By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
Mary Ramsey loves her garden. Never mind that it is along a small strip of concrete, in an alley in north Iola. It’s the only space she has, and she utilizes it well.
Out front, a small plush lawn shines emerald in afternoon sun. Ramsey, however, can’t “put anything in the way of the mowing” in her Iola Housing Authority yard.
Still, Ramsey’s tomatoes would be the envy of any gardener. Their lush growth is testimony to years of gardening experience.
Ramsey has grown tomatoes in containers the last 10 years, she said.
It was a practical consideration at her former home on North Kentucky, where the soil was heavy, she said.
Ramsey, who is “almost 70,” found it simpler to garden in the controlled spaces containers allowed.
Although such plants require water every day, “You don’t have to hoe them; you don’t have any weeds coming in,” she noted.
She uses Miracle Grow potting soil, she said, and when she gardened in-ground used Miracle Grow’s weed control formula.
And, she’s careful about where she gets her starts.
“I’ll tell you right off, get your plants at TLC and your peat moss at Walmart.”
TLC Garden Center in LaHarpe, she said, has the healthiest plants, and Walmart — well, “the price for their moisture control product is reasonable. You have to figure these things out when you’re on a budget.”
Ramsey’s eye for a bargain led her to the five-gallon buckets her large tomatoes are in. She purchased four of them from a neighbor for $1.
“Look around at garage sales,” she said, “you can get all sorts of things” without much cost.
Also acquired on the cheap were her hanging “baskets,” — a couple of drinking water containers with holes cut to let the plants grow from the bottom.
The method is gaining popularity through the “Topsy Turvy” upside-down hanger, but Ramsey has used it for years, she said.
“We did them (on Kentucky Street) where we lived,” Ramsey said. “We used to hang them out on the clothes line.”
Ramsey’s boyfriend of 22 years, Dan Lyons, purchased an official Topsy Turvy this year, she said, but she isn’t impressed.
“I still haven’t seen any blossoms on that plant.”
WHEN SHE had a larger garden, Ramsey used to can a lot, she said. “One year I canned 60 pints of tomatoes; I’d give them to neighbors.”
She also loved to make hot peppers in sweet tomato sauce, she said.
Ramsey has always been a peppers-and-tomato girl.
“I’ve tried little herb gardens, but I never cared for them.”
Although her garden is smaller now, Ramsey still likes to can.
“I pick enough tomatoes to can four or five jars, then I wait for the next set to get ripe,” she noted.
Ramsey may be canning in June, if her plants are any indication.
“I planted mid-April,” Ramsey said. “I always get them out a little early, that way you have tomatoes by July,” she said.
Ramsey moved into the apartment on North Buckeye in 2008.
She was very sick during her last year on Kentucky Street, but still gardened.
“My daughter came and said, ‘Mother, what are you doing planting tomatoes?’ They wanted to put me in the hospital in Wichita.”
Before that happened, Ramsey made sure she staked her plants. Her daughter was furious, she said.
But, Ramsey noted, “that saved me.” When she got home, her tomatoes were fine.
Ramsey offered sage advice for new gardeners. “You don’t ever want to buy low quality plants because they’ll rot,” she said. And use soft cotton rags and tree limbs as stakes, she added.
The wind can damage hanging plants, but no more so than it does in-ground gardens, Ramsey said. In fact, all but one of Ramsey’s plants came through recent storms unscathed. The one that broke lost only one limb, possibly due to an off-balanced growth pattern.
One food Ramsey loves but does not have space to grow is greens.
As one of 10 children in West Virginia, Ramsey said, “we always had a garden. When I was a kid mom would take us outside and show us which greens were edible. She’d cook them up with a piece of pork. They were so good.”
Although her current garden space is limited, tucked amongst the tomatoes are boxes of marigolds.
“I’ve got to have a little color in my life,” Ramsey said.
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