Marko Colby and Hanako Myers are organic gardeners in Quilcene, Washington, growing both vegetables to sell in markets and vegetable starts for home gardeners. From their experiences answering the questions of their seedling buyers, they have put together a small (83 pages) but very useful book titled “Vegetable by Vegetable: A Guide for Gardening Near the Salish Sea.”
The sub-title recognizes the similarity of climates over a wide range of coastal British Columbia and Washington. As an example, they note how the growing season around Puget Sound is more comparable to northern Vancouver Island than to much closer areas just east of the Cascade Mountains.
The advice is very direct and encouraging. For tomatoes, “few varieties have complete resistance to fungal disease and some amount of disease is normal (Try not to worry too much!).” I recommend you give this user-friendly little book a try.
Excerpted from the Spring 2022 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin