By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

If you've ever thought about growing your own winter tomatoes indoors (a book like Tomatoland will give you reason), now there are free plans that make it easy. Developed by a Silicon Valley semiconductor exec named Ray Newstead, the InnTainer is a non-commercial hydroponic growing system that you make yourself.

An offshoot of Newstead's EarthTainer system, the InnTainers go together in a Saturday afternoon. If you don't have a sunroom or an unobstructed south window (or if you live too far north), you can add artificial lights to make your tomatoes thrive.

To direct you to tomato varieties that grow well in containers, Gary Ibsen at TomatoFest.com has set up links offering seed that grows particularly well in containers. Check out his Indoor Container Collection #1 and Indoor Container Collection #2.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

I've been fighting pomegranates since I was 5 years old. They usually cover me with their own blood, and give up fewer seeds for the effort than it's worth. But after watching the following video from POM Wonderful, things between me and pomegranates are good. And even better, I can use all those perfect pomegranate seeds in this fall nut and pomegranate salad.

How to Open a Pomegranate in Six Movements from POM Wonderful on Vimeo.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

In the course of a garden remodel for Sherry Burke of Bainbridge Island, WA, designer Susan Calhoun (Plantswoman Design) built a wonderful vegetable-cleaning station that keeps dirt in the garden and out of the house.

It comes in two parts.

The heart of the system is a cleaning table complete with sink and cold-water supply. The sink was a freebee Sherry picked up by the road (and Kohler, no less). Susan made an opening in the tabletop for the sink and installed a rudimentary drain pipe that channels rinse water back into the garden.

Clean water comes through a self-coiling hose that's fed by a ground-level hose bib under the table. Sherry uses the shower setting on an adjustable hose nozzle for the rinse, and lets washed veggies drain in a collander before she takes them indoors for the table. When she's done, she hangs the hose hang from a hook next to the sink.

The small compost bin on the left side of the table holds the wilted leaves, split fruit, and carrot tops that inevitably come with the harvest.

The vegetable garden itself grows in galvanized stock tanks (below) that keep the crops elevated, where they're easy to plant, tend and harvest. Herbs grow in the ground around the stock tanks.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Authored by award-winning food writer Barry Estabrook, Tomatoland (Andrews McMeel Publishing, Kansas City, 2011; $19.99) offers a  riveting overview of our most-loved vegetable, from its humble origins on the west coast of South America to its place as a $5 billion-per-year fresh market crop.

While the book does expose commercial excesses in Florida tomato production, its subtitle—How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed our Most Alluring Fruit—is more provocative than accurate.

•Estabrook shows how and why the flavor was bred out of commercial fresh tomatoes, but he also shows how market forces are bringing tastier varieties back into the market.

•He documents the contemporary American slave trade (take that literally) that supports part of the industry—but he also shows how it's being addressed by both exploited farmworkers on the ground and by law enforcement agencies.

•The book covers the horrific birth defects caused by exposure of farm laborers to tomato pesticides—but it also introduces us to an unlikely alliance of illiterate illegal aliens and socially conscious lawyers who team up to force the kinds of change that have already improved conditions for workers in the fields.

Though most of the book it set in Florida, Estabrook also takes us on hunts for wild tomatoes in the deserts of Chile and Peru, and touches briefly on tomato researchers and the industry they support in California.

Written in the spirit of Michael Pollan's ag books, Tomatoland will change the way you think about tomatoes, and probably convince you to grow more of your own. It also reinforces a notion I've had for a long time: eat fresh, locally grown food in season and you'll be healthier and happier for it.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

A friend of mine is going to the Vista Fiber Arts Fiesta this upcoming weekend, and asked if I could recommend an interesting nursery to visit nearby.

Well, that was easy.   Pearson's Gardens & Herb Farm in Vista, of course.  A small nursery hidden in a residential neighbor that grows an amazing variety of herbs.  17 varieties of rosemary, 34 different thymes, 27 oreganos, and 50+--I stopped counting--different kinds of lavender.  Also tons of unusual things like arnica, patchouli, Vietnamese coriander, fenugreek, angelica, and horehound.  A slew of ornamental salvias as well.  Good place to find unusual cultivars such as S. discolor or S. muirii.

You can also get gourmet vegetable starts.  Right now, ready for fall planting, all kinds of field greens including heirloom leaf lettuces, Italian dandelion and chicory, purple and yellow cauliflower, red celery and red pak choi, purple aspargus,and lots, lots more.

Don't live in Southern California?  Pearson's also offers mail order service.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Photos by Roger Miller, Homescaper Garden Photography

Looking at Frances Barnes' garden in Portland, Oregon, I'm struck at the part hardscape plays in a garden's design. This hillside garden needed a lot of it, if only to terrace this formerly weed-covered hill.

The project actually started when Barnes planned a major addition behind her classic 80-year-old house. She realized that the resulting walls would make it impossible to get heavy equipment back there after construction, so all major landscape work had to be done before construction.

Designers Anne Marsh & Gary Fear (Marsh Fear Garden Solutions) went above and beyond what was required, installing a gorgeous water feature (below), patio (above), and terraces for edible and ornamental plants.

Outdoor furniture, trellises, fences, and gates complete the package.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

You plant apple trees in winter, usually based on a distant memory of what you liked. Then you wait three or four years for fruit, hoping that it's what you had in mind.

For more certainty, choose garden varieties now, while there's plenty of tree-ripened fruit to taste and compare. The best place to do it is at one of the fruit fairs scheduled around the West during the next six weeks. Here are several to choose from.

British Columbia

Salt Spring Island. Salt Spring Island Apple Festival, Oct 2

Vancouver. University of British Columbia Apple Festival, Oct 15–16

California

Fortuna. Apple Harvest Festival, Oct 1

Julian. Julian Apple Days Festival, Oct 1–2

Springville. Springville Apple Festival, Oct 15-16

Colorado

Cedaredge. Cedaredge Apple Festival, Oct 1-2

Oregon

Clackamas County Fairgrounds. Home Orchard Society All About Fruit Show, Oct 15-16

Hood River. Heirloom Apple Celebration, Oct 22-23

Washington

Green Bluff. Green Bluff Apple Festival, weekends through Oct 30

Lynnwood. Seattle Tree Fruit Society Fall Fruit Show, Oct 23

Vancouver. Old Apple Tree Festival, Oct 1

By Johanna Silver, Sunset associate garden editor

You still have two days to make it to The Sonoma County Fair Grounds in Santa Rosa to check out The National Heirloom Exposition hosted by the folks from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. A team from Sunset was up there yesterday, and we were all blown away by the spirit of the event. It is NOT to be missed.

Here are a few shots I snapped on my phone.

Heirloom apples

Heirloom winter squash display

This guy won the giant pumpkin contest. 

A heritage rooster

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

It's been fun watching the heirloom edible movement regain momentum. A century ago, everybody grew heirlooms. Then hybrids and genetically modified edibles (GMO's) swept in and took over most of the market. Now the tide is turning. To see how much, go to the National Heirloom Exposition in Santa Rosa, CA, this Tuesday through Thursday (September 13–15).

The speakers alone are worth it. With names like Alice Waters, Amy Goldman, Gary Ibsen, Jere Gettle, Jeff Smith, Vandana Shiva, and Sunset's own Johanna Silver, they'll cover everything from pure local foods to urban gardening and heirloom tomatoes. In all, there will be 70 speakers, 250 vendors selling everything from seeds to tools, plus exhibitions of livestock, bees, chickens, flowers, hydroponic gardening, and even fruit and vegetable carving. There will also be plenty of food and music.

Tickets are $10 (free under 18) online or at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds. The event runs 11 to 9 daily.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

One of the best things you can do to rejuvenate the soil in vegetable and flower beds is plant fava beans (Vicia faba) soon, after this year's annuals come out. Depending on which kind you choose, they'll grow up over winter, then can be tilled in during spring or grown out and eaten late next spring and early summer.

Small-seeded kinds (horse beans) are best for cover cropping. Planted about a month before first frost, they are hardy enough to make it through winter in climates where the soil doesn't freeze. In spring, as they put out tender new growth, you dig them into the soil, where they rot completely within a couple of weeks. They add nitrogen to the soil and increase its organic content, improving its tilth before you plant next summer's crops. It is essential to dig them in before they go to flower, usually in May. If you don't, they'll become too woody for fast decomposition.

The large-seeded kinds (broad beans) are best for eating, but they come with a warning. People (mostly of Mediterranean extraction) who have a hereditary condition called glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PD) can develop a condition called favism if they eat fava beans. It causes red blood cells to break down and can result in an extreme, potentially fatal form of anemia. For the rest of us, fava beans are an excellent source of vegetable protein. They mature in early summer.

Favas are unusual in a couple of ways. First, these natives of North Africa and west Asia are the only Old World beans. The others are native to the Americas. Favas are also the only frost-tolerant beans, withstanding temperatures down to about 15° F.

They grow four or five feet tall and are generally self-supporting. You only need to hold them up with stakes and string if they grow in a windy spot.