Front Yard Image

And here's an image of my wife sitting on the curb with the front yard behind her.

 

Indigo Rose Image

This is a somewhat blurry image of the tomatoes on Indigo Rose. This tomato is growing in our redwood raised bed just to the south of our backyard cutout area.

Yes, those tomatoes as well as the plant have a blue blush to it. 

"Koi Pond" image

This is an image of the "koi pond" in the front yard.

The plants in the south side of the "koi pond" were planted three weeks after the plants on the north side of the "koi pond". As mentioned in a previous post, SunGold is about four and a half feet tall and very thick. It is the plant to the right that is up to the second to last rung on the cage. 

Swapping Cage Image

This is an image of my wife and I working on swapping the tomato cage for the Taxi tomato plant.

The location of the Taxi tomato plant is just to the right of the backyard cutout image. It is just to the south (right) of the backyard cutout, toward the back of the property. 

Backyard Image, East of Lemon Tree

Here's an image of our patio, taken today.

This is an image of me "training" a tomato plant. This area is just east of our lemon tree (you can see some leaves to the upper left). It is situated to the right of the backyard cutout image.

Patio Image

Here's an image of our patio, taken today.

Italian Tree is in front of the left post. Most of our container plants are between the posts. There's a grapevine growing on top of the patio cover. I'm sitting off to the right.

Backyard Cutout Image

Here's an image of our back yard cutout area, taken today. The two Husky Cherry Red tomato plants are in the lower right.

Backyard Cutout

Eight More Plants With Tomatoes!

Today's harvest: Husky Cherry Red(1).

Yesterday evening I spent a lot of time training as many tomato plants as I could. I got a close look almost all the tomato plants. From that I discovered more plants with tomatoes.

A partial list includes Noire Charbonneuse(1), Oaxacan Jewel, Olga's Round Yellow Chicken, Garden Peach, Black Krim(2), Earl of Edgecombe, Jaune Flamme(2) and Black and Brown Boar(1).

Today my wife and I made six more cages from concrete reinforcing wire. We replaced some of the weaker cages with the new tomato cages. We took out the weaker cages. There was some minor damage done when removing the cages but we believe it is not serious.

The weaker cages were mostly "leggy". We cut them down to size and used these cut down cages on the container plants. We replaced the original cages and again there was some minor damage. For instance, I knocked a tomato off of the Taxi tomato plant. 

Five More Plants With Growing Tomatoes!

Today's harvest: Husky Cherry Red(1) and Husky Cherry Red(2) for a total of 2 tomatoes.

My wife completed watering the back yard tomatoes yesterday. She had split the chore over a two day period. Also, she has been doing some minor "training" as well.

Other plants with growing tomatoes include Redfield Beauty, Chinese Tea, Berkeley Tie Dye, Japanese Black Trifele and Italian Heirloom.

I had expressed concerns in a prior blog post that there are both indications of both a good harvest year and a bad harvest year. At this point, the benefits of adding large amounts of compost in February are outweighing concerns of a mid-March freeze. It's too early to say for sure but indications are pointing more toward a strong year. 

All Tomatoes Have Cages!

Today's harvest: Husky Cherry Red(2).

My wife installed the five new cages yesterday, and redistributed all the other cages onto other seedlings, save one. We installed that cage this morning. Now every tomato seedling has a support cage. We may replace some of the weaker cages but for now, every tomato plant has one.

Can you believe that SunGold is already four and a half feet tall? Amazing!

A Red Currant tomato is maturing.

Other plants with growing tomatoes include Indigo Apple(2), Watermelon, Black Cherry(2) and Black and Brown Boar(2). 

Hay Laid Down, Tomato Cages Assembled

Today's harvest: 2 Husky Cherry Red(2) tomatoes.

Yesterday my wife watered the front yard tomatoes and the container plants in the back yard. She also spread hay across the ground around our front yard tomato plants and in the south garden in the back yard. I don't know if I mentioned it previously but she had completed spreading hay in the back yard cutout and the "Far East" last week.

Also, she installed the three cages we finished yesterday.

When I arrived home from work we completed assembling the five cut pieces into tomato cages.

More plants with growing tomatoes include Tolstoi, Pink Furry Boar, Brad's Black Heart, Pineapple(1), Big Bite and Black From Tula. 

Planted Aunt Ruby's German Green!

Yesterday my wife pulled out Vorlon(2) and planted Aunt Ruby's German Green. The new plant looks much better than the previous seedling.

We cut cages in the dwindling evening light. We have eight cages cut from the roll of concrete reinforcing wire. However, we only tied three of them together to form a circular cage. We're still not quite done...

I trained the front yard tomato plants this morning.

Yellow Currant, Specked Roman(1), Speckled Roman(2), Black and Brown Boar(1) and Dr. Wyche's Yellow have growing tomatoes. 

Harvested More Husky Cherry Red(2) Tomatoes!

Friday's harvest: Husky Cherry Red(2).

My wife watered the back yard tomatoes. But it took 2 and a half hours to hand water. We're looking into drip systems and soaker hoses.

My wife also purchased an Aunt Ruby's German Green to replace Vorlon(2). In the evening I put in all the extensions to the Texas Cages -- some of our tomato plants are already getting large!

We were busy all day Saturday so nothing happened in the garden.

On Sunday I snipped off the lower stems in the front yard. Also, I spent a fair amount "training" the tomato plants. In the evening (just before the eclipse) we purchased green stakes for our cages.

We wanted to get more done on Sunday but it simply got too hot. It got up to 98 degrees.

What's left to do? Plant Aunt Ruby's German Green. Make about six more cages and install them. At that point -- finally!!! -- it's maintenance. Maintenance includes "training" the plants, staking them, fertilizing the containers and watering.

Several plants have growing tomatoes. These include Taxi, Giant Syrian, Thessaloniki and Black Cherry(1).

Today's harvest: Husky Cherry Red(2).