mr potatohead - thanks! Yes I'm turning 17 in May.

anney - I have a section that describes indeterminates and determinates. I'll also go with your suggestion for the popular varieties.

gringojay - I got the pH additives completely backwards! Will fix that immediately.

Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions. I guess I should have revised the whole site myself before asking everyone else for corrections. :P

okie dokie...linked up, catman. =) Links section...top right. I couldn't do it last night because I was still signed in at work...lol...

Steve's Garden

Thanks, I am adding a link section to my homepage right now.

Site updated.

Will be doing more work of course, still have a few spell errors to fix.

I finally finished last years garden on mine...lol...slow day at work. ;) I can now start with this years garden. yay! I think I may do one final post for last year though. Like a favorite picture of the year or something.

Sounds good, I gave up on my tomato blog last year in May. I never do very well maintaining blogs. Seems like I just get bored with it, so I build regular web sites instead.

Yea...it's a fun side hobby. =)

If you grow tomatoes as well as producing that excellent website, you will eat well and go far in life.

The best.

Al

catman,

congrats on your site ! i've enjoyed my 1st perusal.

wildlifeman

Thank you Al and wildlifeman

Nice work, Catman! You really have a good eye for design. I like the look: the background color, the pictures, etc. It is clean and colorful without being too busy.

I'm very impressed. It's easy to follow, has lots of good information and the layout is neat and easy on the eye. The photos are beautiful too.

Congrats on a job well done.
Dawn

Thanks slo_garden and Dawn - those are the qualities I like in a web site, so that's what I was aiming for when I built it. Glad to see other people agree.

bump

Very nice, professional job.

One little nit. I don't think you want to advise people to "Store tomatoes on the counter or in the refridgerator". Refridgerating tomatoes is widely considered to be a no-no, killing or degrading the taste. For me personally, I'm not sure I can tell the difference. Then again, my taste buds are not that sophisticated! :)

Very true...some people do store them in the fridge & some store them on the counter, in a basket, etc.. Maybe you could just reword that line to say "Store tomatoes on the counter or in the refrigerator or where ever you prefer."

- Steve

Thanks for that bit of advice - and I should remove the spelling error "refridgerator" too.

bump

BUMP =) CLICK ME FOR STEVE'S GARDEN

Catman, my friend who is a new tomato grower liked your site but he wanted to read short presize description how to grow tomatoes in containers:
container size and type,
tomatoes variety
soil,
support system
location of containers (whole day sun or no afternoon sun)
watering
fertilizing program

I am not an expert in container gardening and sent him to container gardening forum but he told that there is too much to read and he gets confused.

Would be nice to have web site to answer questions to beginers gardeners that want to do tomatoes in containers.

Yea...another good suggestion, a Beginner's Section.

Very good idea - should have a section on container gardening. I haven't really done much of it myself so I'll have to learn what I can from other people on the Internet so I can write something about it.

Great site, Catman. It is visually appealing and well organized.

Very nice site. Young man you deserve a pat on the back, fine job. Very easy on the eyes and easy to read, real important for a old man like me, thanks.

Any more ideas on companion plants? I heard that carrots are good. Also I think that marigolds are good with everything. Anyway, very well put together.

I did mention carrots under 'parsley family'. Forgot about Marigolds...should research that first. I think they are generally planted to keep pests away...do they benefit the other plants at all?

Seed saving update

My seeds finished fermenting with a beautiful display of multicolored mold on the surface. I took pictures and have the seeds drying on a plate. Once they are dry, I will take a couple more photos and then go and complete the Seed Saving page.

Great looking site like the colors flows really nice. The google ads fit nice also. Are the ads yours or a free site trade off. Hope they work out for you!!!

The ads are ours, I don't do free websites anymore because I've heard Google doesn't like them (both in search results and for AdSense)

I'm glad it looks good to everyone; I don't want it over cluttered with anything and I was careful to choose colors that are easy on the eye.

Update

Added info on PL and RL on this page.

Finished the seed saving page.

Great looking site dude! Way to go.

Thanks again everyone!

Yea, love the chart on frost dates. =)

That frost date chart is every gardener's friend. Seems like we are pretty much frost free for this year, but I will set out my plants in at least two weeks to let the soil warm up some more. Nights are still getting into the mid- to upper-40s. Better start hardening them all off! ...

bump

If anyone else has a site related to tomato/vegetable gardening, I'm interested in link exchanges...

Your site has provided 14% of my total volume. =)

I've already hardened off my Nasturtiums & am soon to start doing so with some of my pepper plants & mater plants.

P.S. - bump...hahaha

catman

One more suggestion if you do a section for beginners. Make it incredibly basic but unobtrusively so!!!!! (I was surprised to read that one poster apparently didn't know that plants in containers need drainage holes.) I suppose it's best to make no assumptions and it's better to over-explain than omit something that is critical to plant health.

Most of the site is geared toward beginners; do you have any specific areas you noted that could be better explained?

You've done a great job so far!! I know how hard it is to make a web site and how much work you've put into it.
I only found one thing missing in the seed starting section. I am a firm believer in lightly petting the seedlings a couple times a day. It makes them stronger.
Remy

Thanks for your site!

I'm growing tomatoes from seed for the 1st time this year and have been trying to figure out when to pot up. Your pictures are extremely helpful! (And apparently, it's past high-time for me to pot up my toms, LOL.) Thanks!

As a newbie gardener - pictures are worth 1,000 words!

Your pictures are excellent. I agree with crispyrice. Pictures are extremely helpful, and you have some of the best I've seen on seed saving in particular. I've bookmarked your site for future reference since this will be my first time growing heirloom tomatoes and saving my own seeds.

Keep up the great work! I would highly recommend this site to others.
Kim

Remy - I might have mentioned brushing but I'll have to make a stronger point of it. I have brushed my seedlings this year to strengthen them, since I couldn't do a good fan rig.

crispyrice and Kim - Thanks, glad you found the photos helpful. Photos are on my top 2 list when I write instructional stuff.

Container growing tomatoes, or 'growing tomatoes in pots,' seems to be a hot topic in internet searches. I'll be putting together a container growing page soon, since it's such a popular method of growing tomatoes and shouldn't be left out.

Great pictures.

Also companions are onion family, including chives and garlic.

Hmm I did fail to mention onions...even though I am growing leeks in my garden to keep away pests, I still forgot to mention the onion family when writing the web site.

Thanks for pointing that out.

I'm growing my 2nd year garlic chives, of course and some Texas sweet onions this year in other containers close to my maters.

I'm a bit behind on updating the site, but I am still going to add the container growing page.

Perhaps some people here could e-mail me some photos of container-grown tomato plants that they would be willing to share for the Web site? I've got very limited container photos as I haven't yet grown a tomato to maturity in a container. I like to have my pages complete with plenty of photos.

If anyone's interested in sharing their container tomato photos for my Web site, email them to me here and let me know if/how you would like to be credited on the site.

I can send you some container tomato pics. What kinds (stages of growth, flowers, buds, etc., etc.) of container tomato photos do you want?

Hi catman, great site! I'm new to these forums and am always amazed with the information. One thing, you might want to add a button to email the site link. I just had to go thru the cut-paste routine to email this to myself at home. Others may want to email it to others for info.

Karen

Karen - good idea, I never would have thought of that. Personally, I am used to doing cut-and-paste all the time so I don't give it a second thought.

And on the topic of tomatoes in pots, I have finally finished the...

Container Growing page.

Just got it done today. All you container gurus, let me know if I've left out anything important.

Steve - I thought I posted a reply to your offer, but apparently I didn't. I thought I would need more pics than I actually did...maybe later this summer, I can put up a photo or two of my own fully-grown container tomato. Thanks!