Svalli from Finland reporting

[svalli]

I have been lurking here a over a month now and I guess I should also introduce my self even many people here already may know me, since I have used the same username on other gardening forums. I had my hobby garden about 14 years in Wisconsin, where I fell in love with heirloom tomatoes. After moving back to my native country Finland 12 years ago, I had to learn how to grow tomatoes in a greenhouse. Growing tomatoes outdoors had different challenges, but I miss the possibility to grow as many plants as I want without restrictions of growing space.

I have some kind of obsessive compulsory disorder of collecting seeds for multiple varieties of same plant species. I started with tomatoes, hot peppers and potatoes and now my obsession is garlic varieties. I like seed saving and sharing, which I think is an important way of maintaining the genetic diversity of plants.

Through the year I have made so many friends online and I am grateful to all those nice people, who have traded with me and sent me seeds. I have already noticed many familiar usernames here and I am glad that Bower sent me message about this site during my winter hibernation. I have finally started to make a list for this year’s tomato varieties, so I am slowly waking from my hibernation period.

Big thanks to Rajun Gardener for setting this site up for us tomatoholics to get support and share information!

Sari

[Whwoz]

Welcome to the Junction from Down Under Svalli

[PlainJane]

Sari, welcome to TJ!

[worth1]

Welcome glad to see you here.

[cloz]

Welcome from a former Jakobstad transplant.

Cloz

[eyegrotom]

Welcome to the Junction

[NarnianGarden]

Waves!

[ddsack]

Very glad to see you here! I always enjoy your posts!

[GoDawgs]

Welcome and come in out of the shadows. It's good to see you and your garlic here!

[Growing Coastal]

Hi Svalli !
Nice to see you here.
Looking forward to your further garlic adventures.

[rxkeith]

hi sari,

greetings from the cold snowy U.P. home to many finlanders.
my wife still has family members a few times removed in finland.
hancock recently had their annual heikinpaiva mid winter festival.
a local group kivijat dancers made a trip to finland last year.
lots of ties to finland here in the copper country.

i also have this seed collecting mentality you mention.
garlic grows well here.


keith

[MissS]

Hi Sari and welcome to the Junction. I'm glad that you finally decided to join us. I always enjoy reading your posts.

[bower]

Glad to see you coming out of hibernation! Our winter has been horrible and sadly it isn't over.... but there is some rain and thawing forecast next week so I live in hope of being able to come and go more freely again soon. I managed to take my Mom grocery shopping today which she wanted badly... When I got to her house she was standing in the path saying I can't get down over the ice. I'd rather starve! she said. And my mother is quite a goat so you know, it was really slippery. I brought salt luckily so I threw that around and managed to make some dents into the hard snow with her (sad) plastic shovel and I got her down the path, and drove to the supermarket where she likes to go. Then on return I carried the groceries in for her but!!! she stepped a little off the path and fell. No harm thank goodness but she was fairly beside herself all the same. Then I drove back home over the ice rink which they call my end of the road. Simply impassible on foot, but the car magically glided me out and back again. Whew. Not going anywhere for a few days, until I see temps close to zero!
How about you, has the warm winter held out? I've seen forecasts for Northern Europe are to stay warmer than normal through April....

[EdieJ]

Hi from northern Alabama where it is currently snowing. What tomato varieties do you find do better in your greenhouse?

[arnorrian]

Welcome, Moominmamma!

[clara]

Welcome from quiet nearby! BTW my eldest daughter is a big fan of Finland. She has already spent a lot of holidays there and will return this year.

[Sue_CT]

Welcome!

[Ginger2778]

Hello Sari, so nice to see you again.

[peebee]

I'm glad to see you found us here Sari! What will you be growing this year?

[svalli]

Glad to see you coming out of hibernation! Our winter has been horrible and sadly it isn't over.... but there is some rain and thawing forecast next week so I live in hope of being able to come and go more freely again soon. I managed to take my Mom grocery shopping today which she wanted badly... When I got to her house she was standing in the path saying I can't get down over the ice. I'd rather starve! she said. And my mother is quite a goat so you know, it was really slippery. I brought salt luckily so I threw that around and managed to make some dents into the hard snow with her (sad) plastic shovel and I got her down the path, and drove to the supermarket where she likes to go. Then on return I carried the groceries in for her but!!! she stepped a little off the path and fell. No harm thank goodness but she was fairly beside herself all the same. Then I drove back home over the ice rink which they call my end of the road. Simply impassible on foot, but the car magically glided me out and back again. Whew. Not going anywhere for a few days, until I see temps close to zero!
How about you, has the warm winter held out? I've seen forecasts for Northern Europe are to stay warmer than normal through April....

We have had really weird winter. We got some snow for a while, but then a storm came and rain melted all snow and luckily also ice from our drive way. Our drive way is quite steep and can get dangerous when icy. I have elastic straps with spikes for my boots, which I will put on if I have to walk on the icy slope. Studded tires on the cars is here a must.
I'm glad that your mother is OK. Many organizations here arrange falling down training for the elderly just before winter. People may instinctively try to prevent the blow to the ground with their hands and arms and that causes broken wrists, elbows and shoulders.

Hi from northern Alabama where it is currently snowing. What tomato varieties do you find do better in your greenhouse?

I have been fighting with botrytis in the greenhouse for many seasons, which causes that I will not grow beefsteaks or any other big fruited varieties. I try to select cherries and salad size tomatoes, which usually have multiple fruits and will give me harvest even some tomatoes could be affected by the botrytis.

I'm glad to see you found us here Sari! What will you be growing this year?

My plan is to try to germinate some of the older seeds of early varieties, which I have not grown for few years. From Japanese tomatoes I grew last year Amakko and Fruitica F2 (saved seed from previous year F1), so this year I was planning to grow Cherry Mate and Reika or Momotaro. New Big Dwarf does well in containers outdoors, so those I must have every year.