Why I Oughta...

I planted three bush (determinate) tomatoes including a couple of cherry and one (new to me) Roma variety .  The Roma is named Little Napoli and is producing oval-shaped tomatoes on a small, bush-shaped plant.  Below is a peek at the true-to-form Roma green tomatoes so far.  I'd say there's a couple dozen on the small plant.  And, the Tiny Tim Cherry (also a bush tomato) from the Morton Arboretum is *even more* prolific - as it is COVERED in small, green tomatoes.   Both are doing better than I expected.  The third bush one that I planted?  Little Bing ?  It is behind these two - both in terms of size and fruit.    I think that means I can take some credit on #19 of my 2024 to-do list:  do more with vegetables .  Done and done.  

When I think back on my gardening journey, I really started as a vegetable gardener.  Tomatoes, peppers, squash, beans, herbs and more.  When we moved, I really leaned AWAY from vegetables and into perennials and foliage.  Why?  Shade vs. Sun.  Our old garden had ALL Sun.  Our new one has almost ALL Shade.   But, I began to solve that by building a patio vegetable garden set-up over the years.  First, with a raised planter box.  Then last year, with a Greenstalk tower. #19 on my 2024 to-do list is to 'do more with vegetables' .   How am I going about doing that?  By planting a couple of bush tomatoes and some other things. First the tomatoes.  I've mostly settled on ONLY planting bush tomato plants.   This year, I bought one at the Morton Sale - Tiny Tim Cherry.  I also picked up two others at the big box store: Little Napoli - which is a roma in bush form (kinda neat) and Little Bing - also a cherry.  Below is a look at the three in the raised box: I normally grow basil an

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

Yesterday, I posted some photos of our (very productive) bell pepper plant:  a King Arthur Sweet Bell Pepper variety .   I mentioned that we grew a tomato vine last year and it spilled over/out of our patio raised bed.   This year, at the Morton Arboretum Plant Sale, my Mom showed me a new (to me) idea:  a miniature tomato plant.   This is the Red Robin Cherry Tomato .  And, in the photo below, you can see how has thrown off a ton of small, cherry tomatoes: Here, below, is the tag from the plant: Park Seeds has a nice listing for it here .  This is a bush tomato.  There's no vine.  It grew a small bush and is fruiting all over the place.  It seems that this one is a quick-grower and will put all the tomatoes up at once.   Ever want a true 'container tomato'?  This Red Robin has worked really well for us.  Just like the King Arthur Sweet Bell Pepper , this feels like a re-buy next year.  

 I've just done something that feels a little bit out of my comfort zone.  I've registered for a pizza making class via Zoom that is coming up in a few weeks.  I'm thinking it is going to be incredibly interesting and fun and I'll learn quite a bit about Bar Pizza.  There is a little bit of prep homework you have to complete before the class begins including making some dough, prepping the various items and making some sauce.  The instructor (Pizza Web OG Adam Kuban) included in the class instructions a mention of his favorite tomatoes:   Scalfani Crushed Tomatoes.  I had not heard of them before.  But, it turns out, they're available on Amazon for a 12 pack for $27.82 .  That is NOT an affiliate link. The cans are adorable.  Here is the listing below: With 12 cans, they come out to be $2.32 per can, which I can't hardly beat at the local Mariano's.  Seems like only the Kroger house brand is typically cheaper at $1.99.  And most recently, our local Mariano&#

What has happened to my green thumb?  I mean, c'mon!  We used to have a huge, lush vegetable garden that threw off more produce than we could consume.  Here's a few exhibits:  2012 version . More 2012 .    Potatoes in 2013 .  Rapunzel Tomatoes in 2015 .  And even carrots . The past few years?  We've had no garden.  None.  Zero.point.zero. We've tried container gardening.  It isn't working out, folks.  This year, I planted just one tomato plant:  a Mortgage Lifter .  And see that small tomato on the top of this post?  That's it.  One measly Mortgage Lifter ripened on the vine this year.  Nat is fed up with my lack of production, too!  She recently mentioned that she, too, is pining for the *literal* salad days of yore when we had home-grown produce.  I posted a photo of an raised-bed enclosure that is my inspiration for a Spring project .  There's a lot to do - including the patio expansion, pizza oven construction, landscape plan fulfillment.

I've been thinking about the placement and location of our vegetable garden, but as is often the case, life got in the way of actually building something.  So, I'm back to using my old stand-alone tomato cage containers again this year.  They're self-watering from Gardener's Supply Company and I've had decent luck with them since we moved out of our first house in Elmhurst.  The first tomato that I've added is this Mortgage Lifter Heirloom variety.  I've posted about this same variety back in 2015 that I bought from Angelo Caputo's , but I didn't ever follow-up with posts showing the fruit. 

 We started the year with two tomato plants in elevated planters on the driveway.  After going away for a while (5+ weeks!), we lost one of them to something (blight, maybe??) but the other one is throwing off fruit that is starting to ripen.  These are the Indigo Rose variety that I've tried in years past .  The critters have gotten to a bunch of the under-ripe fruits, but you can see we have a bunch of them coming in very soon. The Chocolate Sprinkles cherry variety was the plant that we lost , so we won't be getting any of those this year.  Sad face. In years' past, I've grown up to ten different tomato plants and with our move this year, things have been different, but I think having two was a good starting point.  We also are growing a few containers of fingerling potatoes, which we're waiting to see how they did.  Next summer, we'll still (likely) be in a place of transition, so our garden may NOT be growing just yet.  But, the future?  I can see a g

We have two containers on the driveway that we're planting tomatoes in this year - instead of the usual raised bed garden that we had at our old place - and this is one of the varieties:  Chocolate Sprinkles Hybrid Cherry Tomato.   An heirloom, this isn't.   We picked them up at the Home Depot on North Avenue and let the girls pick out their own plants.  One of them picked these.  Guessing it was the name.   From the Bonnie site , it says this is new for 2016: This cherry tomato has it all: good looks, great flavor, heavy yields, and disease resistance. Bite-sized, cherry-type fruits are beautifully colored — red striped with dark green — that explode with rich, robust flavor. This highly productive plant forms its fruit in clusters, and starts bearing early in the season. We'll report back on the harvest through the season, but I'm hoping that they'll survive the driveway conditions.

Back in May, I posted about this variety of tomatoes called "Rapunzel" based on how they cascade down the vine .  That photo above was taken this week when I grabbed a few cuts of the vine. Interestingly, this is the first tomato that I cut off the vine in bunches.  Normally....we pick them right from the stems and they fall into our hands.  But these things?  They're way too cool to not pick and 'show' on the vine, right? I'd buy these again - when I have a garden again.  ( Womp, womp. )

One of the varieties that I planted this year (that I've never tried before) is this Indigo Rose.   I posted about it back in May when I put them in the ground .  The first fruits are starting to be produced it it shouldn't be long before they're harvestable.   The bottoms have to turn from green to red, but the tops are looking a beautiful purple!

Back in 2011, I went on a plum tomato binge.  I think I grew like six or seven varieties of plum tomatoes including a plant or two of these San Marzanos . Because of where they sit in the pizza universe, there's a draw to these that is unnatural for me, I think.  I actually don't eat a lot of tomatoes if I can avoid them.  I do, however, eat a lot of 'sauces and pureees'.  On pizzas. On sandwiches.  On noodles of all sorts.   I also haven't canned anything in a few years.  The effort just never yielded a lot of upside for me. But, after seeing these Bonnie Plants heirloom variety sitting on the shelf of Home Depot over the weekend, I just.simply.couldn't.resist.  Into the cart they went.  Along with some other things that will cause me agita all summer long.  But, that's for another day.

Lots of tomato talk around these parts lately, eh?  'Tis the season, I guess.  This is the last of the tomato posts for a bit (until I get them into the ground), but is an important one.  Above is the Apricot Dream Tomato - a orangish cherry tomato. The most important thing about these is buried in the description on the back: The ridiculously huge trusses each have 20-30 oblong cherry sized tomatoes that are super sweet with a Brix rating of 11.5 giving them a candy like sweetness .   Emphasis, mine. I think there are a few missing hyphens in that line, but that's not the point.  The fact that these are an 11.5 on the Brix scale *is* the point. If you follow tomatoes, you'll know that 11.5 is a rare score.   This post talks about the ranges for tomatoes (usually you eat ones that are 6-10's ).  The girls eat cherry tomatoes off the vines each summer and I am guessing if this variety comes in, I'll know their favorite ones:  these sweet Apricot Dreams

I have a long history here on the blog talking about Mr. Stripey tomato plants.  Back in 2010, I posted a photo of one of the huge fruits next to a little baby pacifier .  And two years later, I was contacted by a small Quaker school in Minnesota who wanted to use the photo for their plant sale .  This year, we'll be growing this Bonnie Plants variety from Home Depot.   I grow them almost every year and they're just about the easiest tomato to give away/gift to people.   Be it family or neighbors or just putting them out on a table in the front of the house.  They're always pretty to look at and have a slightly exotic feel to them with the yellow/pink/red stripes.  My sister usually comes a looking later in the summer for some of them when she's having a party and wants to make a caprese salad.   They're stunners for that when you slice 'em open.  A bit watery, but you forgive that when the color pops so much.

When I was shopping with the girls, how could I possibly pass up a variety of tomatoes called "Rapunzel"?!?  Just look at that photo:  I've never seen a plant that grows like that at any of the home improvement/gardening stores.  They're cherry-sized which is the preferred size by Nat and the girls.  I have to think these will be a hit this summer. From TomatoGrowers.com : Just like its fairy tale namesake, Rapunzel puts out long, cascading trusses, each with up to 40 sweet, bright red cherry tomatoes that keep coming all summer long. The long stems are quite impressive when picked fully loaded with tomatoes, which can be enjoyed individually as they ripen.

I picked up a few tomato plants at Angelo Caputo's last weekend that I hadn't ever planted before including this one:  the Mortgage Lifter. The description supplied tells a neat story about "Radiator Charlie" and how he cross-bred four varieties of tomatoes to develop this beefy variety.

I went to Home Depot a few days ago after work to pick up a new furnace filter and made a stop in the Garden Center.  They had a lot of the usual suspects:  Big Boys, Early Girls, etc.  But they also had this little Cherry-ish variety called Indigo Rose.  They're a blend of red/black/purple when ripe. Via JohnnySeeds : Anthocyanins are powerful anti-oxidants. In the early stages of fruit development, Indigo Rose develops a dark purple pigment in its skin where exposed to direct sunlight. Green when unripe, purple-red when ripe, the 1-2 oz., cocktail-sized tomatoes have good flavor with 'plummy' overtones. Developed by Jim Myers at Oregon State University using traditional plant breeding techniques.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Nat's folks' house with the kids.  While we were there, my mother-in-law showed us this super weird tomato.  She put it on the ledge above her sink in her kitchen in the sun and mostly forgot about it.  At some point, some weird stuff started happening and the seeds *inside* the tomato started to sprout and grow INSIDE the tomato.   I thought it was pretty interesting, so I posted it to r/mildlyinteresting using a throw-away account .  If you're of of *those* folks, make sure you give it an upvote !

Look at those beauties.  They're getting big but not getting anywhere close to being red. This is a variety that I have not grown int he past, so I don't know how fast they'll turn, but the plant is throwing off quite a lot of fruit.  There might be eight or ten of these things on the vine right now.

We're starting to get a lot of little green gems.  Still a week or two away from harvesting time, but they're looking nice and not getting any splits from uneven/over-watering.