Jay White Texas Gardner Mag Interview

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, welcome back to guard Line. Good to have you
with us today. We are going to spend this hour
eight o'clock to nine o'clock with Jay White, the owner,
publisher and also the writer for Texas Gardener Magazine. Texas
Gardener Magazine is an outstanding resource. A lot of you
already subscribe, some of you don't. I don't know why.

(00:21):
We're going to see if we can fix that, but
we're going to talk about that. Jay and are gonna
kind of go back and forth a little bit on
some of our things in gardening that we've learned this year,
that some of our plants we like. And it's just
gonna be a very enjoyable visit. As any of you
who know Jay know, he is a pleasure to talk to.

(00:42):
And so without any further ado, I'm going to go
out there and see if I can pull Jay in here.
There we go, Hey, Jay, are you there? Hey yep, Hey,
good to have you. Welcome to guard Line. I absolutely can.
Thank you very much.

Speaker 2 (00:59):
Well, thank you for having us skip. We appreciate this,
you bet.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
I always like visiting with you for the I'd like
it to just start off. Would you just tell the
folks a little bit about Texas Gardener, maybe a bit
about the history, but just kind of the magazine. It
is what makes Texas Gardener different than some other gardening magazine,
and just kind of let them know what we're talking

(01:25):
about here.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
So really skip. I think the thing that separates us
from other garden publications and really has kept us around
for forty five years is the fact that our magazine
is all Texas all the time. All of our writers
are degreed, working horticultures in the state. They're all people
like you. They generally have an extension background. I tell

(01:49):
people that we are so Texas that even our advertisers
come from Texas, and so you know that's special because
Texas is so big, so many different regions, and each
one of them are difficult to garden in. And so
I think that's why people have trusted us for so long,
is because they know that if our writers talk about
it in the magazine, they can trust it. And I

(02:11):
think that's really what separates us.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
That that is important, and most states, almost all states,
if not all, don't have a magazine like Texas Gardener
that covers that state. Of course, here in Texas we're
a little obsessive and those of you who just move
here moved here are probably going, yeah, you're kidding, right.

(02:35):
I lived in Missouri for three years. You know, I
don't know why, but I was up there Missouri for
three years, and I couldn't believe it. But I never
saw a commercial that said Missouri trucks or four trucks
are built Missouri tough. I never saw anyone jogging with
a Missouri flag on their shorts, you know. I mean,
it was just like, we're obsessive here about it. But

(03:00):
it is a unique place to garden and so and
plus when you say Texas, you know, if you ever
see a map of Texas overlaid over Europe, you know,
it's bigger than France. And it's like when you go
from Dalhart down to Beaumont, and when you go from
Texas Canada, you know, out to El Paso, you've crossed
eight hundred time zones and you you could have much

(03:21):
driven across the whole Northeastern United States in that trip.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Oh yeah, yeah. I saw something on one of the
socials the other day that said people that don't live
in Texas don't realize that the Abilene basketball team that's
going to go to like Beaumont to play a basketball tournament.
That journey, if it was in Europe, would take them
across seven European nations.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
There you go. Yeah, we like to brag about that
we are. And I guess other states kind of get
tired of hearing about, you know, Texas brag about Texans. Hey,
we we enjoy it. I have to tell you, or
I tell listeners a little real quick joke. Uh, there's
this guy from Texas talking to a guy from, uh,

(04:10):
let's say some neighboring state. I don't I don't want
to pick on anyone, but and he was just bragging
and bragging and bragging about his Texas ranch and you know,
it's this and it's this bag, and it does this,
and it does that and all this. And he said,
you know, as a matter of fact, I can get
in my pickup in the morning and start driving and
by the time the sun goes down, I haven't gotten

(04:31):
to the other side of my ranch. And the other
guy says, yeah, I used to have a truck like that.
So there you go. All right, anyway, enough enough jokes,
So let's let's talk about gardening some of the topics
and things. Uh, every year is a gardener If you're

(04:54):
not learning, I don't know. I don't know how. I
don't know how you cannot be because every year's different
things I thought I knew, I find out I didn't,
or maybe they were true but not always true, and
stuff like that. And we're going to take a real
quick break here, and I want to come back and
I'd like to hear from you some either some new

(05:14):
favorite plants or some things you are doing that you
didn't used to do and why, or anything like that
along the lines of, hey, how are you growing as
a gardener? So let's take a little break here. We'll
be right back after these these words. We are visiting
with Jay White from Texas Gardener Magazine, and I just
left the last segment and saying, hey, let's talk about

(05:37):
things that we've learned that we tried new and new
ways of doing things, the favorite plants. What's what's happening
in your plant world? In other words, So I'm gonna
head back out here and grab Jay. Jay, let's continue
with that question. What do you think?

Speaker 2 (05:53):
All right? Skip, Well, I will tell you one thing
that's been very interesting Tommy this year. And you know
this is two years in a row that we've kind
of had a cool, wet spring, and so that's always
good for us, and generally it's good for us in
the tomato garden, as long as it's not popping our

(06:13):
tomatoes when all that moisture gets sucked up into them
when they're almost ready. But one thing that I learned
this year is that when your ground gets saturated, and
I learned this in a very visual and personal way,
and when your ground truly gets saturated, like I think
a lot of our souls have been the spring, that

(06:35):
it's going to put fire ants on the move. And
the first time I realized this really is I have
not had my irrigation system on in my garden this
whole year. We had so much rain, haven't had the
need to turn it off. A couple of weeks ago,
I went and opened up the cover on my controller

(06:55):
and it was crawling with fire ants and they were
bringing their eggs up into my irrigation controller. And so
not only was my irrigation controller full of fire ants,
was pull of fire ant eggs. And I thought, man,
that's that's really interesting, you know. But it didn't dawn
on me that fire ants would be other places too,

(07:19):
And so I decided that I was going to use
our wet soils to try to get a horrible problem
that I created under control, and that was getting rid
of ruellia. You know, I planted rouealia probably fifteen years ago.
It's now completely out of control. It's spread to other beds,
and I thought, you know what, there's never going to

(07:41):
be a better time to pull this ruelia up, hopefully
get it a little bit under control, and while this
ground is saturated. And so I got on all my stuff,
got out, all my weed pulling equipment, got down on
my hands and knees, and I started pulling rualia. And
in about five minutes, I started feeling burning on my chest,

(08:02):
on my face, on my neck, all up and down
my arms. And it just took me a minute to
realize what was going on. But those fire ants had
moved up the stalks of that ruala that I was
working in as just a way to get away from
the moisture, just like they'd moved up into my controller.
And so anyway, I had to stop. Sally came out

(08:26):
and dusted me off and covered me in a hoide.
The cortisone and all of that but it was a
very painful lesson to learn that when it really really
rains and you want to work in the garden, you
need to keep an eye out for fire ants because
they're moving and you're not really sure where they're moving too,
and unfortunately they can be moving right into the place
that you're trying to stick your hands in and work

(08:48):
a little bit.

Speaker 1 (08:50):
Wow, well that's true. You don't have to live in
Texas long to learn about fire ants. A lady called
me one time at the extension office when I was
working this horticulture with the agri life and uh she
was literally in tears. And I remember the phrase she
she spurred it out. It is like does everything in
Texas bite? She had moved here and I guess between

(09:13):
the fire ants and the rattlesnakes and maybe some abrupt neighbors,
I don't know, but she felt like she was under
attack all the time. Well that's that's that is a
good thing, I uh if. One of my one of
my favorite activities is picking up bags of organic materials

(09:36):
from the neighbors at curbside. My neighbors are very nice.
I don't know how your your neighbors are, but mine
will will rake and bag their leaves and set it
at the at the road. For me, isn't that nice
of them to do? So I just have to get
there for the garbage trucks and bring them home. But
I'm I'm learning how to assess the bags and tell
that one's just full of sticks. I'm kind of bring

(09:58):
that home because that's not worth it. But in going
through the bags and I shred it up and put
it in the gardens and things. I am just a
big fan, especially as it gets hot, of mulching heavily,
and so have to stockpile some of my leaves because
of course leef season and then the heat of summer

(10:18):
when it's one hundred degrees and quick training. Those are
two different seasons, and so getting out and getting those
mulched in and things has been probably one of the
smartest things I've done. I didn't just start doing it
this year, but it's free and it's easy, and it
just makes such a difference in the temperature of the soil.

(10:40):
I think I don't know that this is something I
learned this year, but a while back, the temperature inside
a container on the patio or on top of the
soil is incredibly hot. You know, it's a you can
get one hundred and forty degrees just under the surface
of the soil out there in the garden, and you

(11:00):
certainly can get hot on the sides of the container.
And I pulled a container, pulled a plant out of
a container, a nursery pot. I was going to plant it,
and I pulled it out and I looked and on
the side where the sunshine, the roots were all brown
and on the other side the creamy white. And it
just reminded me of what's going on in our containers

(11:22):
in the heat. And that was kind of an eye
opener for me to recognize. Anyway, just right, something to
think about, because as the roots go, so goes the plant.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
Oh yeah, yeah, So it's just interesting you bring that up.
So every Friday, I do a social media post about
things gardeners can be doing in there, you know, in
their garden every weekend. And this weekend I put malt,
you know, malt young trees, mult young shrubs. And when
I was researching that post, I found a you know,
a website that said three to six inches of organic

(11:55):
malt can reduce the temperature and the soil from anywhere
from eighteen to third five degrees and that's that's huge.
That's that's incredible.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
That is really huge. And when you add to that
that roots need oxygen to thrive. As you go inch
by inch by inch down in the soil, by the
time you get a foot deep, you know you're starting
to get lower levels of oxygen significantly. And that's why
tree roots even are in the top foot of soil primarily.
So if you lose the top inch or two or three,

(12:27):
because it's a dad come hot and now you've got
so many inches where they can get the oxygen. But
it's cooler, you know, you're you're cutting down on your
plant's ability to thrive. And that that's a good point
you make, because very important to keep those roots cooler.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Yeah. I have a buddy Morgan, you know, Morgan McBride.
He works for a Verty Tree Farms, huge tree farm
in the United States, and he likes to make fun
of post oak and he said, you know, if you
have a post oak, you know, if you look at
it wrong, it'll fall down on you. And I was like, Morgan,
why do you say that? And he was talking about
exactly what you said. He said a lot of these

(13:05):
trees put their roots out really fairly shallow, but they
put them out in a wide diameter around the trunk.
But all we think about is those big, big roots.
But he said, really, what holds them to the soil
are all the millions and millions of small roots that
actually ground these trees in the soil. And he said,

(13:26):
when we go to these droughts now like we had
in twenty eleven, not only and does it, you know,
kill the bigger roots, it kills all these billions of
tiny roots. And that's what causes the tree to eventually
turn loose and fall over. It's not the depth of
these big, heavier roots. It's that the small roots that
hold in the ground are in the first few inches

(13:47):
of the soil, and a drought will literally kill them.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
That is so true, And I'll expand that even to
turf like iron is an element that is only able
to be taken up at the tip of the root.
So if you lose roots, you lose all those tips,
you completely. Some nutrients can be taken up more back
down the root a little bit, but the loss of
roots can even cause certain nutrient deficiency appearances. And I

(14:15):
see that a lot and I think sometimes I think
we just don't appreciate the fact that our plants live
in their roots. By the way, you mentioned social media, folks,
if you are not following Texas Gardener Magazine on Facebook
and on Instagram, you need to. Jay is very good
at getting out there and posting all the time, very

(14:35):
helpful things, very interesting things, and so Texas Gardener Magazine
on Facebook and on social media, you should do that.
Would you tell us a little bit about the magazine itself,
how often does it come out, what forms can they get?
And just like, if someone's interested in subscribing to Texas.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Gardener, well yeah, the easiest way is get to some debscribe,
you know, is go to our website Texas Gardener dot
com and it's going to have everything that we offer
out there. But as for the specifics about the magazine,
I'm speeding up how quickly I talk because I love
my magazine and I don't want to eat up all
my time. But bi monthly magazine comes out six times

(15:18):
a year. Two special issues. January February is always the
Tomato issue where we focus on tomatoes and vegetable garden.
July August, which is out right now, is always the
water issue where we focus on ways to conserve water,
reuse water, water, tricky landscape designs or whatever. Because water
is always a problem for us in Texas. We put

(15:39):
it out six times a year twenty four to ninety five.
That's cheaper than two number one meals a dairy queen now,
I mean, it's just that just blows me away out.
It's been spent. The Hamburgers are right now. But in
addition to that, so, like I said, all of our
writers degreed working the Hordics in the state. You know,

(16:01):
you've been one of our editors for twenty plus years.
We have Greg Grant, we have Keith Hanson, Doctor David
Creech is a regular contributor. Patty Leander does our vegetable
stuff so great great great writers. And then in addition
to that, we do an annual planning Guide, which is
one hundred and eighty daily tips of what you should
be doing in your garden. It's all tailored for each

(16:24):
person's zone. It has the top four events or task
you should be focusing on every month in your garden,
gives your room to journal, your list of the best
varieties of Texas for food crops, ornamentals. So just some great,
great guides and the resources that we have, and if

(16:44):
you want them to go to the website. We bundle
them up to save you a little money. And if
you don't find what you like, call us. We'll try
to work you a deal.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
And when some of the subscribes, by the way, I
got out thirty seconds, I don't have to go. When
some of the subscribes, they get access to the digital
pasta editions too, which is really worth the price of admission.
I do want to say one thing, Jay, and I've
never heard you promote Texas Gardener in this way. When
you're through reading it, you can tear the pages off
and put them in the garden as mulch, and it

(17:13):
makes a very good surface molts. Throw a little hay
or straw on top. But one caveat is if it's
an article that either Greg Grant or I wrote, you
need to be careful because you can burn plants with
too much nitrogen. If you know what I'm saying, that's
the only cattle I got you. With that in mind.

(17:33):
With that in mind, we're going to take a break.
We'll be right back with Jay. Don't go away, folks,
right back. We're visiting with Jay White from Texas Gardener
magazine now and we're going to head back and bring
Jay back on the line with us. Jay, you and
I talk about vegetables from time to time, and I
think you've got a new kind of favorite or one

(17:54):
that a type of cucumber that I've never grown before.
I always see the seeds in catalog, but I've never
tried it. Will you tell us about that?

Speaker 2 (18:03):
Well, I'm not going to call it a favorite yet,
but I will call it very interesting. And the thing
that I love got Skip, I mean, one thing that
I love and you get this too, is I love
heirloom plants. So everybody's got a different definition, but basically,
to me, an heirloom plant is something that somebody's family
has been growing for a long time and they share

(18:23):
it with you. And I am growing an Armenian cucumber,
or you know, that's what they call it, an Armenian cucumber.
That it looks, I mean it is, it's a it's
not even a cucumber. It's actually a melon. But it
tastes very much like a cucumber, maybe a little firmer texture.
But what I like about it is that this this cucumber,

(18:45):
this plant was shared with me. The seeds was shared
with me last fall from a couple in our church.
And you know, Seley and I live in Brenham, so
very German, very checked part of the country, and these
cucumber seeds are ar many in whatever you want to call,
it's just called the Armenian cucumber. These seeds have been

(19:07):
passed down to this family since the lady that shared
them with these great grandmothers came here in eighteen ninety nine,
so for one hundred and twenty seven years her great
grandparents settled in the Schulenberg area part of the county
over there called High Hill, and they have been growing
this vegetable for all these years. And I just love

(19:29):
stories like that, you know. And I mean when somebody
tells me something like that, it's like there has to
be something special about this plant that makes people in
that family want to continue growing it. And so anyway,
that's what I'm doing.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
I'm sorry, No, as I said, that is cool, go ahead,
keep going.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
Oh yeah, that is that is really really very cool,
you know, And I mean I just think it's very
interesting or fascinating. Now we all love plants. You know,
as gardeners, we all love plants. We spend too much
money on them, we spend too much time on them.

Speaker 1 (20:06):
But when you don't talk like that, don't talk like that.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
I'm sorry we don't spend enough time or money on them.
But anyway, but if you finally wants these cents that's
been kept in a family and kept alive for all
these years, I mean that really, to me speaks to
how humans connect to the plants and to nature. I mean,
it's just really, really really, it really touches my soul.

(20:31):
If you will to find you know, this cucomber that's
been grown by this one family for one hundred years.
We've got some dividing onions that were sent to us
from a reader in Houston, but who came from Louisiana.
They've been growing these bunch of onions for one hundred years.
We've got a daylily here that my wife's grandmother grew
back in the fifties, you know. And so you know,

(20:53):
I just love these these stories skip and how how
people really do treasure special plants.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Yeah, that is cool, that is nice. Well, uh, and
that's true. You know, when a plant has a story, Uh,
it makes it more popular. And it's like the Peggy
Martin rose. You know, that's a great rose. There are
a lot of great roses out there, but Peggy Martin's
got the story, you know, from from the hurricane. Uh,
and so that's true. Crawford lettuce is another heirloom. You

(21:24):
probably have grown it before, but you know from up
in Crawford, Texas where you know, uh, the former president
George Bush where his ranches in that community. Didn't come
from his ranch, but that community up there. Uh. And
I like it. It's a nice receding lettuce and stuff.
So yeah, good good stories. That is important in order

(21:47):
for a plant to success like that in the market.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
Ken, can I use that Crawford let us to kind
of give a shout out to the master gardeners of
Texas too. So sure, I get Mike, I get my
Crawford lettuce seed when I need it because I try
to grow it and collect the seed, but sometimes I'm
not very good at that. And you know, you can't
really buy that. It's not really in the trade, as

(22:13):
they like to say. And so if you're going to
grow Crawford lettuce, you're going to get it from another
gardener that grows it and save seeds. And where I
get mine every year is I get mine through the
San Antonio Master Gardeners. And you know, there's so many
good things that Master Gardeners do. And just FYI either
kicking off their state convention on Monday at eight point thirty,

(22:37):
so if you are a master gardener, it's all on zoom,
so if you want to take part in that. But
I just like to shout out to the Master Gardeners
because they are such a great organization. If you love plants,
you know, you can get together with plant people and
do some really cool things like save Crawford lettuce seed
for you know, future generations, detextas and yeah, and our

(22:59):
July August issue, we've started a series with the Hill
Country Master Gardeners and those folks have signed up and
they adopted eight acres along with Guadaloupe that was wiped
out by last year's floods and they are restoring that
eight acre stretch of property along with Guadaloupe. And I thought, man,

(23:20):
what a great what a great project, and a great
way to really give back to your community. So anyway,
that's a little Master gardner love right now. But anyhow,
I really do like the master gardner program.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
Well it's a good one, and you know, you those
people listening in this area, you've got master gardner. I'm
gonna leave one out, but I'm most I'm gonna try anyway.
You go out to Orange, Texas, you got one. Galveston
County has one, Brazoria County has one, Harris County has one,
Browses County has one.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
Fort Ben County has one. Who am I leaving out?
I don't want to leave a body out.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
No county. Yeah, Washington County has them. I don't know
the county at the Cold Spring, but they have them
just all around you go all around the people at Buffalo.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
That's good. So yeah, call your county. Yes, that's right. Uh,
they absolutely do up there. Uh call your county Extension
office and you can find out where the nearest master
gardener program is and people need to need to take
advantage of that.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
Talking about us, I want to talk a little bit
about some favorite plants outside of the vegetable garden that
are in the landscape. Uh well, actually, yeah, let me
do that first.

Speaker 2 (24:38):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
One of my one of my new favorite plants is
a type of daisy. Uh and uh. It's called Garvinia
G A R V I N E A. It's a
series of daisies. But I grew the O Shasta daisy's.
I've grown uh the the regular you know, colorful types

(24:59):
of daisy. They get powdery, mildew and kind of struggle.
This garvinia is amazing. I got mine from Beverly out
at Arbor Gate originally, and since we've just we just
keep adding more to it. And this thing has been
in the ground for years. It's not in the full sun.
It's in a raised garden bed of my wife's and

(25:19):
we were just commenting on it the other day. It's
still blooming, still producing tons of foliage. And I that
is my new favorite perennial, just because you know, I've
grown it in containers, I've grown it in the ground.
It's a good one. That's one of my favorites. I
don't know if you have any ornamentals that you like
or any kind of plant like that, But if there

(25:41):
are any other favorites that maybe favorites or new favorites
or old favorites, you got anything like that.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
So I don't have a I don't have a new
favorite but I will tell you my favorite daisy is
a chrysanthemum, And so I grow country girls gowns, and
you know they look exactly like a daisy when they blunt,
and so that's one of my favorite you know, flowering
flowering plants by by far. I mean, I just love

(26:12):
it so.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
So so what what Jay's saying, folks, is you know
how mums kind of have this just like petals everywhere,
just like a ball.

Speaker 2 (26:21):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Country girl is is like like a Echinasia, a cone
flower or a daisy, and then it's got a center
with the little strippy petals going out and pink. I
tell you one thing about Country Girl, though, you need
to give her a good talking to. She flops all
over the place. She's not your little mumbush that people
are thinking of. She's almost a mum vine in the gardens.

(26:43):
But that's a good one and it comes back really well. Yeah, Well,
I tell you let's uh, let's take a little quick
break here. We got one more segment with Jay. If
you got a question about Texas Gardener, feel free to
call in. We're gonna come back in just a moment.
We've been talking with Jay White from Texas Gardner magazine,

(27:04):
owner of Texas Gardner, publisher of Texas Gardner and writer
of course.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (27:08):
Jay's out giving talks all over the place a lot. Uh,
and Jay, I know how probably Uh. Sometimes it seems
like a good idea at the time and then after
about eight thousand miles of driving across Texas, decide maybe
we need to rethink this. But it's always enjoyable going
out to hear you at a talk. I do want
to I want to mention that when people go to

(27:31):
the website Texas Gardener dot com that's where you subscribe,
seriously consider getting it as a print and a digital version.
You can do it or both. I guess did what
I said? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (27:47):
Digital, Yeah, yeah, minding us of that.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
I was just to say thanks to the reminder. Because
the digital, like I say, and you mentioned it earlier,
it has a twelve and a half year archive of
the magazine. So if you're really interested in tomato, horn worns,
or which variety of dinkas to grow, you can start
twelve and a half years of our records and find out.
You know the answer to your question.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
That is roughly, folks, about seventy five magazines. If I'm
doing the math right, sixty year times twelve plus a half.
That is a lot of resources right there, just for subscribing.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yes, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
How y'all do that, but that's a good thing. Hey,
I think you had a tomato story, and I wanted
the folks to hear this. You know how we're obsessed
about tomatoes. Jay, Nobody calls me about their Cole Robbie
on Garden Line tomatoes or the Queen of the garden
and so tell me about your tomato story.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
So yesterday, you know, I mean, when you've been in
the business for a long time, you think you've heard everything,
and you very seldom hear things truly surprise you. But
yesterday I had a young lady call the office and
she wanted to know what the record was for the
largest tomato ever grown in Texas. And I thought, that

(29:12):
is a great question. Not only do I not know,
I don't even know if that kind of information is available.
And so she and I we visited for about an hour.
But she's a very interesting young lady, and she's actually
the manager of an old nursery up in North Texas.
Shades of Green in the Salina, Texas and anyway, she's

(29:36):
growing a brandywine tomato. The thing is currently seventeen inches
in circumference. She can put it in both her hands.
But because it's you know, DFW area, the thing hadn't
turned purple yet. But she said, you know, this is
just a monster. And when it comes off the vine
and she weighs it, she would like to somehow get it,

(30:00):
you know, officially registered or certified. And do you know
that with all of my Internet searching, I can't find
where there's an official organization in Texas that keeps up
with records like this.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Well, it's because you can't trust Texans to tell you
the truth. I grew one one time, Jay, that I
couldn't fit in a wheelbarrow. And see, the fishermen have
the record.

Speaker 2 (30:27):
That's why they're not keeping records. Yep.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
But it's it's gardeners and fishermen, Jay, we can't trust them.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
There you go. So, you know, this has really been
very interesting to me because I have been looking into
this for like the last four or five hours. And
you know, I don't know if your listeners all know
about this, but Jacksonville, Texas, holds a tomato festival every year.
In June, and this is the fifty second year that

(30:56):
they've been doing that. And I mean Jacksonville. If you've
never driven to it in East Texas, it's kind of
cute to me. You know how some cities will have,
you know, concrete boots or mushrooms or something that people
buy and they're through the chamber and they paint them up.
If you drive to Jacksonville, every corner has got a
concrete tomato on it and it's all because of that

(31:16):
tomato festival. So I reached out to a friend of
mine that's on the board of that, and they don't
keep records. They you know, they weigh things, they measure them.
You know, they give the best grouping of three, the
best grouping of five, the largest blah blah blah, blah blah.
But they're not keeping the records. So maybe you and

(31:37):
me need to figure out how to start recording some
of these Texas tomato records.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
That's it. We need a polygraph, We need to do
the tomatoes. That's another thing. Heaven knows what they're going
to inject those things with. Yeah, I think that's a
good idea. By the way, Jay, you and I both
enjoy Medina Products. Stewart was a guest on the show
this past weekend. They're having their biggest tomato contests folks,

(32:08):
and I got to tell you this. It times almost up.
The last day to submit is June thirtieth. June thirtieth,
so we're here. You take a picture of your tomato,
You go on Facebook and Instagram and you follow Medina
agg Products on Facebook and Instagram. You put the picture
up there, you tell them the weight of the tomato

(32:29):
and the variety, and the winner is going to get
a hash to grow plant food a gallon and there's
a court as well as part of the giveaways. So
if you are going to brag about it, well here's
your chance. That that very important to have bragging rights
to the best tomato and the biggest tomato and stuff.
What's your favorite tomatoes?

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Tomato?

Speaker 1 (32:52):
I do some. I don't care about how big they get.
I care about how many I get and how tasty
they are. But I in the past have done some
of the big tomato. But do you have a Do
you have a favorite few varieties that you like on
your tomatoes?

Speaker 2 (33:09):
Well, we do, and that's that's a very good segue.
If you buy our products, and especially we have an
ebook of growing tomatoes. It will have a list in
the back of it about twenty tomatoes that they're not
just my favorites. Now, this is what I tell folks,

(33:29):
is what I love about Texas Gardener, That all of
our writers are actually gardeners too, and so every year,
you know, we will get together, we'll talk about what
we grew, what did well for us. And so go
ahead and subscribe to that magazine or pick up that
tomato ebook because it's going to give you the list
of all the great tomatoes that are doing well for

(33:49):
all of Texas Gardener's writers.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
But I can tell you book.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Go ahead.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
I'm going to say the e book has contributions from
the late doctor Am Cottoner who was mister Vegetable in Texas,
and Patty Leander and yourself, and a lot of expertise
in that little ebook.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
It is and it's cheap, you know. I mean, I
tell people, if you're new to tomato growing or you're
looking for little tips on how to become a better grower,
you know, check that e book out. I mean, it
really is cheap. It's good. I think it's a very
good deal and there you go. You know. Yeah, so anyhow,

(34:33):
so all.

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Right, well that that's all good, good information and good
advice too on that. Yeah, tomatoes are so popular, and
here it's just there's a lot to say about tomatoes,
you know. I mean, we're talking about how to start them,
the varieties you want, get them started early, plan them early.
Here's the past, here's the diseases you deal with, and

(34:55):
you know, proper care. And then here comes our state bird.
We're not supposed to shoot along to take a pack
out of every tomato. I wish they just would pick
one tomato and eat the whole thing, but they don't. Uh,
And so it's a it's a challenge, but it's a
fun challenge. And gardening. Gardening is just fun. And you're
in the magazine. When I read your your authors in there,
I can till they love it. They're having fun. They're

(35:17):
having a good time, and that's how it should be.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
I agree, Skip. I mean, you know what our catchphrase is,
plant happiness shall and we truly believe that if you're
not having fun in the garden, you need to look
for another hobby.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
That's it, or we just need to get you straightened out.
I always tell people you know brown thumbs, there's just
uninformed thumbs. And if you bring your both thumbs, I'd
recommend bringing them both with you to listen to garden Line.
We'll get that thumb up to speed and suddenly you'll
have bumper crops. There you go, Jay, Thank thanks so

(35:55):
much for taking time out of your morning. Uh it's
been great having you here. I mean we could talk
for two to you and I. Oh yeah, just again, folks,
for those of you tuned in a little eate Texas
Gardener dot com, Texas Gardener dot com, go there, you
gotta subscribe and that again the digital I can't seventy

(36:18):
five maybe magazines you have access to when you subscribe,
and then of course all the one's coming up.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
In the next year. Thanks a lot, Jake, Thank you Ski.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
All right, we'll be right back