How do your tomatoes grow?

By Joan, The Cherry Tomato Lady

Welcome to the Cherry Tomato Lady's blog! I'm not sure what you are expecting in a blog written by a woman who calls herself "The Cherry Tomato Lady," but I can promise you the content won't be strictly about tomatoes.  However, much of it will be about food and cooking. And some days it will be about someone I've met or something I've learned from friends or read in the news or heard in the beauty shop....

That thought brings me to planting tomatoes. My hair stylist (Jeff at Strandz -- don't you love the name of that salon?) swears by using Epsom Salt as a fertilizer for tomatoes. My mother always kept Epsom Salt in the bathroom closet for long soaks in the tub, but I'd never heard of feeding it to tomatoes.

So the old reporter in me turned to an Epsom Salt website where, sure enough, the Epsom Salt Council cites the product's gardening benefits. According to the council, salt may help seeds germinate and make plants grow bushier and produce more flowers.

For tomatoes, it suggests applying one tablespoon per foot of plant height per plant every two weeks. For roses, the same application is recommended. Just sprinkle the salt at the bottom of the plant and water it thoroughly.

I am not actually endorsing this process because if you read commentary on the Internet, you'll see some controversy about it; but I am experimenting on a plant or two. I'm sticking with tried-and-true Miracle-Gro for the rest of them. That's what my grandmother, the original "Cherry Tomato Lady," used for years.

Incidentally, the scientific name for Epsom Salt is magnesium sulfate; magnesium sulfate was discovered in Shakespeare's day in Epsom, England.

I bought a big bag of it so I have plenty left for soaking. If you try it, you need two cups for a standard-sized tub, but four cups for an oversized garden tub.

I'll let you know how my tomatoes grow. In the meantime, if you have any sure-fire tips for growing tomatoes, send them my way.

You can respond on this blog site, or, if you prefer a little more privacy, send me a note by e-mail. My address is cherrytomatolady@plantationcable.net.

Lake Country Authors Meet at Lake Oconee

by Gail Vail

The Lake Country Authors met at the gorgeous home of Davis & Patty Temple on the morning of May 25, 2011. We dangled our feet in the water as our noted area photographer, Lisa Wheeler, snapped candids of the authors. After the photo shoot, we "got down to business" and discussed our group, our speaker's bureau and ideas about marketing our books.

Editing "Seasons on Lake Oconee"

By Gail Vail
Editing and publishing a book, especially a collection of writings from many individuals, paired with paintings from many more individuals, is indeed an exercise in patience. I was about three-fourths of the way through the editing and pairing.  I had no time to paint myself and was getting a little distraught about the few writings in need of just the right painting. I was talking to one of the artists and she asked me which pieces were still in need of a painting. I started to describe a writing about an osprey and she quickly said she had just completed a painting about an osprey. She quickly sent it to me via email. When I opened it up, I literally got goosebumps. The painting, by Sandra Witty, is a lovely painting showing an osprey sitting next to a nest on the branches of a lone dead tree in the middle of the lake. The writing, "Osprey", by Kathrin Rudland,  refers to the osprey who, "pointed her towards her nest, a crown of tangled twigs and branches that topped a skeletal tree...". Perfect!!

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