Tom Garner and Renée Perry of East Hill Edible Gardening at Earth Day 2014
When we began five years ago we had no idea how many people
in the community were interested in growing their own fresh vegetables! With
your help we’ve accomplished so much:
Taught over 600 students our basic class “Easy
Weed-Free No-Till Organic Gardening”
Taught even more students through our specialty
classes: cool weather, warm weather and hot weather vegetable gardening,
chicken and bee keeping, and permaculture
Provided local gardeners with thousands of
vegetable plants from our booth at the Palafox Market
Visited numerous backyards for home
consultations and garden installations
Served as volunteer consultants at local community
gardens
Reinvigorated and continue to manage a local
elementary school garden
Met and spoke with 1000’s of gardeners and
potential gardeners at numerous local festivals, events and workshops
Served as officers and board members of the
Pensacola Organic Gardener’s Club
Introduced to the broader gardening community in
our area dozens of interesting and unusual edible plants from around the world
Provided numerous gardening presentations to
local clubs and organizations
Thank you everyone for your wonderful support! We could not
have imagined the success that we’ve experienced over the last five years, and
we could not have done it without you.
We look forward to what the future holds, and we have some
interesting plans ahead, so we invite you to continue to grow with us!
Pictured above are Speckled Roman and Tigerella tomatoes, two striped varieties available now.
East Hill Edible Gardening has the largest selection of tomato plants available in the Pensacola area. We are offering 38 varieties of tomatoes this season (see descriptions later in this post)!
Yes, it’s early for tomatoes, but the weather has been much warmer than normal and for most of us there is no threat of freezing in the next 2 weeks. In fact, it looks like great tomato-growing weather ahead which means we have more time to grow some of the bigger tomatoes. If a freeze does come, these plants can be easily covered by a cardboard box for the night. We’ve already planted more than 30 varieties in our own garden, some of which are blooming!
The following varieties are available now. We have more thorough descriptions at our booths. Lots of them are heirlooms, some are newer intriguing varieties bred for taste, most are open-pollinated, and a few are hybrids (because they offer great disease resistance):
– Atkinson – good meaty tomatoes, great for our area
– Aunt Ruby’s German Green (lg. green, spicy & sweet
– Best Boy – flavor plus great disease resistance
– Better Boy – Classic tomato flavor – good disease resistance
– Big Rainbow – beautiful deep yellow with red streaks
– Black Krim – Juicy, dark red-purple fruit, rich sweet flavor
– Brandywine, red – classic heirloom tomato
– Brandywine, yellow – yellow version of above
– Celebrity – Superior all-around w/ fantastic disease resistance
– Chadwick – large cherry tomato
– Cherokee Purple – Cherokee heirloom – superb taste
– Costoluto Genovese – Robust, tangy, “tomatoey” flavor!
– Creole – Juicy with outstanding flavor – great for the South
– Early Girl – early red meaty tomato with lots of flavor & aroma
– Eva Purple Ball – excellent flavor- great for hot, humid areas
– Gardener’s Delight- German heirloom – cherry
– Glacier– performs well in cool weather
– Golden Girl – disease resistance + great flavor
– Homestead – Firm, tasty flesh. Wilt resistant and productive
– Juliet – Crack resistant sweet cherries shaped like romas
– Kellogg’s Breakfast – heirloom orange beefsteak
– Large Barred Boar – 1 of my favorites – intriguing colors
– Matt’s Wild Cherry – small cherry tomatoes, prolific
– Mortgage Lifter – heirloom – use to pay off your mortgage!
– Peron – Solid, meaty mildly acidic interior. Insect resistant
– Pink Bumble Bee – stunning cherry tomato
– Prudens Purple – meaty, pink heirloom, PGS’s favorite
– Riesentraube – Massive yields with rich, full tomato flavor
– Roma – Good, rich tomato flavor – doesn’t need staking
– Rutgers – Heirloom with good yields and flavor
– Speckled Roman – pretty striped roma tomato
– Sub-Arctic Plenty – another that performs well in cool weather
– Taxi – bright yellow and sweet, early too
– Tigerella – Early, flavorful and high yielding
– Yellow Pear – yellow pear-shaped cherry
Plus several more cherrry tomatoes including:
– Black Cherry
– Coyote
– Gold Nugget
A variety of Echinacea, this purple coneflower is both beautiful and attracts beneficial insects to our garden. Here we see a native bee gathering nectar and pollen.
Cool weather makes for some of the easiest gardening in the Pensacola area. Some vegetables plants like this cabbage in our garden can even take a serious freeze without sustaining any damage at all.
Related to butternut squash Seminole pumpkins can be hardened off for winter storage. They’re said to have originally been grown by Native Americans in the southeastern United States. They have a wonderful flavor especially when baked with spices similar to pumpkin pie!
Ladybugs are very helpful for pest control in our garden. Here we see a bright red ladybug eating aphids on punterella, an Italian variety of chicory. The ladybugs in our garden are native to the area and were not purchased.
