Tomatoes: They Are Finally Here!

Gardeners in the South talk about growing tomatoes with nonchalance. Everywhere I go, I hear folks saying things like, "All I got planted were a few tomato




plants" or even worse, "My tomatoes are beautiful this summer."

I envy this camaraderie. With only six or seven hours of sun, my tomatoes struggle. Last summer, the plants grew and bloomed, but late planting and early heat made most of the blossoms fall off.

This summer, I got an early start, as my beds were ready in the spring, and I grew some tomato plants from seed. But the tomatoes refused to grow, and their leaves were a yellow green. An employee at Dan West said they needed nitrogen, so I added a third of a cup of Garden Tome to the dirt around each plant. The transformation of the plants was miraculous, and now they are thriving.

I planted six or seven different varieties to see which tomatoes do best, but the identification tags have disappeared. I'm blaming the squirrels because I blame them for all my gardening mishaps.

I'd like to be able to know which plants are producing these lovely little (for now) tomatoes, but all the plants look alike. Once they land between basil, mayo, and bread, it probably won't matter.