Hiyas, I love gardening, it's what keeps me sane. Or some would call me a bit obsessed with it. I have grown over 120 different tomato variety's and only have 9,850 more to go. I go to several different forums to chit chat about gardening because most people around me are not into it like I am and they kinda think im nuts. I hope to share some knowledge and to learn even more here. Gardening has changed a lot over the years for me. I have done the gambit from neglect to over complicating things. I have lost interest because of failure and I have managed to over come this several times over the years. I have failed from over complicating things to the point where I was paranoid. Gardening shouldn't be stressful hehe. So now I balance my obsession with a better strategy, I always use tried and true (to me) practices and variety's, and only experiment on about 20% of my garden. In the beginning I would try out new things on the entire garden without fully understanding the ins and outs of what I was doing. I think I just got to excited about new things hehe. Well this strategy is hit or miss and can lead to a lot of stress which I dont need hehe.

I love to preserve (caning) from my garden, and I love to pickle veggies as well. I feel strongly about the quality of my food and I try to practice organic gardening as best as I can. I even grow more than what needed on purpose knowing that my losses might be higher do to this fact. I try to look at it as it might be my loss but its a gain for the garden because its being reincorporated back into the soil or nature. I have good years and bad ones and on the good ones im blessed with enough to share with all my family and friends, and even in bad years I tend to have some to share as well. I always get compliments on the quality and taste of my produce. To me its normal quality and taste from a garden, but I suspect they are just used to caned stuff and fresh stuff from the grocery store.

Lately I am getting into more paste types of tomatoes and hearts. I also am trying out different types of cucumbers for making pickles. The only cucumbers I've grown was Marketmore. This time around I am growing more of a pickling type.

Well I guess that wraps things up for now ~ crunch out

Greetings from America's Dairyland, where you's from?

The local gendarmerie will soon...um...explain that there happens to be more than them there 9850 you's haven't yet tried.

Cukes? Look into Sweet Success (https://www.burpee.com/cucumber-sweet-s ... 00704.html my personal fave!), and WESconsin varieties SMR 58 (https://www.edenbrothers.com/products/c ... eeds_smr58) and Wautoma Heirloom (https://www.azurestandard.com/shop/prod ... cucumbers).

The Gotch

Welcome to junction!! You will meet people just as obsessed as you eehhm ehhhmm cough cough haha..I’m right where you are keeps me up at night .. your in the right place .i look at it this wayWe all have our own levels of control chaos..I go until I drop just me.but I’m ok with it haha it keeps the wooblyies from taking over.. yes I did say that right ..I’ll explain if need to.

Welcome Crunch!

I second the 'where's you from'?

I garden and can myself - LOVE pickles! I am more of a sweet pickler person because I am uber picky on dills.

The last 3 years I have grown General Lee and Summer Dance. Previous years I grew Eureka and Diva. I really liked both Eureka and Summer Dance; I can both pickle and eat fresh.

Guess I am going to have to try Sweet Success!

Hi @crunch1224 welcome to the Junction! I'm sorry to hear that you have only grown 120 varieties of tomatoes. If you hang out around here that will soon be changing. You will find that seeds fly around here at the end of the growing season. We all love to share our seeds and knowledge.

I used to try some of the new growing methods but I am back to basics and growing organically. It just seems to work the best for me and ends up being less work in the long run.

I am from NWI about a hour south of Chicago out in the rural area surrounded by corn and bean fields hehe.

MissS wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 12:31 pmI'm sorry to hear that you have only grown 120 varieties of tomatoes. IF YOU HANG OUT HERE THAT WILL SOON BE CHANGING. (bolds/caps/italics mine)

THERE_IT_IS!!!

The Gotch

lol, 120 varieties is nothing to sneeze at.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Junction from Down Under @crunch1224. 120 varieties sounds like a good start to me. Plenty of good paste and hearts out there

Welcome... you're obviously in the right company here.
I loved your comments about success and failure and coming back from the letdowns. We all need to remember that from time to time... Thank you for that!

Howdy from Texas! 120 tomato varieties, eh? You sound like my kind of person! Let me know you want anymore or wanna trade! (Especially if you happen to have Michaels Portuguese Monster)

bower wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 4:27 pm Welcome... you're obviously in the right company here.
I loved your comments about success and failure and coming back from the letdowns. We all need to remember that from time to time... Thank you for that!

It's been quite the ride for me and my garden hehe. I have learned so much about myself through gardening it kinda crazy. When I first started gardening seriously I was a all or nothing type of person, who thought money could solve all my problems inside the garden and out. All the money in the world doesnt help if you dont pay attention to whats going on hehe. I was kinda arrogant.

Welcome to the forum!

crunch1224 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 7:53 pm

bower wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 4:27 pm Welcome... you're obviously in the right company here.
I loved your comments about success and failure and coming back from the letdowns. We all need to remember that from time to time... Thank you for that!

It's been quite the ride for me and my garden hehe. I have learned so much about myself through gardening it kinda crazy. When I first started gardening seriously I was a all or nothing type of person, who thought money could solve all my problems inside the garden and out. All the money in the world doesnt help if you dont pay attention to whats going on hehe. I was kinda arrogant.

Welcome to the forum.

There is nothing like a garden, with a season of poor weather, to humble a person.

Welcome to the forum from the White Mountains! I think we all experiment and have both successes and failures, but somehow, no matter how much failure, and I have had my full measure lol, we all seem to come back for more next year

As for failures, the best thing about forums like these, is learning from others.

Probably the biggest one that I learned is not planting out too early.

crunch1224 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 12:44 pm I am from NWI about a hour south of Chicago out in the rural area surrounded by corn and bean fields hehe.

Great! We need more corn belt gardeners here. Good to have you here.

Hi, @crunch1224. What a great intro post! I think you've found the right place, there are lots of like-minded people here who share your passion for gardening and canning. Welcome to the forum!