Tomatoes, yeah about that

When we first started our mini farm garden we knew right away that we were going to want tomatoes.  So, more must be better, right.  Our first year we planted 48 tomato plants, and we thought that should be enough.  Well we had that part right because that year was a great year for tomatoes so every plant grew.  At one point we were  picking a 5 gallon pal every day  and running out of things to do with them quickly.  We canned them, we dried them, and we made them into sauce every day.   So lesson learned a couple does not need forty eight tomato plants.  Being good learners we only planted 25 plants this past year.  We planted six Brandywine, six romas twelve other plants, and 1 cherry tomato. By the way one well growing cherry tomato plant is enough for anyone; I don’t know why they come in 6 packs. Two years ago I had the idea of taking one out of every seven years off to honor God; And in response our ground went fallow.  This of course comes from Leviticus,  “But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: you shall neither sow your field, nor prune your vineyard.” So last year we were ready to go with our 25 plants and some new ideas.   We covered the whole garden with horse manure after planting, which protected the plants in the early dry season. This idea however was not very popular with my wife, it is best if you do this part while she is away.  Then we were able to water, which helped but only God jumping in could account for the harvest.  We filled every canning jar and had to throw several bushels in the compost.  Our harvest with only 25 plants far exceeded our expectations and again we learned we can plant fewer and fewer plants as we get better and taking care of what we have.    One side note on tomatoes, we have found that best tomato cages are built from concrete remesh.  It looks like rusty steel fencing and they sell it in most hardware stores.  We cut it to 15 holes and make cages, fine size for any normal tomatoes.  This past year however some of the plants were over 6 feet high and I suppose no cage is built for a plant that high.  Also we get our tomatoes from a local Amish plant store where they are all grown.   If you want more info on anything let me know.

http://kitchengardeners.org/building-tomato-cages