What are the odds?

[2FrontFeet]

Ha! I'm not touchy! I'm not even from here!
Once you get here, they don't let you leave.....

[Lilypon]

You must be from Alberta then.

dcharch

Never mind the car. It took 3 days and one bottle of Glen Breton Rare to warm me up.

I thought that was pretty cute (and prolly the truth ).

[2FrontFeet]

Actually spent some time living in Edmonton, Calgary and a year in Banff. Pretty much lived in every province except the Rock and that new one up there (whatever it's called now).
I was going to fly out to Ed. with some seed for my sister, but she'll have none of that starting from seed business. Can't believe it, she's got a garden as big as my house but won't try anything new. Incredibly frustrating. So I'm staying home.

This year, I'm hoping to try lots of different tomato varieties. A friend of ours throws a gigantic pig roast every year, and if the Tomato Gods are smilin' on me, we'll be able to take a bunch of homegrown maters for everyone to try. They've got a spread of property as big as a football field and NO GARDEN. ARRRGGGGHHHH!

[Lilypon]

Dingbat your just gonna have to give up that job (sell the house with the big city postage stamp sized yard) and move back to *Sascratchyoura*s*.....where you'll be able to buy an acreage and cover it with a greenhouse with the proceeds that you made from your house! And enjoy the clean *fresh* prairie air and q u i e t n e s s.

p.s. if'n you can grow Brandywine (Sudduth's strain) and give your friend a taste I'm pretty sure he'll be cultivating his back yard. It does need a cool season though....and I really doubt this summer will be the one. Mortgage Lifter Estler's strain might be a good one for this summer tho.

I've only lived in Edmonton, Inuvik, the Battlefords and here (all four locations are pretty similar come w*i*n*t*e*r).

edited to correct the names of the strains. ;S

[2FrontFeet]

you need a taste of southern Ontario winters. You'll never go back.
Check out the thread 'nothing better to do'. Dens got it set up for a live chat.

[Lilypon]

you need a taste of southern Ontario winters. You'll never go back.

Tempting but then I'd be there for your summers. I'll stay here thanks! 8)

[2FrontFeet]

Whaaat? Summers here are great! Nice and warm.
So what's a couple of bucks on the air conditioning bill? At least ya don't get hosed on the heating bills!

Unless of course, one starts seedlings indoors.

[Lilypon]

LOLOL re hosing on heating bills (yep in the past) but have you looked at the temps lately out west? The cold ain't lasting too long here. Last winter it rained more than it snowed here!?! (we only had two weeks plus a couple of days that were somewhat cold).

Looking forward to seeing both our mater crops next summer.

[2FrontFeet]

Pleeeaaaseeee, be reasonable. Chinooks don't count, my dear!

[Lilypon]

LOL I'm in the area of Saskatchewan that can hit -52 Celcius with windchill.....-45 without (y'all don't even want to figure that out in Fahrenheit . We can rarely benefit a bit from the tail end of Chinooks but I'm not *that* close to Calgary. Have you ever spent a winter in Regina?

[2FrontFeet]

I know how cold it gets there....really I do. And I feel for you. Even I (dingbat) got outa Flin Flon when the getting' was good! People in Thunder Bay say "look kids, a moose in the backyard!" "Come see!"

In Flin Flon it was "Run kids, there's a polar bear in our fridge!"

When I was old enough, I vowed that I would never ever wake up again with my tongue frozen on the drool that was left on the pillow. Looked pretty darned foolish sitting in class coughing up feathers. :wink:

So tell me, what keeps you in the GWN?

[Lilypon]

I hate hot summers (tho we are getting them here now), hate crowds of people (no fear of that here....and I don't live in Regina q: ), and my feet are frozen to the ground. I guess it was the thought of raising my children in a city that was good to raise children in (gangs aren't known here). I do eye the coast sometimes but we have retired peeps moving back here that would rather put up with the winter and be away from the pollution, etc.

[Tania]

Dingbat,

There is a SASE offer in the 'Available for Trade' section, which will work perfectly for Canadians - let me know if you are interested, there are a few heirloom varieties listed there.

http://www.tomatoville.com/viewtopic.php?t=3653

Cheers,

[gwnorth]

Wow, I'm away from the forum for a couple of days and my part of the world is the topic of discussion - DIngbat, I haven't checked out TGS for seeds this year - maybe their policy has changed - I ordered online last year, and grew, with very good success:
Sungold
Black Cherry
Galinas
Black From Tula
Silvery Fir Tree
Stupice
Earl's Faux
Faux Earl's Faux
Red Brandywine
Azoychka

and I grew with some success:
Brandywine Sudduth
Aunt Gertie's Gold

And I may be missing some - this is off the top of my head... Yes winter is long and cold here, but summer can be nice and you can't beat those loooong hours of daylight in the great white north.
This year I will probably be trying:

Sophie's Choice (originated in Edmonton, I
understand)
Kimberly
Druzba
Cherokee Purple
Kellog's Breakfast
Dr Carolyn
Polish (Ellis)

There are a lot of Italians in the Toronto area - there must be some good tomato gardens too!

[2FrontFeet]

So gwnorth, which one was your favourite?

Thanks for the link to the seed offer, Tania, but I don't have any seed to trade just yet. And I don't know how to do that without bungling it all up!