Courtland woman harvests extra-large tomatoes
Published 9:43 am Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Louise K. Mears of Courtland credits using 10-10-10 fertilizer for the size of these tomatoes from her garden. She hopes to enter them in the upcoming horticulture competition at the Franklin-Southampton County Fair. — SUBMITTED
COURTLAND—Louise Kitchen Mears has reaped the rewards of her gardening in the form of extra-large tomatoes, and she hopes they’ll last long enough to enter into the horticulture contest at the upcoming county fair.
“Though I might have to eat one,” she said with a smile.
The Courtland resident added that she has been gardening for 10 years, and this is the second year that such tomatoes have grown in her backyard.
“I would say that I set them out with small plants on stakes 10-inches tall, and 10-10-10 fertilizer was the only thing I used. No Miracle Gro,” said Mears.
Her skill in the garden shouldn’t be too surprising considering her background.
“I came from a farming family, and I married into a farming family,” the Newsoms native said, in reference to her late husband, Robert H. Mears.
In addition to the heirloom-sized tomatoes, she also grows butterbeans, stringbeans, squash, green peppers and cucumbers.
