Sweet Olive Has It's First Tomato

And now Sweet Olive has the makings of it's first tomato! It's so tiny that the bud hasn't fallen off yet.

In the back yard, the Aunt Ruby's German Green has grown by leaps and bounds.

Because of the way we planted, Aunt Ruby's German Green could have had a problem. It's line up behind two plants, one of them being Jeff Davis, which will grow up to six feet in length. It was possible that Aunt Ruby's German Green wouldn't get enough sun. But because of the initial growth spurt, it's quite probable that the two plants will protect the base of this plant as they grow. Win win, potentially.

First Tomatoes Of Spring!

I thought I had nothing to report...until I glanced down this morning at our Husky Cherry Red. Husky Cherry Red was one of the three plants that survived the vandalism.

I thought I saw a tomato so I got on my knees and checked. I was wrong. There's two tomatoes on it!

Our first tomatoes of the spring! Woohoo!

Back Yard Seedlings Watered

My wife did water the back yard tomato seedlings yesterday, and we're making arrangements to give away more of our seedlings.

Staking will probably happen over the weekend.

Gave Some More Seedlings Away...

Last night my wife and I met a very nice couple that also resides in our town. We showed them our garden, front and back. On the spur of the moment, my wife asked if they would like lemons from our lemon tree. Yes! So my wife picked a bag of lemons for them along with their four seedlings, though the motivation may have been the limoncello promised by our couple.

After our couple left my wife said “Everyone is so nice!”. It's something about growing good tomatoes that brings it out...

Earlier in the day, my wife watered the front yard tomatoes. Today, if time permits, she'll water the back yard seedlings.

7 More Plants In The Back Yard

Saturday morning, my wife and I planted seven tomato seedlings in the back yard. They were: Mexico (from our back of seedlings), Japanese Black Trifele (from our “seed lady”), Marz Round Green (again, from the “seed lady”), Black From Tula, Paul Robeson, Gardener's Delight and Green Grape.

Jeff Davis looks particularly strong and happy in the back yard.

We're now up to 48 planted seedlings (we thought we had 40 planted before Saturday, but it was actually 41) and the scary part is there's room for a few more. But we need the lemon tree pruned before more can go in. But my wife will be working the TomatoMania event in Beverly Hills next week and it wouldn't be a surprise for her to come back with a few more seedlings...

On Friday, my wife met up with one of the readers of this blog. She read the Tomato Seedlings post and asked if she could have some. Sure thing! After some back and forth, I got an address. Turns out my wife was visiting the "seed lady" that afternoon, and will only be a few minutes away. So I turned over the emails to my wife and let her handle it.

When we met in the evening, my wife couldn't stop raving about how nice this person was, how nice her garden was, how she gave her all sorts of books to read, especially English murder mysteries and I love English murder mysteries, how did she know?

I think she (we) made a new friend!

Sunday was spent in Murrieta celebrating Easter with relatives, so no tomato news to report. I do look at the front yard tomatoes a couple times a day and they all look solid – Jaune Coeur de Pigeon looking the best among our seedlings – with the exception of Speckled Roman, whose color isn't right.

I still need to stake them, however.