Bring Your Garden to the Sun

"Bring Your Garden to the Sun - Success with Containers and Straw Bales" 

A recording of this program is available on YouTube https://youtu.be/dSwKPryFoc0 

Rarely does a gardener have a yard with the perfect garden spot - typically, poor sun or poor soil, or lack of a yard altogether, get in the way. In truth, anything that can be grown in the ground can succeed using containers or straw bales. This allows for growing healthy crops anywhere the sun shines - including decks, patios, and driveways. 

Craig will lead you through how to make this happen, splitting the workshop time between the two techniques. Be sure to bring all of your questions! Craig will join us from North Carolina via Zoom. Participants can watch in the library or from home via Zoom. Register to reserve your seat or receive the Zoom link. 

Craig LeHoullier lives and gardens in Hendersonville, North Carolina, as of January 2020. Prior to that, he and his wife and pets resided in Raleigh, NC, for 28 years. A Rhode Island native, he caught the gardening passion from his grandfather, Walter, and dad, Wilfred. Craig achieved his PhD in chemistry at Dartmouth College, which resulted in a 25-year career in pharmaceuticals that ended in 2009. 

Craig's gardening obsession, which started the year he and Susan were married (and their first garden, in 1981), is passing through several stages. His love of heirloom tomatoes began with his joining the Seed Savers Exchange, an organization for which he continues to serve as an adviser for tomatoes, in 1986. He is responsible for naming and popularizing many well-known tomatoes, such as Cherokee Purple, Lillian’s Yellow Heirloom, and Lucky Cross. 

In 2005, he added amateur tomato breeding to his garden resume and continues to co-lead the Dwarf Tomato Breeding project, responsible for creating 145 (and counting) new compact growing varieties for space-challenged gardeners. His writing career kicked off with a 2012 request from Storey Publishing to write a book on tomatoes, resulting in Epic Tomatoes (2014). His second book, Growing Vegetables in Straw Bales, soon followed (2016). Book 3, focusing on the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project, is in progress and should be completed during 2024 as a self-published creation. Craig decided to formally close the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project in December 2023.