Why I Oughta...

Number four on my 2023 to-do list was to 'get (more) serious with vegetables'.   And, despite not really posting about it, I think we've (sort-of) done that - by planting up a Greenstalk vertical container garden.  This Spring, I filled it out with a mix of herbs and vegetables (fruits) and we're seeing some of them set fruit right now.  We harvested these strawberries from the Greenstalk .  Below are a few signs of the tomatoes that we planted in the bottom row of the Greenstalk - the Red Robin dwarf plant from the Morton Sale and both a Rutgers Heirloom and a Roma Paste from the orange big box store.  What was the reason for these three?  They're all DETERMINATE tomatoes.   Which means...they grow to a specific size and stop.  Other, vining tomatoes can just.keep,growing.  Since this is a container-situation, I figured determinate varieties were the right choice.   Also, these are tomatoes that are known to be slicers/eaters/canners.  What kind of growth are we

If you buy strawberry plants once, you'll have strawberries for years, they say.  We started with container-grown bareroot strawberry plants in 2018 .  And, guess what?  They ESCAPED.  Now, we have Strawberry groundcover in one of our beds.   Back in 2019 - I called them 'volunteer' strawberries and thought it was cute.  But, they they spread.  And spread.  I ripped some out.  They came back.  I ripped out more.  They came back . But, we haven't eaten any of the strawberries in the years since they grew in 2019.  2020, 2021, 2022 were all strawberry-free years.  Why?  Well...we did *grow* strawberries.  But, they were gobbled up by the critters.  This year, however is different. In addition to leaving the strawberry groundcover in place, I also dug out eight plants and put them in our vertical Greenstalk tower.  After a period of transplant shock, they stabilized and began to throw off strawberries. Between the two spots, I started to see some 'red' peeking thro