As you may have guessed by now, vegetable gardening is waaaay down the list of priorities at my place. My true loves are flowers and garden design but I grow a few herbs for cooking and this year I decided to try tomatoes again.
My yard is very deep - 100' from the back of the house to the back fence. When we first moved in 25 years ago, we built 2 raised beds for tomatoes. Over the years, growing tomatoes became a tiresome hassle, having to lug water to the back forty after work. My tomatoes were always "Poorest in Show" among my family.
This year when my Dad offered (once again) to grow tomatoes from seed for all of us, I joined in. I signed up for beefsteaks and cherry tomatoes. Being retired, I thought I would be able to devote more time to them.
I read up on how best to stake tomatoes and one YouTube video showed tying strings horizontally between 2 strong posts.
Well, my strings were just twine (duh!) so of course now that the tomatoes are growing and getting big and heavy, they were sagging and falling over.
Last evening, my hubby took 2 old long tree branches that have been at the side of the house and nailed them onto very strong posts.
This morning I tied all the droopy branches to their new supports and let me announce to my Dad, sister, son and nephew: the Competition is ON!! (Poorest in Show - indeed!!!)
4 comments:
Astrid, what is the tomato variety? I guess it's cherry, isn't it? I grow only the low varieties, and have less problem with their mounting now. Nice red tomatoes!
Hi Nadezda
Beefsteak are the big juicy tomatoes and cherry are the small miniature ones about the size of cherries or grapes. Both are delicious so I'm so glad that I have time to take care of them now.
Astrid
Hubby and I were out in the yard last week trying to give our tomato plants some proper support only our solution ended up looking more like a spider's web. I must show him your idea. I like the natural look of the tree branch. Great idea!
Hi Jennifer
Yes, I'm hoping this does the trick! It's amazing how heavy and awkward tomato plants get.
This morning I picked my first red tomatoes and they have something on the bottom called blossom end rot. Sheesh! But my son says that happens to the first ones sometimes but not all. Let's hope he's right.
Post a Comment