The Start of Tomato Season

      Is there any garden time more pleasing than the start of the tomato season?  That time when you have enough tomatoes just to have one for a snack.  I relish the first picking of sustainable bounty.

Early start to tomato season,  July 22nd, 2013

      Sometime soon there will be lots and lots of tomatoes.  So many that we will need to freeze some and give extras away.  There seems to be no lack of willing recipients out there when tomatoes are up for grabs.

Summer Season Veggies

Tomatoes and Basil planted May 19th,  2013

      It took me a very long time to come out of winter hibernation this year.  Usually I start all of my tomatoes, peppers, and squash inside to grow out on the porch.  Just never got into it this year.  Then came sticker shock when trying to buy veggie starts.  Some tomato plants going for $3.49 per small pot!!  Finding the little six packs of tomatoes is almost impossible.  In the picture above, I have finally gotten some tomatoes and basil in the ground.  Nine days after the magic frost date of May 10th, yet we just had a frost so I was waiting.  With cooler temperatures recently, the tomatoes and peppers would not have made much outdoor progress anyway.

Peppers in the ground, May 19th,  2013

      How is this for intensive gardening?  The peppers run down the outside of this bed, garlic is in the middle, and tomatoes will be planted along the poles on the left side.  The garlic plants should all be harvested within a month, leaving more room and light for the tomatoes and peppers.  Grass clippings are used to fertilize and keep down the weeds.

Beans started, May 27th,  2013

      The turnips that had overwintered were finally pulled out and taken over to Highland Orchards for a treat for the pigs and chickens.  If you bought eggs there at the end of May and they were particularly good, that was my turnips!  On the left side of the bed you can see the white shelled Tenderpod beans, and on the rest of the bed to the right you can see some brown shelled Dragon's Tongue beans.  The Dragon's Tongue is the most moist bean I have found for eating raw.

Bean seeds covered

      Trying to avoid extra work, I just broadcast the seeds on top of the lightly hoed bed.  They were covered with about an inch of mushroom soil.  And yes, I remembered to soak the beans overnight in water before planting to get them fully hydrated.  I plan (hope) to do a better job of planting succession crops of beans this year.  There is still plenty of time to get in multiple plantings.

Creating New Tomato Plants

      Often in a gardening season you could use more tomato plants.  Rabbits may snip them off, or ground hogs, or new space may open up from the harvest of a different crop.  You could buy some plants, put in some seed, or create new plants from your existing plants.

Marglobe Tomato,  6/7/2012

      Most tomato plants will benefit from having suckers trimmed off.  More light will get to the remaining foliage, and air circulation will be much better.  The bottom five or six branches can usually be cut off, and most plants put out new suckers at leaf junctions.  Those stems you really want to cut out, or you can get a huge bush with little tomato production.  Early in the season, the flowers are carried along the main stem, the one that you want to encourage to grow tall for light and air.  This next picture is the plant above after having been trimmed.

Much more breathing room

      I got six nice stems from my trimming work.  These were put into dirt in a six cell pack, soaked in a water bath, and put in a shady area.  For the next few days, the stems may be quite droopy, and you will think this is a stupid idea.  Make sure to keep the soil quite damp, and in a few days you will be amazed that the stems are perking up.

June 16th, and all is well

      In this picture you can see the new roots.  No chemicals, no rooting hormones, plain old garden compost.  Just helping Mother Nature to do her thing.  I planted these starts in the ground yesterday, and will make sure to water them well for a few days.  Miracle of miracles, new plants in ten days!
      I started a tomato this year called Glacier.  It is supposed to be very early, and the plants are now loaded with decent sized green tomatoes.  I am thinking that if Glacier does well at the beginning of the season, it might also do well at the end of the season.  So I am planning to start some stem cuttings now and a little later in the season.  Maybe that will extend these faster growing plants to the end of the season.  The plants don't get as big either, so maybe they could stay stuffed in a taller cold frame.  Anybody have thoughts on extending the tomato season?  I have been promised some plants of Burpee's Long Keeper and also the Red October, both varieties that are supposed to ripen after being picked off the vine.  Pick them green in October, and they are supposed to ripen into November and December,  And still taste better than store bought tomatoes.

Today's Harvest

      This afternoon is hot and muggy, but not raining at the moment.  So time was spent in the garden working on the tomato staking, and to look around for the hiding harvest.  This is what shook out of the bushes today.  Patty pan and acorn squash, a nice cucumber, a yellow straight neck squash, and more tomatoes.

Back yard harvest, 8-15-11

      The tomatoes were added to the batch on the porch to finish ripening.  Would you believe that Cindy made a triple batch of tomato soup just yesterday!  Simply scrumptious on a cold winter's day.

Porch collection, 8-15-11

Bothersome Birdies

      I hate going out to the garden to pick a tomato that has been ripening for days only to find a hole in the side where a bird pecked it.  It does not seem possible to let tomatoes fully ripen on the vine without some critter getting to them first.

Back yard garden, 8-14-11

Two on this vine pierced

      Now I have been known to pick a particularly craved tomato from the vine to eat the good side away from the damage, but I would not leave the tomato for a long time for fear of some bacteria growing in the punctured tomato.  So the result is having to pick the tomatoes days before ripeness and let them sit in the porch to finish ripening.  Not the best method.

Bagged Brandywine Tomato

      So, if you could cover the tomatoes so the birds can't see them, will they continue to ripen on the vine?  Grabbed a plastic bag that was sitting out back, and covered a Brandywine just as it was beginning to blush pink.  I was afraid the tomato might cook in the bag, but all seemed fine.  Days later, the unveiling.

Yes, a beautiful unblemished Brandywine!!!

      I had thought about using small paper lunch bags, though the pouring rain of the last few days would have done in the bags.  And I would avoid clear plastic bags, as the birds could still see the tomatoes and would probably peck right through the plastic.  So now a new way to recycle plastic bags.

Brandywine added to the rest of the haul

The Tomatoes are in!!

Summer is here, ain't it sweet!!

    Well, the tomatoes are fully and finally in.  Not just one tomato here or there, but enough to be proud of a real pickin.  Yesterday's haul is shown above, and is more tomatoes than I had all of last summer.  The summer that was gray and cool.  Comfortable for us human folk, but unproductive for tomatoes and peppers.  If there were only one crop I was allowed to put in my garden, it would be the luscious tomato, my symbol of summer eating at its best.

Pink Brandywine

Pink Brandywine

      The sun, captured in nature's own wrapper.  Picked right off the vine, still warm.  Tomato juice dribble down the front of another shirt, clear and telling evidence that I was snitching a freebie  when she thought I was dutifully collecting for dinner.  But well worth it.

More Brandywines

Chocolate Cherry

 You might get the impression that I like the Pink Brandywine.  Yes, a delicious tomato.  But also in the first picture are the wonderful yellow Jubilee and the darker tomato, the Black Krim.  New to me, fairly early, absolutely delicious, and the interior a dark burgundy.  And the Cherokee Purple, a delight.  Another tomato new to me this year was Dr. Wyche.  A large yellow tomato, firm when cut, with the appearance of mangoes.  Then the Chocolate Cherry tomato.  Full tomato flavor in such a small package.  And when picked in the fall, still delivering a fine home tomato surprise taste into December.  I will be growing all of these varieties again, as they are all winners.  Too bad the tomato season is so short.  There is NOTHING in the store to compare to a home grown tomato.