Index to this Web site:

Welcome to the Gardening Information Page of Craig LeHoullier, Raleigh, North Carolina

This ever-growing web site is intended to be a way for me to share, with other gardening enthusiasts, information that I’ve been gathering over the years – primarily about Heirloom tomatoes, but also unusual types of hot and sweet peppers and eggplant. Content will grow and evolve as I learn more, grow more varieties, take more pictures, and carry out more research. I’ve added new sections on my seed starting and seed saving methods – see below!

If you would like to go to our spring seedling sales From The Vine page, please click here.

If you would like to go to Susan Angus-LeHoullier’s hand made items at Seedlings Sewn, please click here

Tomato Questions? Comments? Requests? Please email me at nctomatoman@gmail.com

Questions about Susan’s products – contact her at smaleh1@gmail.com

Updated on Monday, August 31, 2009

· The 2009 growing season is just about over for us! See the From The Vine page here in December or January for our plans for varieties of seedlings for 2010.

· The Dwarf Tomato breeding project continues – I had a very busy year growing out many lines and selections, and a few are nearly ready for wider distribution (something that those of us involved in the project are carefully pondering. The link to progress on the project is here – I also recommend joining the tomato discussion group Tomatoville for more information on this project, including ways that you can become involved.

· We had a great time at Tomatopalooza VII, and hope those of you who attended did as well. We are yet to confirm next year’s details - watch the Tomatopalooza web site, here – for the date, time and other details.

· Finally, please note that much of the information below is “old” – hasn’t been updated in some time due to essentially just being busy with the matters of life! I hope to convert this to a more user friendly, informative site, including my own blog – stay tuned.

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What you will find in this web site:

Below are links to information about our vegetable seedlings, pictures from our gardens over the years, scans of old rare seed catalogs, my tomato seed collections and growing logs, and articles from the heirloom tomato newsletter, Off The Vine….links to recommended seed companies, tomato discussion boards, and a few great streaming radio links!

Please note – I have disabled my guestbook because of the highly annoying, inconsiderate, and ignorant spammers who fill it with their snake oil advertisement links. Please just send me an email (address above) if you have any comments!

· Annual heirloom seedling sales……If you want information about our annual tomato, pepper and eggplant seedling venture, click From The Vine. This page will be updated frequently from now on, so check back often. See you at the Market in April!

· This was my approach to seed starting for 2006 – the varieties and cell reference numbers (I start seeds in 50 cell rigid plastic trays, up to 35 seeds per cell) – it may change a bit, so check back now and then.

· Eggplant/Tomatillo

· Peppers

· Tomatoes

· pictures of seedlings in 2005 in front of a south facing window on grow mats – close and distant, grow light set-up in garage – distant, close up, closer

· Digital Photographs (pretty well up to date – email me if you find any broken links)

· Craig’s Tomatoes

· Craig’s Sweet Peppers

· Craig’s Hot Peppers

· Craig’s Eggplant

· Jeff’s Lettuce

· Jeff’s Beans

· Jeff’s Tomatoes

· Jeff’s Peppers

There is a growing list of rare scans of old seed catalogs – mostly tomato sections – here: Seed Catalog Scans

Tomato, Pepper and Eggplant Seed and Growing Log Databases:

· USDA Seed Collection and Status – spreadsheet

· Tomato Seed collection, by number - spreadsheet

· Saved tomato seed collection, by number – spreadsheet

· Pepper seed collection, by number – spreadsheet

· Saved pepper seed collection, by number – spreadsheet

· Eggplant seed collection by number – spreadsheet

· Saved eggplant seed collection by number - spreadsheet

· Power Point tomato family trees – (you need Power Point to view) - Link

· My seasonal garden diaries/growing logs (2009 log coming soon) – (Please note that any links in these tables do not work – so you cannot get to tomato, pepper, eggplant pictures by clicking the links in most cases. Use the Pictures links above instead.

· 2008

· 2007

· 2006

Some Miscellaneous Reference information:

Here is how I start my seedlings.

Here is how I save seeds from ripe tomatoes.

Leaf Shape reference table, which lists all known potato leaf varieties, is here .

· Scans of letters from some seed sources (this is a work in progress) – Anna Russian, Cherokee Purple

· Information on the original Alexander Livingston varieties is here

· An essay on the various Brandywines is here, and a table of occurrences of varieties in SSE yearbooks is here.

· Check this Out! There is now a linked index for – Off The Vine – next task is to get hold of Carolyn’s articles, and we also plan to write updates to each of our articles. Work in progress

Some Good Links:

Tomato Discussion Group (note that I’ve taken off the links to GardenWeb and Victory chat areas – I don’t have time to spend at more than one site, and that site is Tomatoville, linked below):

Tomatoville – a great, promising new site for all discussions tomato!

Recommended Seed Companies for heirloom tomato seeds:

Tomato Growers Supply Company – huge variety, also many peppers and eggplant

Victory Seeds – Great people, great service, wonderful catalog, many new, unique varieties

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange – one of the granddaddies of the heirloom seed movement, still great

Johnny’s Selected Seeds – Standard of professional excellence, everything they offer is top notch

Sandhill Preservation – Run by a long time SSE member, high quality, great selection

Seed Savers Exchange – I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t for what the SSE accomplished!

A Garden Web friend (Darrel Jones) ships a large selection of heirloom tomato plants – Selected Plants.

Another source for heirloom plants – Laurel’s Heirloom Tomato plants

And, another friend who has plants for sale in the Kalamazoo Michigan Area – Jeff Fleming – link to his flyer is here.

For a great selection of heirloom tomato plant pictures – Reinhard Kraft’s web site

The Tomato web site of a good friend, Keith

Last but not least – some great music links (streaming radio)!

WXPN in Philadelphia – incredible mix – alternative, folk, rock – helps you keep current with the music scene!

Radio Paradise – just a great web site and streaming site; superb mix of music.

Miscellaneous Links for some of my other hobbies:

My favorite Jazz label – ECM records

My favorite dark chocolate – Scharffenberger

A great site for purchasing all sorts of dark chocolates from all over the world - Chocosphere

Two great digital camera review sites – Digital Camera Review and Steve’s Digi-cams (I take my recent pictures with a new Canon H3 1S; older pics with a Nikon Coolpix 885.)

Great Coffee Review site- CoffeeReview

Wonderful Beer review site - RateBeer

Look up your home value – and those anywhere in the country! Zillow

Answer some questions to find your ideal retirement city - FindYourSpot

Great movie rental site – Netflix

Great information about movies – Internet Movie db

All about the possible rediscovery of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker

Great weather site – Accuweather

A few additional recommendations we would like to make – if you love flower gardens, be sure to go to the Daniel Stowe Garden in Belmont, NC (Sue and I just returned – it was great!). (My wife, an avid quilter, also works in a stop at her favorite fabric store, Mary Jo’s, in Gastonia. Our favorite place to stay for the night is Robin’s Nest B&B in Mt. Holly. The Hostess, Robin Williams, is just delightful!

Pet Pictures

Mocha – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Buddy – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Both – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Zoe – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Moby – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5