well my wife she says
this looks like tomatoville in our living room
but
she tolerates it since she knows what will be the reward in a few weeks if this is all successful
now
she doesnt get to taste that first juicy tomato
that taster will be me as im working in my garden
its my reward
my biggest battle is to keep her and her mom away from my green tomatoes since they like to pick them and fry them
yes
i do eat them when they fry them but i want those first tomatoes to turn red and ripe
its a yearly battle i have with them
luckily our garden area is locked and i have the pass code and they dont
every year even when i was in texas i always planted my tomatoes early
sometimes i would win
sometimes i would lose
to nature in the form of freezing temps
last year here it was warmer so i was able to put them in the ground about this time
heck we hardly turned our heater on all winter last year
this year is different
eg
when i got up this morning it was 33 degrees
now that may not freeze a new tomato plant but it sure can damage it though so that it may not grow well or may even die
so
back to my porch and living room until its warmer
i have designated 6 spots in my garden for 6 tomatoes since i have limited gardening space
so i have to chose which ones did well last year and which ones we liked the best
here is my list
early girl celebrity juliet sweet 100 black krim cherokee purple thats it
recently in my garlic bed there popped up this volunteer tomato
its near the spot where i grew a tomato someone gave me called mexican mini cherry which was a good producer
so im presuming thats the one that growing
when they volunteer like that it seems nature plants them correctly so i plan to add that to my list
based on previous history ill probably find more spots for more tomatoes
if you are a gardener you understand
i buy tomatoes as soon as i see them show up in the nursery
i plant them in a 3 gallon pot until its time to plant them in the garden
by the time i do they are well hardened off
that means they have been allowed to adapt to the weather since i move them in and out of the condo to the outside environment every day
the first one i got was an early girl in the picture above
it was obtained near the end of january
it was potted in this 3 gallon bucket
its is now as tall as my belt line on my jeans
this picture was from 3 weeks ago
it now has one tomato growing with more coming
im carefully thumping the flowers each day to spread around the pollen
plus its windy here some now so when its outside the wind does that also
my plan is to transplant it into the ground this sunday since the temperatures seem to be making that upward jump for the spring
i plan to dig a hole and a trench in the garden
then partially lay this on it side so it can root all along its trunk leaving as little as possible sticking up out of the ground
in the hole i will put some antacid for calcium and a sprinkling of an organic fertilizer and several handfuls of my own organic worm compost
ill water it in with a good soaking of fish emulsion sea weed molasses mixture
then
around the tomato i will put a double layer of black plastic about 3 ft in diameter to help warm the soil around the tomato
my new tomato cage will be placed over it
this cage then will be wrapped with a thick white row cover to keep the tomato warm until the weather warms up this spring
for those of you who are tomato lovers you will understand all this work im doing to get that first tomato
the rest of the tomatoes will be transplanted in march as the spring warms up
now i did this in texas each year and it seemed like a late freeze would wipe them out every year
but
luckily here in santa barbara it rarely if ever freezes
except
maybe last night
i promise i will post a picture of the first ripe tomato from this early girl tomato
i also promise that tomato will never make it out of the garden
the organicgreen doctor
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