Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Crazy about Tomatoes

So I'm obsessed with tomatoes. This is probably because I have so many of them, and when I see them producing flowers and fruit, I go wild! I get so excited about the little green tomatoes that are popping up.

Below: my cherry tomato plants.




I planted a basil (I think that's lemon basil) plant next to the tomato. Cam and I read that mints have strong smells, and aphids don't like it. So we'll see if it'll keep all the nasty critters away. So far, it's worked great. Our plants are very healthy and they keep on flowering and growing.





So I've been a little lazy about supports for the tomato plants. When they are smaller plants, we didn't think they'd need much support. Cam put up netting (see below) around the square foot garden boxes.





Now that our tomato plants are producing fruit (not to mention, they're much taller now), I realize that the netting wasn't helping. On windy days, I notice that the tomato plants swing back and forth. It's a little nerve-wracking to watch your plants do that. So I've decided to put these trellises.


I got them at Lowe's, and they were pretty inexpensive. I think each one was only a few dollars. We got one for each of our tomato plants.

Below: Before the trellis




After using the trellises



With the windy weather we have, I hope that these will prevent the tomato plants from breaking off. At least, it's some protection. They can't swing too far from these babies... Although in a very strong wind, you never know. (Hopefully not another tornado. The house has already been hit once by one in 2005)

1 comment:

Mick said...

Well, whatever you are doing it's working. It seems from the pics that you have fine, healthy veggies. I wish my lettuce looked as good as yours.

Thanks for the comments and good luck. I'll check back soon.

Mick.