Given the goal of a first tomato by the 4th of July and the last at Halloween, there should be, as this is written in nearly August, many weeks of tomato season left.
Photo Courtesy of Gail Rheinheimer.
But given the vagaries of heat and lack of rain, of cardinals and bunnies, of weeds and wilt, who’s to say?
We did get off to a good start, cutting the number of plants in our 12’ x 6’ raised bed from 12 to six, and having the soil offer good easy shovel entry after a “winter” of last year’s leaves working to become part of said soil.
The first sign of a lesser grade was the immediate legginess of the plants—good and green and healthy, but a bit reachy in their growth. So give us a solid D for not looking up a little more to realize that this would be the year when the rising trees around the patch would cast too much shade for too long.
It’ll make for a good fall task to clear a new spot on the back 40 (square yards) and move the boards and soil for 2025.
Varieties? I’m interested at selection, but then slide toward a D- as things begin to grow. A big red tomato in your garden is going to be delicious, no matter what little plastic stick you shoved into the ground next to the plant that yielded it.
The exception being at least one cherry tomato plant for salads and for that warm, nearly baked feel of popping a few straight out of the sunshine and into your mouth.
Weeding? It always gets a solid Incomplete, as one day—every three weeks whether the patch needs it or not—a pretty good sweep cleans things out. But that B is back to D- within several days of I already did that.
Pest control experiences similar bursts followed by total lapses. The chicken-wire surrounding—complete with the inevitable few slide-under spots that draw laughs from the birds and chipmunks—went up at first fruit. And the mesh netting got spread after a major cardinal party eliminated the first half dozen fruits to show color.
Tomatoes are a pleasing and proud tradition carried along since who’s-first competition with my grandfather beginning more than 50 years back. And it’s always worth repeating the wise words from noted philosopher Guy Clark: There’s only two things than money can’t buy, and that’s true love and home-grown tomatoes.
The story above first appeared in our September / October 2024 issue.
