William Alexander (Premier Login chapteraday) Forum Owner
The $64 Tomato by William Alexander Buy book: $14.22
William Alexander had a simple dream of having a vegetable garden and small orchard in his backyard. It was a dream that would lead to life-and-death battles with groundhogs, webworms, and weeds; midnight expeditions in the dead of winter to dig up fresh thyme; skirmishes with neighbors who feed the vermin (i.e., deer); the near electrocution of the tree man; and the pity of his wife and children.
This looks to be a delightful read - have already put it on the hold list at my library - (think I will plant a tomato plant or two in containers on my deck - more cost efficient - and realistic in view of my bad knees - and enjoy his gardening vicariously) -
Hey Doris, Have you seen the new way of growing tomatoes? Plant them in a hanging container from a hole in the bottom. Poke the roots up into the container. The plant grows out of the bottom. Easy to water and pick. I thought I would try one plant that way this summer.
The title attacted me to this book, but so far it's not going anywhere. Maybe just not enough to go on. How could anyone buy land and not know where it begins and ends? Funny no foolish. Fiction no non-fiction.
It's rambling and folksy, and I absolutely love it! The author's writing style feels like we're sitting in his kitchen, having a cup of coffee together.
I love the IDEA of vegetable gardening, and watching my plants grow so I can be more self-sustaining, but my execution is a little lacking. Lucky for me, my husband is far more likely to water our plants than I, or else they'd all die!
And val -- it's easy to not know where your property lines are in some necks of the woods. My parents, for instance, THOUGHT they knew their land boundries, until years later when another house was built next door, and they found they didn't even own their driveway (which was built by the builder years before my parents even bought the house)! I don't think this would happen in the highly developed area I live in, but in more rural areas, I think this happens more than you realize.
You're right. Property lines can be misunderstood in rural areas. We lived just outside the city limits and when our neighbors' decided to build across the street, we discovered that we owned land on both sides of the road. Apparently in order to correct a dangerous curve, the road had been moved so that it was completely on our side of the easement, and then some! We joked that we would set up a tollbooth for the neighbors' driveway. They replied in turn, that if we did, they would quit mowing any grass that they didn't own, that grew on their side of the street. We agreed that it was a fair exchange!
I'm really enjoying the book. I ordered one for my mother-in-law as a mother's day gift and will probably send one to my dad in June. I was hooked when the description came out last Friday and surfed around until I found the author's web site and read the excerpt there. Lucky me, it wasfrom a different section than the one featured here. I've also already checked the book out from the library but I havn't had time to read further yet. I guess it's just my way of gardening vicariously since it's already getting hot in my section of Texas.
My last foray into edible gardening (vs. flowers) was about 15+ years ago. I bought some strawberry plants, researched exactly how to plant then in alternating rows to be ready for the offshoots from the "mother" plants and babied them ridiculously. As the berries appeared I was so excited. As they turned pink I grew anxious. As they approached red I was beside myself. I barely slept the night before I was to pick the first ones. I arrived at my berry patch with a basket only to discover all of the ripe ones had been eaten! Since we live in the deep woods, I figured it could have been anything - rabbits, deer, racoons, chip monks. I was at war, stalking the patch to discover the culprit. Imagine my surprise when I finally did catch the thief in the act - it was my own German Shepherd! I let the patch go fallow, and have never planted anything edible again beyond herbs in pots on the deck.
This book is starting to sound like the moive money pit. Where's the garden, I don't want to know about his septic tank. The title is great but so far the content is old. City slicker buys a house in the country, locals take him for a ride. Already been done. Property lines are important, they cost money, and I work to hard for mine money. I like to know where I spend it. Maybe there's a money tree on his property. Glad I'm not his neighbor with his run off. I might have run him off.
Tom what kind of tomatoes are you talking about the tarty ones??? There are alot of cute books out there and not enough time to read them all. This is the weeding process.
...love, hate. Started out really liking this book and its quirky perspective, since I, too, have had run-ins with contractors who didn't show up, or who did shoddy work. However, I quickly decided that the homeowner was as ditsy as the people he hired to do his landscaping.
If this isn't really a true story, then it's too outrageous (dare I say, dumb?) for my taste. If it IS true, then the author has more time and money than sense, and should consider switching from major gardening to something a bit more manageable. Writing classes, perhaps?
