Tomato Garden

I'll be pulling weeds out of my flower bed today.  It's the bed I grew tomatoes in last year, and there are a bunch of volunteer plants now.  I'm going to pull out all but 6 plants and see what happens....

I'm planning on digging up my grandma's chives to take them with me to the villa.  The rest of the herbs I'll want I'll plant when I get there in September.  I don't know what the local growing season is like so it'll be a new experience.  I showed Dane a hydroponic setup I liked and he said he'd see what he could do to create one like it for me to play with.  Actually, he's a better farmer than I so if he makes it he will be the one to tend it.  I'll just get to harvest.

That's nice.  I'm not in either place to have my garden....yet.  I've been doing research on how to set up a garden so our local animals don't get it.  Those darn javelina will eat anything. The deer are so cute but those bas**rds eat everything.  There's nothing like the taste of a home-grown tomato.

In The Villages a lot of people have birdcage screen rooms around their entire patios and that protects from the squirrels, which is the eatin'est creatures down there.  But deer are a huge problem here in Ohio....especially since our property backs to the woods.  Such hungry creatures, even with vegetation everywhere.  What they don't eat, they trample.

Years ago we were considering moving to Fla.  We laughed at the yards with the entire yard and pool covered with a big cage.

JanaAZ wrote:Years ago we were considering moving to Fla.  We laughed at the yards with the entire yard and pool covered with a big cage.

My in-laws, now both gone, built a home in Florida about 15 years ago and the homeowner's association had a requirement that they "cage" the pool. I dreaded seeing it, especially since they referred to it as the "cage." I was pleasantly surprised, though, as the screen was very sheer, made of some manmade acrylic stuff and even slightly minimized the sun a bit, which never hurts in FL! And they could always enjoy their large covered patio next to the pool, day or night, as the screen kept out the bugs.

Being petrified of cockroaches (they're the size of dinosaurs here and lots of them FLY!!!), I'm just the type to enjoy a screened-in porch!

omg did I tell you I was invaded big time with those suckers. I was so freaked out I slept on the sofa, Then I did not sleep.I was so afraid one would jump on me.   then poof they where gone.Have not seen one since.thank god!!!!

I would love one of those cages at my house to keep the skeeters out.NO POOL for me.EVER again.PIA!!!!!

The majority of the people I know around us who have a bird cage covered pool have a service that comes to clean and add chemicals, etc. to their pools and hot tubs. Many have salt water systems which is suppose to be much cheaper.

God, we miss having a pool so much. Had one for 16-1/2 years. Brian always kept it spotless even though it wasn't his job -- the younger people who lived in the house called him Achmed the Pool Boy (they initially said Achmed the Pool Man but Brian said he thought "boy" had a better ring to it).

We'd be in the backyard and I'd notice a leaf had blown into the pool. I used to think to myself just how long it was going to take Brian to get the skimmer and get it out. It was never long.

Yep, if we had a pool today, it would be saltwater. We have a very small backyard (and no access to it from any direction) and don't really have the money to spend on a pool even if we had the room. But God I miss it like crazy, especially when football is not on on Sundays.

Our DD got one of those bag pools, the kind where you inflate a giant inner tube looking ring and then fill the thing with water. It's 16' across and is large enough for her and the 10 yr. old to keep cool in. I can't stand to be outside with all the giant mosquitos we have this year. They sting when they bite and I get giant itchy welts. I cant use the spray because the fragrance causes me such respiratory distress. I do put my secret anti-itch cream on the bites i do have, but it wears off in a day and these 'skeeter bites seem to last 4 or 5 days on me.

I'm lucky as far as mosquitoes go, Beth. They do bite me but only after they've bitten everyone else for a good while. I don't use perfume of any type so it's not that. For some reason, they leave some people alone most of the time and I'm glad I'm one of those peeps!

I've always been the type who gets bit by every bug outside....and I NEVER wear a fragrance of any kind. Of course, I cannot even spritz on that Avon Skin So Soft without gasping for air from the smell.

Oh, by the way, I can see from my screened porch my tomato plants are going to be very fruitful this year. Huge bunches of Roma shaped tomatoes are forming.

Our weather has been perfect for my tomato plants so far....it looks like another bumper crop is forming! When I did the original weeding and thinning of the volunteer plants I covered part of the soil with some weed barrier cover and then Dane spread a thick layer of mulch to deter the weeds. Right now the tomato plants have grown and spread so much I don't think a weed could get a good start.

I just know my mouth is starting to water for a big batch of the slow roasted, dehydrated tomato halves....Roma type tomatoes halved, seeds removed and tossed with evoo, sprinkled with s&p and spread on a sheet pan to bake until the flavor concentrates. Those oven dried tomatoes on a piece of toast, topped with a drizzle of basalmic vinegar, some fresh melted mozzarella and a shower of fresh basil or parsley.....OMG that is SO GOOD! Dane and I made a meal of that with some bits of cheese for him and an assortment of olives and fine Italian cold cuts. There was never a problem with leftovers, that's for sure.

Just posted a recipe for 2 cups+ of tomato's. Gosh it looks so good .

Dane wants me to trim some of the tomato plants. He thinks they'll do better if they aren't so leggy. So why do I have so much trouble just whacking away on them? I look and see all those little blossoms and even some tiny, baby tomatoes just starting and I don't want to cut back those plants. Oh well, maybe tomorrow I'll be feeling ruthless, mean and ready to trim away. Then again, there's always Tuesday....

bethk wrote:Dane wants me to trim some of the tomato plants.  He thinks they'll do better if they aren't so leggy.  So why do I have so much trouble just whacking away on them?  I look and see all those little blossoms and even some tiny, baby tomatoes just starting and I don't want to cut back those plants.  Oh well, maybe tomorrow I'll be feeling ruthless, mean and ready to trim away.  Then again, there's always Tuesday....

It is difficult to trim the plants but you will definitely be rewarded with more tomatoes once you do it.

I have a bunch of tomatoes starting to turn color...I am SO anxious to have a dozen or so really ripe home grown tomatoes.

I am dying to make the roasted tomato, mozzarella & basil bruschetta.

I know the feeling. They're so freaking good, which is why I canned some this year. I want that feeling again in a couple of months!

Dane and Robin picked the first of the tomatoes yesterday....except for the one I ate earlier in the week.

I don't have tons but I do have enough to chop for taco topping today and the rest will get de-seeded and slow roasted for my roasted tomato bruschetta. OMG, I am SO hungry for that stuff. It will be our lunch today, maybe I'll go to the Italian Market for some sopprisota (sp?) and salami to have with it.

I was outside looking at my garden and felt so sad -- the squash has been taken over by mold and mildew. One little baby winter squash had a huge blob of fuzzy mold covering at least 1/2 of it. Made me sick and I want to get in there and cut out as much of the diseased stuff as possible but I am highly allergic to mold, so not a good idea. I did manage to trim off most of the offending cuke leaves last week before they got moldy. I have several tomatoes ripening, 3 orange ones called TieDye and a beefsteak. The paste tomatoes are a new variety where the fruit is supposed to weight up to 2 lbs. I don't have any that big yet, but they are pretty dang big, but are a late ripener. I've got lots of green beans near ready to pick and some Romano beans will be ready next week. The peas in the containers didn't fare well and will be taken out and discarded. This year was experimental so next year I'll have a better handle on things. Can't wait for those mateys!!!

Last year was the first year we turned the flower bed next to the screened porch into a tomato bed...just 5 tomato plants, some garden landscape cloth and a few bags of mulch to hold down the cloth and keep the soil moist. It worked like a charm and we wondered why we didn't do it years before!

This year I just thinned out the volunteer plants this year, tossed about 75 and let 6 grow, nicely spaced. So, any tomatoes I get this year are freebies....the tastiest kind.

I just finished eating the last of the roasted tomatoes....they taste like candy!

And they couldn't be simpler to make. One of these days I need to make BLAT sandwiches with a pile of the dehydrated tomato halves, peppered bacon, crispy lettuce and smushed avocado...oh, but that sounds so good to me.

thesweetestpea wrote:The paste tomatoes are a new variety where the fruit is supposed to weight up to 2 lbs. I don't have any that big yet, but they are pretty dang big, but are a late ripener.

I saw those in the Burpee catalog but didn't get any, Pea. Let me know how you like the flavor when they're ripe, okay?

Next spring, since Brian has gotten into gardening now, I'm going to save some money and buy seeds we can start instead of buying the transplants. But then I've said this before and didn't follow through. Which is why I plan to order the seeds soon so I'm all prepared when January rolls around.

Tomatoes and peppers are hard to grow from seed, you have to be very conscientious about turning them and seeing that they get the right amount of light as they will get leggy on you quickly and not do well when transplanted. You might want to get a book or do a lot of online research about growing them from seed. My plants from Burpee did much better than the ones that I bought locally. I do my squash and beans from seed and direct sow them in the garden.

thesweetestpea wrote:Tomatoes and peppers are hard to grow from seed, you have to be very conscientious  about turning them and seeing that they get the right amount of light as they will get leggy on you quickly and not do well when transplanted.  You might want to get a book or do a lot of online research about growing them from seed.  My plants from Burpee did much better than the ones that I bought locally.  I do my squash and beans from seed and direct sow them in the garden.  

Thanks, Pea. Though I haven't tried tomatoes from seed, we've done pretty well with seeds in the past. The good thing is we have tons of sun here even in winter and can even put the seedlings outside lots of the time. But I do appreciate the warning!

Crybaby wrote:

thesweetestpea wrote:Tomatoes and peppers are hard to grow from seed, you have to be very conscientious  about turning them and seeing that they get the right amount of light as they will get leggy on you quickly and not do well when transplanted.  You might want to get a book or do a lot of online research about growing them from seed.  My plants from Burpee did much better than the ones that I bought locally.  I do my squash and beans from seed and direct sow them in the garden.  

Thanks, Pea.  Though I haven't tried tomatoes from seed, we've done pretty well with seeds in the past.  The good thing is we have tons of sun here even in winter and can even put the seedlings outside lots of the time.  But I do appreciate the warning!

You will have better luck if you can have them outside most of the time. Here in Ohio the winters and springs can be pretty dreary and you need a grow light and something to keep them warm.