Winter Tomato Dreams

Written by Maradel Gale

Thursday, 28 January 2010 14:48

It's a foggy, cold morning on the island today. I awoke thinking about tomatoes. As in the tomatoes that I grew so successfully last summer. After two years with no tomatoes at all (well, one or two fruits per plant), I finally had a banner year of tomatoes. My first lovely orbs were picked on July 11, 2009, and I finished eating and enjoying my last home-grown tomatoes on December 1, 2009. And yes, I do keep a calendar of my gardening activities and results. Maradel's tomatoes

As a rational person, I am trying to figure out what to do to replicate last summer's success. I began with small plants that I bought from the Farmers Market. I've never been very good at getting seeds past the die-off stage of growth. I planted the plants deep and long, lying on their sides, which seemed very peculiar to me at the time, but I later realized what a strong root system that encouraged. I attempted to cull any non-productive offshoots, but soon that became difficult, as the plants became dense and difficult to prune. Mostly, I made sure the plants were well watered, and I fed them maybe once or twice. Basically the same procedures I followed in the previous two years. So I will concede that my success in 2009 was probably due to things outside of my control, like the ambient temperature, weather, and the kindness of the gardening gods and goddesses.

Within my community garden, it was clear that 2009 was a great tomato year. People who had struggled in 2007 and 2008 while generally with more success than I experienced, had really lush and productive plants in 2009. And so my winter tomato dreams: will the garden goddesses and gods bless us again?

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