"Echoes of Eden" Dayle King Searle

                When I was ten years old, I wrote a poem for an assignment in Mrs. Search’s fourth grade class. My older sister Sharlynn read my poem and said, “That’s really good. You should be a writer.” Sharlynn’s words triggered something in me, and from that moment on, I knew I wanted to be a writer.                 Having come to this momentous decision, I immediately sat down and wrote an account I had heard of my great, great grandmother who came to the United States from Denmark at the age of sixteen. Someone in my family helped me send my story to The Children’s Friend . Many months later it appeared in the magazine on their children’s page, and I had my first intoxicating taste of being published. This prompted me to write a novel. I was at that time enamored with Nancy Drew, and inspired by her, I wrote a mystery. I don’t recall its title or characters, but I do remember that it was fifteen pages long, hand written in my fourth grade scrawl, and that the lost money was

      It is now the beginning of October. We've already experienced a couple of frosts, so our growing season is over. That being the case, I'm ready to give my final verdict on this summer's efforts to grow tomatoes in the difficult conditions I have to deal with.      My last post outlined the measures I took to keep my plants from developing the wilt disease--probably early blight--which I've struggled with for years. In the past this disease killed my plants early in the season and drastically reduced my harvest. So what about this year?

    Beef Steak Variety taken a week ago  A couple of months ago I announced my Great Tomato Challenge. Now here it is the end of August, a time when I usually have half dead tomato plants, and I've still got several healthy looking ones. I've even managed to harvest enough tomatoes for eating AND to make a small batch of salsa. I'm calling it a victory. But it's a victory that has been hard fought, and some varieties have fared much better than others. Here's a rundown of the challenges I've faced and the measures I've taken to reach this point.

photo by Steve Johnnson on Unsplash A couple of years ago I wrote about “the great strawberry challenge” in which I grew different  varieties of strawberries to see how they would do in my gardening conditions. I am now embarking on “the great tomato challenge.” If you looked at the picture on the right and thought I was going to tell you how to grow beauties like that, sorry to disappoint you. That picture represents my goal, not my achievement.                 I have struggled growing tomatoes in my garden. I get lovely plants, until just as the tomatoes are developing. Then the plants get sick looking and die. I am quite sure that the problem is blight. I have looked up remedies from organic to chemical and am planning to try a variety of methods in my quest.

Hanging over the stairway in my house is a picture taken last summer of my family. My husband and I are surrounded by our six children, their spouses, and our fourteen grandchildren. From looking at that picture you would not think I had any problems getting the large family I wanted when I was younger, but in that you would be mistaken. I now have six children, but during my child bearing years I had twelve pregnancies. Of my first eight pregnancies I was only able to carry two to term.