abbywarmAt best, I’m a gardening rookie; a novice; a wanna-be. I’m trying to always learn new stuff, but I’ve never been a great studier, so I get overwhelmed learning too much at once. That’s why a recent “field trip” was perfect for me! The kids and I went with my mom to her friend C.P.’s house – she has many, many chickens and huge gardens. That morning C.P. and her husband had planted 150 tomato plants in their garden…and still had a TON of plants {that they had grown under grow lights in their basement} that they were now selling off. I was excited to try some of their many varieties like green sausage, black krim, black plum, 2 kinds of romas, big beef hybrid, yellow pear, large red cherry, delicious, gardener’s delight, triple crop climber {the plant can grow 10-25 FEET tall and grows tomatoes as big as your face!}, and one other that I can’t remember right now. While picking out my tomatoes, C.P. gave me a quick lesson in pruning tomato plants. Pruning? Who knew?? Anyway, whenever you see a little leaf shooting out of the crook like this:
{Sucker!}
you need to pick off the “sucker branch” below it. The sucker will not bear fruit and will essentiall suck all the nutrients from the fruit-bearing “branches”. Don’t want that now, do we?
{pick that sucker}
I did this with all my tomato plants. At first they looked tall, skinny, and funny.
{A little topheavy...}
But have no fear! Those fruit-bearing “branches” will grow and fill out. And the best part is, you’ll get lots of tomatoes!
{filling out nicely}
Maybe this is all Gardening 101, but I grew several tomato plants {semi-successfully} last season without having a clue about pruning them. Now I’m hoping for a large crop that’ll give me plenty to can and make salsa with. I saw the first sign of produce progress with some bright yellow blossoms today – yay!
{I see lycopene in my future}
And, just for fun, here are a few other photos from the garden…
{my newly constructed pea trellis}
{emerging fiesta - black beans!}{tiny little carrot sprouts}{doesn't look much like spinach yet, does it?}{itty bitty bells - peppers, that is}
