Bill Foster’s tomatoes thrive on the trellis system. On a small family farm on the edge of Gaffney, SC, Bill Foster observed how his father fed the unemployed from their garden plot during the Great Depression. They grew sweet corn, wheat, and sweet potatoes in abundance. The grains were ground into meal and flour. When Foster graduated from high school in 1934 in the depths of the Depression, he longed to go to college, but there were no financial resources and he couldn’t find a job. He went to the president of Limestone College to express his desire and dilemma. The president sent him home to grow sweet potatoes for the college in exchange for tuition. Foster remarks, “I was the happiest kid in the whole county.”

Today his Lake Shore Drive garden isn’t large enough to grow sweet potatoes, but he gets maximum yield of sugar snaps, pole beans, white half runner beans, cucumbers, bell peppers, and tomatoes by utilizing trellises. He notes, “The plants reach for the sunlight,” and his vertical growing systems encourage that behavior. Besides, he can grow more in less space and share with family, friends, and neighbors.

Upon first impression Foster’s garden looks like a trial plot at Park’s Seed. Tomatoes are his forté. Each year he experiments with new introductions like Razzleberry, Tolstoi Cluster, and Mountain Fresh. He obtained tomato seed from Sweden and is testing its vigor in this climate. He grows reliable staples too: Celebrity, Better Boy, Sweet Cluster, and Park’s Whopper.

Foster purchases his tomato seed from mail–order catalogs and sows the seed in Park’s Original Bio Dome Seed Starter kits around the first of February. As soon as the plants have true leaves, he transplants the seedlings to jiffy pots filled with Miracle Grow potting soil and places the pots under tiers of grow lights. In mid–March, he peels off the jiffy pots so as not to disturb the soil or roots and transfers the plants into large plastic buckets buried into the ground to the rim. The buckets are filled two–thirds with potting soil, and the remainder is Foster’s compost. Pots are lined up along seven–foot high vertical wire trellises to support the vines. He fertilizes the tomatoes with Miracle Grow liquid every other week.

Foster advises, “Mulch is essential and the male pine blossom (cone) that falls from the trees in spring after pollination is great mulch. I have wheelbarrows full and use it for all my vegetables. If you mulch, you don’t have much to do.”

Composting is also a major factor in Foster’s success as a gardener. In 48 years of working on the same site, he has developed a 6” layer of topsoil where pure sand previously existed. He uses two styles of compost bins: a tumbler for quick compost and a vented circular layered bin in which he uses a compost aerator tool.

Does he have a secret tomato recipe? His favorite way to eat tomatoes is fresh on two slices of toasted bread smothered with mayonnaise, bacon slices, and lettuce. “You can’t beat that,” he laughs.

About the Author

Arlene Marturano is a master gardener, writer, and educator. As an advocate of gardening as a tool for learning, she helped develop the Carolina Children’s Garden at the Sandhill Research and Education Center. She is an education consultant with T.E.A.C.H.