Bexley Public Radio Announces Winners in Amy Maurer's 2010 Best of Bexley Tomato Contest.Winners Announced

Bexley Public Radio announced the winners in the 2010 Best of Bexley tomato contest. The winners are:

Anne Greenball. First place ($80.00) Anne lives in Worthington Hills. Reception of the WCRX-LP signal is sometimes difficult in that part of the county. When the reception was difficult in her house, Anne would listen to Amy’s Noontime Gardener Show while sitting in her car parked in the driveway.

Anne followed the advice offered on the Noontime Gardener. She transplanted the tomato plants from barrels into the ground. She fertilized by the directions. She removed diseased leaves on the plants and she mulched around the base of the plants.

This is Anne’s second year of growing tomatoes and her second year entering the Best of Bexley tomato growing contest. The year-to-year improvement of Anne’s tomatoes was tremendous. Amy was impressed by Anne’s persistence, her ability to follow advice. Anne did everything right. And the result is that Anne harvested a good crop of tomatoes.

Anne used 120 day seeds and started harvesting in August. She is still a novice but she still did everything right. Anne is still learning but the effort she put into her garden showed.

Helen Karr. Second place ($45.00) Helen is modest about her skill as a gardener. She described her work in the garden as “I stuck the plants in the ground and they grew.” Despite Helen’s modesty, she is a skillful, experienced gardener. She sited her garden well; her tomato plants were healthy and vigorous and the plants produced more fruit than Helen needed.

Helen is an experienced gardener and her plants reflect her skill. The tomato plants and fruit were good looking and good tasting.

Not too many people of Helen’s generation are still gardening. But the experienced and knowledge that Helen has accumulated makes for a good garden. There was no evidence in her garden of disease or mold. There was no neglect at all. The tomatoes tasted great and there were plenty of them.

Helen is way too modest about her gardening skills. She is skillful.

Jim Belt. Third place. ($25.00). Jim planted his tomatoes early. During the Spring rains, spores splashed onto the lower leaves of the tomato plants. The vigor of the plants was not good. Jim picked off leaves that had fungi and spores but was still dissatisfied with the condition of his tomatoes. Although it was getting well into the season, Jim decided to transplant his tomatoes into a sunny area of his front yard.. Jim was acting on a hunch that the transplants would respond to the sunny location.

Jim’s hunch turned out to be correct and the plants took-off. Sometimes creative risk-taking works out well. The plants delivered tomatoes in a timely fashion. Jim’s efforts yielded good plants with good taste.

Jim is an example of a lucky gardener and stands as a contrast to our Anne Greenball, our first place winner. Jim followed none of the advice offered by the Noontime Gardener and, still, his plants prospered. He nurtured the plants well when he transplanted them into his front yard.