Sweat Equity

It's amazing what can be done with a lot of sweat, some hand tools and an abundance of sun.  The tomatoes in the picture below are a hybrid called Celebrity.  They are a determinate variety but don't let that fool you. They grew up to the top of a 6 foot high network of string and stakes I devised to support them and came down the other side.  It's a jungle out there.  The tomatoes are huge coming in at almost a pound each and meaty.  These with the 6 Roma's growing in the next row have given us a constant supply of tomatoes for cooking.  We pick a good 10 pounds of tomatoes every other day.

For some reason our heirloom varieties aren't doing quite as well.  In the kitchen garden I planted German Johnson, Mr. Stripy, Mortgage Maker, and Brandywine.   The biggest problem is beating the ants to the tomatoes.  If they crack the ants come in for the kill.  They seem to love tomatoes.  We had a stretch of very hot weather (100 degrees F).  Not only was it hot but dry.  I started noticing holes in the tomatoes and when I went to pick them ants would come running out of the hole.  I wonder if birds or some other animals were biting a hole in them trying to get access to the sweet fluid inside.  It's really frustrating going to pick a vine ripe tomato and finding it full of ants.  Oh well, they need it more than we do.  We can share.

Sun is a wonderful thing.  And so are Knockout roses.  They may not provide food but they are beautiful and care free.  They bloom and bloom.  Heat, humidity...nothing sees to faze them.  One of our boys thinks the rose garden is a great place to take a nap.