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)

Lost tomatoes & Potting new plants

Remember the rain yesterday? Well, it came with lots of wind. *sighs* and the saddest thing of all: two baby grape tomatoes were blown off the plant. They are still green, but they're two grape tomatoes that I won't get to eat. :-(




I know that it's probably a silly thought, but to see those two tomatoes lie on the cold ground... it was just so sad! I know my tomato plant continue to fruit. Here's a photo of the plant after the windy weather.



Cam and I have six tomato plants: one grape tomato, three cherry tomatoes, and two of the regular size tomatoes (Celebrity and Bonnie Original). Since I was in charge of choosing the tomato varieties, I'm the one to blame for the fact that we have more smaller sized tomatoes than regular ones. I'm going to try to convince him to let me buy one more regular sized tomato plant. An heirloom would be a nice addition.

Seven tomato plants isn't that bad at all. My exterminator told me he has 30 of them. He plans to can for the winter. That's a nifty idea. Reminds me of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie books. (I'm 23, but for some reason, I still love reading children's books. Probably because I want to become a published children's author one day).

Now onto a unrelated SFG topic. Since Cam and I are out of room in our square foot garden, I decided to pot a few plants.

I read that peppermint is a natural bug deterrent. The smell is too strong for them. I read in an article that if you plant peppermint in your garden, nasty bugs will stay away. But the roots of the peppermint plant can go crazy and spread like wildfire. So this is the reason I've decided to pot this.


We bought the peppermint a few weeks ago, but I just never got around to potting it. I've never potted anything before, so we chose to use the Miracle Gro Organic Choice Potting Mix. I have no idea how effective it is, but it's worth a shot.




Below: A picture of the peppermint after it was potted. I might cut a few sprigs off and dry some of the leaves.


We also potted a stevia plant. Cam really loves stevia. For anyone who has no clue what stevia is: Stevia is a natural sweetener. Its is 300 times sweeter than sugar. It's widely used in Japan as a sugar substitute. I believe it's 40-50 percent of the sweetener market over there, but I don't know the exact number. You can buy stevia extract at health stores in the US. It's normally in the dietary supplement aisles by the vitamins.

I'm not a huge fan of it because I love sugar too much. But it is definitely better for than all the artificial sweeteners out there.

Below: the potted Stevia plant.


Finally: another picture of the potted strawberry plant.

Lettuce and Strawberries

Thank you to everyone who commented yesterday about the mushrooms. The advice was very helpful. I dug up the mushrooms to see what the soil underneath them looked like, and this is what I found:



Directly underneath the mushrooms, I found an ash-gray color in the dirt. I dug up the dirt where the mushrooms had not appeared, and that soil looked dark brown and moist. So I took it as a sign that those areas are safe from mushroom infestation. I'll keep my eyes open for additional mushrooms.

In the front yard, we didn't do the traditional SFG. We used the dirt that was there and added organic top soil to it. We should have probably done something else to the dirt, but we are beginners. Next year, I will probably need to figure out how to keep that area healthier. The front vegetable bed is also shaded for several hours in the afternoon, so this may have something to do with the mushrooms.

So far, the lettuce in the front is doing much better than the lettuce in the back. Here's a wide view of the front vegetable bed.


Above: We used to have spinach, but we didn't pick the spinach leaves until it was too late. The spinach plants had started to flower, and when it flowers, the plant basically dies for the season. Maybe next year we'll have better luck.

Below: More close-up pictures of our lettuce heads. They haven't formed into heads yet, and I wonder if they ever will. They are getting pretty large.


On another topic, Cam and I went to a nursery yesterday and found two everbearing strawberry plants. They were on sale, and one of the plants already had 2 strawberry fruit on it. I decided to do an experiment. I potted one of the strawberry plants (the one without the fruit), and I planted the one with fruit in the SFG box in the back. I'm going to monitor how each one does over the course of the summer.

Below: potted strawberry plant


Below: strawberry plant in SFG Box # 2. This was taken yesterday after it stopped raining.


I'd love to have tons of strawberries, but the season for strawberries (well, the June-bearing variety) is coming to a close. May is strawberry season, I believe. But we'll see. It'll be a fun and delicious (I hope) experiment.

Above: the strawberry plant today. You can tell one of the strawberries is gaining more color.

Does anyone have experience with growing strawberries? If so, I'd love to hear your tales.

Ek! Mushrooms

It's a rainy and icky day in Nashville. Every time I want to go out and check on my vegetables, the rain pours. But I was able to go to the front vegetable bed this morning. I was shocked to find disgusting mushrooms growing near my lettuce heads. It is closest to the smallest lettuce head. I'm thinking I'll need to pull out the mushrooms when it stops raining.





I planted onions a few weeks ago in the front vegetable bed. About a week after that, I noticed small mushrooms (similar to the above) were beginning to form. I pulled them out and threw them into the grass. But this is the first large patch of mushrooms I've seen. Hopefully this will be the last.

I wonder if these mushrooms will make my lettuce heads poisonous to eat. Aren't most mushrooms dangerous to eat?