*growing tomatoes

As a young girl I watched, took notes and participated in a large garden each year. On some days I was thrilled to be out helping momma and daddy, others.. not so much.  I have learned much of what I know about gardening through my parents.  I love the example they have set for me in this.

I wanted to share with you how we get such beautiful tomatoe plants each passing year.   Surely, many of you have monster tomatoe plants as well and do not do the same things as we do, so I am not saying we have the secret answer to a prosperous bush.  Lets get started:  First we take the first few small leaves off of the base of the little tomatoe plant and plant it about 2 inches or so deep.  As the bush starts to grow we watch closely and pinch out the suckers in order to give the plant more energy where needed.

We have never pinched the tops of our plants out, though I am sure some do and yield a large amount of fruit.  This is just how we do it.  We start with a 10-10-10 fertilizer about three weeks after the plants are set it and fertilize weekly there after. My father, lives and breathes by Miracle Grow, but we have stuck with a 10-10-10 for now.  For such a large garden as ours, the 10-10-10 is much cheaper and it seems to be working. We also add the tomatoe cages when the plant is still young.  Because the plants get so large and heavy with the fruit we also drive a stake down inside the cage for extra protection. 

These are our cucumber plants to the left and  our tomatoe bushes to the right.  When planting these two crops, ample room was left between rows - the cukes have just taken over and under and OVER!

This is the outside of the left side of the cucumber row.  Simply amazing.

When momma came this last time she brought with her a canning book, which has come in quite handy.  We used the recipe out of this book to make our pickled dills and now I am using it to make salsa.  I canned 5 pints of salsa yesterday, 2 half pints of orange marmalade, and 11 more jars of pickled cukes!  Our pantry is filling up!