Tomato Garden Follies

At the end of year 6 of the Transplantable Rose blog, what better way to start year 7 than with tomatoes? We like peppers and tomatoes. We like growing them and we like eating them. I even wrote lyrics about the end of Tomato season for a music video called Farewell, Tomato.

After Philo made our small vegetable plot in 2004 we tried different ways to support & protect the plants.  

For a few years we just staked them

Our next phase lasted a few years - a large, strong, painted wooden framework that could support plants, bird netting & shade cloth. We hoped the net could slow down attacks by squirrels & birds.

It’s been fun trying new varieties every year, cramming in 9 or 10 tomato plants and 7 or 8 peppers, watering them by hand while knocking leaf-footed stink bugs into soapy water every day, with the reward of some salad tomatoes and frying peppers.

A post on GardenWeb suggested tying net gift bags over the tomatoes to protect them from the stinkbugs. I was too cheap to buy more than 2 – a good thing since the squirrels chewed off the whole tomato stem & ran away with the bags.

On Tom Spencer’s radio program we heard him mention one gardener who painted wooden balls red & hung them in the garden while the tomatoes were green. The idea was that any critter attacking the fake tomatoes would be convinced that hard, bad tomatoes grew in that garden. We tried it and saw no effect, but at least they’re decorative! 

Recent years broke the weather rules and what worked before no longer held up.  Last summer after every pepper plant in the vegetable garden died, I found a few new plants at a local nursery, put them into containers and those survived. The bird netting kept the birds from taking the tomatoes, but it allowed them to poke their beaks through the spaces to puncture the tomatoes.

 

The tomato frame filled the entire center of our little plot, making it difficult to get in to weed, prune & tie the plants and even harder to reach the stinkbugs. The stakes & frames gave the birds a good place to perch while they attacked the fruit. But we gardeners had no place to perch - the seat made from a slice of tree trunk had rotted.  

So we tweaked the vegetable plot, moving the compost enclosure and changing the layout. A central path looks better and gives us better access. There are fewer plants this year. Five pepper plants grow in containers and we’re getting a small, steady supply. We bought only 5 tomato plants and we’re getting a few of those each day, too.

The tomato vines are sort of draped over wire cages to hold the fruit off the ground but they’re not staked. In place of the garden netting I bought a few yards of inexpensive nylon net to sort of pouf over the top, using recycled bricks to keep it from blowing away. With a tighter weave and no convenient sticks for birdie feet to grasp, they have to work harder to punch holes in the tomatoes. 

They can still do it… our Blue Jays boldly cling to the kitchen windows and tap on the panes! The squirrels will chew through anything and possums and raccoons lurk at night. We know we can’t beat any of them but we're trying to stay in the game. 

If a stinkbug lands on the outside of the net it can’t fit through the small mesh. If the little monster is already inside clinging to the net I use the net to enfold & squish it.

A central path now leads to the concrete bench, relocated from the Secret Garden to the Vegetable Patch. Last June we turned two old compost bins upside down, painted them, added handles and called them tomato guards. This June they cover two tubs bought at some long ago garage sale, painted white. The tub on one side of the path has a pepper plant and a ‘San Marzano’ tomato grows on the opposite side. There’s something going on here but it doesn’t fit the usual categories… it’s not Potager and it’s not Austintatious and it’s not Garden Junk. Maybe it’s Transplanted Frugal Midwesterner?  

Two of the tomatoes were supposed to be our favorite ‘Black Krim’. At planting time I noticed a ‘Better Boy’ tag down the side of the pot. And that one ‘Black Krim’ has now turned to None. Look at these tomatoes! They all came from the same mislabled plant – not ‘Black Krim’ but it might take a tomato-genealogist to figure out what they are.

On the other hand, when that heirloom-lumpy tomato at far right finally ripened, it weighed in at over 13 ounces. Folly it may be, but what a delicious folly it was. 

Farewell, Tomato - the Tomato Report

Farewell, Tomato -the Tomato Report, was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose Blog

My tomato report can't be as scientific as the yearly evaluations by MSS at Zanthan Gardens... she records facts and can give you quantitative data. I forget to write things down, collect impressions rather than data and make comedy & music videos for YouTube rather than face the realities of gardening here.

Philo & I have planted tomatoes each spring we've been in Austin (that's 5 tries at the other Austin house and 6 attempts at this one) and the entire harvest for those 11 late springs/early summers wouldn't add up to one good year in our old garden in the Western Burbs of Chicago.

There are supposedly two tomato seasons here - spring and fall - two really short seasons fitted around the midsummer heat that halts pollination. Squirrels and stinkbugs are a pain, the area we have for planting isn't large and constantly shifting shade with tree roots in clay soil isn't what tomatoes want. But we must have tomatoes!

An old adage says "Eat Dessert First" - so before the lists of varieties and laughable numbers please watch the music video -it's just over one minute and I hope it makes you smile!





PUTTING TOGETHER THE GARDEN
A few years ago Philo made a wooden framework that could be dismantled and stored. It was short enough for me to reach over without a ladder and when the plants are in place the whole thing covers an area about 6-ft by 8 1/2ft, a size that can be draped with a bird net. Every year we add organic matter- this spring some of it came from my lasagna/sheet compost experiment and some came in bags from the Natural Gardener. Before setting up the framework Philo borrowed the Mantis tiller belonging to the Divas of the Dirt to till it all in. Then we set up the frame and buried a soaker hose around it.

The ground was cooler than usual this spring and so was the air. We bought tomato plants in early March, repotted them into slightly larger containers, took the plants outside any day when the temps were above 60°F and brought them into the garage every night. With frost warnings issued through the third week of March, we delayed planting until March 28th... then kept covers ready for near-frost nights. We kept the peppers in transitional pots, bringing them in and out, finally planting them on May 6th.

THE VARIETIES WE GREW

We bought some tomato varieties that we'd grown before
Solar Fire (2 plants) we were quite pleased with it in 2008 but we couldn't find it 2009.
Early Girl usually dependable, producing tomatoes even in that horrible heat & drought of 2009
Juliet We've grown this grape tomato 6 or 7 times - the taste is not spectacular but it has a long season and it's a nice bite
Celebrity usually dependable, but didn't do well in 2009
Black Krim in 2008 we had a few delicious tomatoes from one plant and wanted more. But in 2009 one plant was hit by hail and the other faded fast.

We tried some new ones
Sun Gold a very small cherry type with good press from Austin gardenbloggers
Paul Robeson not only a highly praised black tomato but one named after a singer!
Green Zebra highly recommended by many people and it looks cool
JD's Special Texas another black-type, also recommended

We had one very large container at the back of the garden for two plum types
San Marzano a famous tomato - last year it was lost to the hail storm of 2009
Roma - a plum tomato we'd grown in IL but not in TX

Most of the tomatoes came from the Natural Gardener but we also hit Shoal Creek Nursery, Countryside Nursery and the Zilker Park Garden Festival. We really wanted two varieties called 'Carmelo' and 'Costoluto Genovese', which had done well in 2009, but we couldn't find them in 2010.

TRYING TO GET THEM OFF TO A GOOD START
The tomato plants were planted around the outside of the frame near the legs, so they could be tied as they grew. I also poked a couple of Tomatillo varieties, 'Demilpa' and 'Toma verde', into the hard-to-reach middle of the frame. One short side got a few pepper plants, including one hot 'Garden Salsa' and a couple of frying types.

A few weeks after the plants were in the ground we put more compost around them, covered the whole area with sheets of newspaper and covered the paper with Cotton Bur compost.

Every few weeks the plants were foliar-fed with Medina Hasta-grow and I put seaweed on them twice.

TWO PLANTS DOWN
Everything was growing like gangbusters when the 'Green Zebra' sort of collapsed. A few weeks later the 'Paul Robeson' did the same thing, but more slowly, so that the tiny tomatoes that had already developed were even more pathetic. We keep trying heirlooms but in previous years other heirlooms - 'Arkansas Traveler', 'Persimmon' & 'Brandywine' - didn't do well either.

The first tomatoes of 2010 were the little 'Sun Golds' - tiny but tasty.

Some 'Early Girls' had set fruit as did the 'Solar Fire'.

'Juliet' sat there - no flowers- no developing fruit

'Celebrity' wasn't doing anything either but 'Black Krim' had a couple of tomatoes in progress.

The' JD Special' also had a couple of tomatoes looking as if they'd make it to maturity.

Small 'San Marzanos' & 'Romas' were forming, but the two plants were so entwined on their tomato cage that I wasn't sure which was which.

Toward the middle of May even though we had the bird net on, something (a bird? a squirrel? an unmentionable rodent?) got under and wiped out a precious 'Black Krim' and a couple of 'Solar Fires' that were low on the plants. Then stink bugs invaded.... not the large leaf-footed stink bugs of former years, but some smaller ones that came in clusters. I hunted and smooshed. Then the big leaf-footed type stinkbugs read the veggie news and returned for a share but it was harder for them to get through the birdnet. It was easier to see and squish the bugs as they flew onto the net at the front edge of the patch but the container with the plum tomatoes had no net and they were attacked by everything.


HARVEST RESULTS and FOOD PHOTOS
With birds and squirrels circling I grabbed tomatoes the second a pink blush appeared and let them finish inside in safety. Even with the A/C running our house stays about 78 degrees F - warm enough for them to ripen.
The 'Early Girl' and 'Solar Fire' made quite a few tomatoes by our reduced Austin standards and the 'Celebrity' woke up and made some, too.

We cherished each and every tomato as they gradually ripened inside.


When you have a short tomato season and a small patch there is no need to can, or freeze, or make sauce... there were only one or two ready per day.

In the lower left corner of that tray you'll see the only 'Black Krim' that we got to eat. In the upper two corners are the only JD's specials - others on the plant were destroyed by critters.

Yes, we purchased and grew three black tomato plants and had a grand total of three black tomatoes from them. Were they worth it? You betcha.


We took photos of the tomatoes at the solstice, then ate them while I wore the shirt. We baked bread for them.


We celebrated the larger of the 'JD's Specials' (it was the biggest tomato of the year, and one of the best tasting)



We toasted the JD with beer, garden garlic in olive oil, fresh mozzarella and more bread. (the Little Kings Ale is mine - Philo likes RealAle from Blanco),

In Illinois once the tomatoes came in we could keep picking until frost killed the plants, and even then might have plenty of green tomatoes to fry, but here, even with real rain supplemented by hand watering, once it got hot the plants stopped setting fruit and looked terrible. We still had a few good tomatoes and an excuse to keep baking.


But many of the newer tomatoes were smaller, were marred or didn't ripen evenly - since they were not proper slicers we could use them to cook and bake!

The ripening tray was replaced by the ripening plate as the numbers declined
The 'Solar Fire' kept making fruit but the stinkbugs ruined it
Finally we were down to one last full-sized tomato

We're still getting 'Sun Golds' and last weekend I tried to squeeze a few more tomatoes from the 'Celebrity' and 'Solar Fire' by cleaning up the vines, cutting them back, lightly feeding them and making sure they don't dry out. Even if we get no tomatoes for the next couple of months, there's a chance that one or two plants can survive until fall and pop out a few more tomatoes.
The peppers are still blossoming, and a few peppers are forming. Just a few will be enough for pepper and eggs on the weekend and if there are a few hot ones for salsa that will be great.

The tomatillos grew into enormous 7-ft plants that tried to smother the peppers and lifted the bird netting off the ground. They've flowered like mad but made not one tomatillo. I chopped the stalks back to 4-ft but otherwise am treating them kindly.

A few days ago I noticed a couple of unblemished tomatoes the size of walnuts and remembered reading that a Texas Gardener on one of the GardenWeb forums used organza Bridal Shower goodie bags from the dollar store to protect her fruit from stinkbugs.

Think it will work?


Farewell, Tomato -the Tomato Report, was written by Annie in Austin for her Transplantable Rose Blog

Swashbuckling, Wood-chunking, and Bug-sloshing

"Swashbuckling, Wood-chunking, and Bug-sloshing" was written by Annie in Austin for the Transplantable Rose

The adventures may have been bloody but they were cinematic and the blood was not real in the new arthouse movie called The Fall. This visually compelling movie came with recommendations from both Roger Ebert and a trustworthy friend, so Philo and I went to see it at the Regal Arbor a couple of nights ago. We liked it a lot and were enthralled by the performances of a young Romanian girl named Catinca Untaru and by an actor who was unknown at the time this long-in-progress movie was filmed, Oklahoma's own Lee Pace. (Lee is now a favorite for those of us who have fallen under the spell of Pushing Daisies.) Lee's character is Roy, an injured stuntman confined to a Hollywood hospital in the 1920's. The wonderful Catinca plays Alexandria, also a patient, also injured, but mobile and so charming she has the run of the hospital. Roy tells Alexandria "an epic tale of love and revenge" - interrupting his story like Scheherazade in "One Thousand and One Nights". We see Roy's words inhabited by the kind of characters seen in old movies and visualized against some amazing settings. The hospital scenes were filmed first, but it took four years and location filming in 18 countries for Tarsem Singh and his brother Ajit to get this story on screen. The official site is here. A review by Reel Fanatic is here. If this looks like your kind of movie, try to get to it while it's still on the big screen.

The blood is real elsewhere. Mpst of us have discovered that deer, woodchucks, raccoons, squirrels and other animals don't share - they're able to turn an entire crop to compost by taking one bite of each fruit or tomato, or are willing to destroy a garden seemingly on a whim. Most of us just write posts in order to vent our anger and grief over lost crops or plants, but some people go after the varmints with everything from guns to hammers. Read all about it in the New York Times article on Garden Vigilantes. Philo saw the story first and brought it to my attention as soon as I woke up this morning.


Sometimes I read the paper right away with that first cup of coffee, but lately have been taking a quick run out to the tomato patch before breakfast to look for Leaf-footed stink bugs. I don't like to use pesticides anyway, but after reading the level of poison needed to control these bugs it would be out of the question - I don't want to kill off the bees, too! So I take my small bucket with a couple of inches of water in the bottom, lightly sprayed with something like Simple Green to break the surface tension, and in the other hand carry the Green Shears of Death, a pair of stainless steel garden scissors. The bugs are too fast to cut in half, but but by using the point to hold the insect's attention while stealthily moving the bucket underneath him, one jab forward and many a stink bug falls into my pail and drowns. As I scurry around the tomato frame in a nightgown, carrying a bucket and scissors and making triumphant little grunts as another bug falls to soapy death, the idea of me tending a front yard vegetable patch grows ever fainter in imagination.
Some adventures are best kept behind the garden gate.

There will be Flower Photos next time! I promise!


"Swashbuckling, Wood-chunking, and Bug-sloshing" was written by Annie in Austin for the Transplantable Rose Blog.