Thursday, August 25, 2016
Thursday, August 18, 2016

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
There were a few helpful tips and ideas in this book (although I'm not sure if coke on my plants did a whole lot...), but much of it was redundant. This book could have been fit into about 100 pages and contained just as much information, had there simply been a useful index added in the back. Instead, recipes and suggestions were repeated ad nauseam. My copy will probably be making the trek to Goodwill.
View all my reviews
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Tomatoes: a Problem and Rewards
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Part of one day's picking |
This might not be a terribly big issue if they were simply a few plants in a raise bed in my back yard, but since they are in my front lawn, hugging the sidewalk...well, sprawling plants eating the walkway isn't a very nice way to greet the mailman everyday, or any other guests who may come by.
This left me with a problem. Because, you see, I had no real fencing apparatus besides the cages the tomatoes had already outgrown. So I had to get creative.
I stared at my garage, wondering "what in the world could I use?"


It's working pretty well. We'll see if it holds up in a windstorm. I placed the curtain rod directly against one of the tomato cages and fastened it there with the T-Post wires. Then through the top of the curtain rod I ran the sign wire, which was hanging higher than the cages, so I took the trapping wire (14 gauge, I'd guess), and wired it down to the cages in three different spots. This will give the tomatoes another 2-3 feet to climb...I'm guessing by the time they're up that high production will drop off.

Amazing where a little creativity and ingenuity can get you.
And hey, best of all, Andie (my wife) has been making lot of delicious dishes with our little cherry buddies, including the tomato/olive pasta I'm enjoying here.
Thursday, August 4, 2016
An Abundance of Cherries
Well, cherry tomatoes, that is.
I'll try to get pictures up sometime in the near future of a days picking. I planted 60 some tomatoes seeds at the begging of the year, February or so. Germination was darn near 100%. Well, this was far too early, and my seedlings became somewhat lanky. Shortly after our late-April move to our new home, I placed everything outside to get some natural light. What I didn't know was that we were supposed to receive a thunderstorm that night.
After 2+ inches of rain, most of my itty-bitty potted 'matoes were toast. I did manage to salvage six of them, though. In hindsight, I might be just slightly glad that I don't have 60 tomato plants, because I have no idea what we would do with that many tomatoes. I had originally planted a half and half mixture of cherries and Amish Paste. None of the Amish Paste survive, so I was left with a half dozen cherry tomato plants. The abundance has been rather delightful. Usually twice a week or so I pull off one or two quarts of the pleasurably sweet little suckers.
Maybe next year we should put in sixty, and go into business? We'll see.
I'll try to get pictures up sometime in the near future of a days picking. I planted 60 some tomatoes seeds at the begging of the year, February or so. Germination was darn near 100%. Well, this was far too early, and my seedlings became somewhat lanky. Shortly after our late-April move to our new home, I placed everything outside to get some natural light. What I didn't know was that we were supposed to receive a thunderstorm that night.
After 2+ inches of rain, most of my itty-bitty potted 'matoes were toast. I did manage to salvage six of them, though. In hindsight, I might be just slightly glad that I don't have 60 tomato plants, because I have no idea what we would do with that many tomatoes. I had originally planted a half and half mixture of cherries and Amish Paste. None of the Amish Paste survive, so I was left with a half dozen cherry tomato plants. The abundance has been rather delightful. Usually twice a week or so I pull off one or two quarts of the pleasurably sweet little suckers.
Maybe next year we should put in sixty, and go into business? We'll see.
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