Saturday, July 20, 2013

Woe is my tomato

Savvy readers will recall that I thought I was going to have a bumper crop of beans in my little garden plot. Sadly - that is not the case. I've gotten about a handful out of them (and Dave's already eaten them), but it doesn't look like I'm going to be getting many more.

What I am going to be overrun with, is cherry tomatoes. When they really started to grow, I tied them up to three foot tall bamboo stakes. I went out there after I got home from Virginia to discover that those stakes weren't nearly long enough... so a few six foot stakes later, and the tomatoes were happy again!
Yep - those tomato plants are more than five feet tall. (and they are also planted way too close together - lesson learned for next year!). I had no idea they'd get so big. And they are absolutely covered in little green tomatoes - right from top to bottom. (There are four plants in total - that's a lot of tomatoes!)

But then the storm hit.... you see, I think the weather in Virginia hitch a ride home with us. Since we got back, it's been disgustingly hot and humid - the kind of humid that stretches on for days and nights, and just breeds bad storms. And that storm came last night - high winds, torrential rain....and while it was great for cooling off the atmosphere...

It was not so good for my poor tomatoes....

Now I shouldn't complain. We were under a tornado watch, and some people lost trees... but when I looked out and saw my poor tomatoes on the ground, I almost cried. (And I don't even like tomatoes - most of these will be given to friends and family.)

But it was not as bad as it looked.
A few broken stems, and a few lost tomatoes. Otherwise, I just put the stakes back in the ground and stood them right back up.
 Ah... happy tomatoes!
And in a few days, I can start harvesting!

4 comments:

Frieda said...

So glad that you didn't get more damage . They did mention tornado warnings here too , but fortunately nothing came of it . Tomato plants are pretty resilient . We have only one cherry tomato plant that Mike planted for the grand kids , so far no red tomatoes like you have, but tons of green ones . I find that everything is a couple of weeks late due to the late start to summer .

Anonymous said...

A friend lost her whole garden too. She's in Saskatchewan, I think.

Glad your tomatoes pulled through and there wasn't any BIG damage at your house.

Araignee said...

Mmmmmm....I love cherry tomatoes. I didn't plant any this year and I don't know how I managed to do this. As for my garden, I have been away for 2 weeks babysitting and when I went over Daddio's today to check on it I almost cried. It is nothing but a weed patch. Everything is gone. As soon as the weather breaks I'll have to start over.

Unknown said...

Glad the storm wasn't any worse for you. Looks like you'll enjoy lots of cherry tomatoes soon.