Wednesday

TOMATOES....

Today I will discuss my obsession of growing tomatoes. First it needs to be said that I love to eat them fresh from the vine, I like them in salads, on a sandwiches, and in fresh juice. I like almost all forms of the tomato. The issue comes from the fact that we eat them fresh from late June until early October here on Schooner Creek. I like them so much that in my book, The Holder's, Missouri Beginnings, Michael Holder clears a five acre track of ground just to grow them.

here is the issue, I have a heck of a time growing them! A few years ago I baby sat some chickens for my Mother while she wintered in Florida, I kept them in a dog pen. It worked out and about the time the chickens became an odor issue she was home and the chickens returned to Putnam County!

I didn't have a clue what to do with the dog pen so it got moved and where it sat I got the idea to plow it up and plant tomatoes. Wow, what a great idea that was! We had tomatoes all season and had a bunch to pick before the first frost. Those were put in a cardboard box and covered with old newspaper and we ate tomatoes from the garden until almost Thanksgiving.

The next year we moved to Schooner Creek. I tried to grow tomatoes in the yard here. The issue was the ground. I rented a small jack hammer and tried to bust thru the rock and ruined the hammer. I tried to get a blasting company to "blow" me a small area and the neighbors put a stop to that. So, I settled on pots. I went to the Wal-Mart got me three of the biggest pots I could find, bought the soil and plants and grew some of the prettiest plants you ever saw for about 6 weeks. Then they died. NO TOMATOES!

Last winter I caught the television advertizement on growing tomatoes upside down. I pondered that all winter and this spring, being to tight to buy the hanging pot, got me a couple of soap buckets cut the proper holes and yep, you guessed it I have hanging tomatoes. Again, knowing some of my plans are looked at with a raised eyebrow from my loving wife, I took my soap buckets to a new level..I painted the buckets yellow then planted flowers in the top Its late June, there are green ones, with more blooms coming on every day but still no tomatoes.

Cross your fingers.......