am one of those that saw you playing in the dirt awhile back. A community garden would be great for you to spread your wings in.

[Kurt]

https://www.netstate.com/states/symb/ve ... tomato.htm

Found this.Welcome.

[TX-TomatoBug]

Welcome @leftylogan to the Junction! Sounds like you will have great insights to share here.

[Shule]

@leftylogan
Welcome to TomatoJunction!

[leftylogan]

Appreciate the warm welcome from everyone! I had more 15 year old seeds start germinating so maybe I'll try and get a grow log started. Now I need to find the rest of my old seeds that are hiding at my parents. I know I have some stuff from Dr. Carolyn and Bill Malin (spudleafwillie) laying around.

Welcome from America's Dairyland. Spent a coupla months in Lake Havasu City in Spring 1974, preceded by a weekend of...um...bacchanalian excess on the aforementioned NAU campus.

I have resident pals in Tubac and Tucson, and seasonal ones in Parker and Scottsdale.

Hah, my girlfriend grew up in Lake Havasu City and we still spend a fair amount of time in the western half of the state. The heat is more brutal out there but there's less concrete so it actually cools off at night unlike Phoenix. It's an interesting trade off.

Welcome to the Junction @leftylogan! I'm glad that you have joined us all here. I do believe that I am one of those that saw you playing in the dirt awhile back. A community garden would be great for you to spread your wings in.

I'm glad I figured out where a lot of people went after Tville died (and that I missed the drama). For all the OG's, I was part of the Tville registration wave after the Farmers Almanac article in 2009(?)

[Harry Cabluck]

Welcome to the Junction.

[AZGardener]

Welcome to the Junction!

[rxkeith]

welcome from da U.P.
the cool place to be, spring, summer, fall, and winter.
i don't remember you from the other forum, so you must not
have been too annoying, or maybe i'm just getting forgetful in
my um, older age. i don't know if i could take the heat where you
live. my finlander wife sure couldn't..
have fun in the garden.


keith

[bower]

Welcome to the Junction, from a cool and wet place - I must be your climate opposite, but looking forward to learn from you too.

[galleri]

Welcome from Central Kentucky!