This is my tomato crop this year. They are planted a little too close together for two reasons. One, when I was planting them the area around the perimeter of the garden was not good soil down past a couple of inches. I just couldn't dig a hole deep enough with my small trowel and I wasn’t about to get back up and work on conditioning the soil anymore. So they all got grouped in the center of the garden patch. This fall I will get the pick, shovel, and a few bags of peat and work on conditioning the edges of the plot for next season. The second reason they are too close is I had either 8 or 12 plants and I couldn't bring myself just to plant a few of them and throw the rest away, so they all got planted.







I am really happy with how healthy they look. I have been using Miracle Gro on them about every three weeks. They are due for an application right now. Maybe I will do that later this evening.

Greta brought some tomatoes from her garden when she visited last weekend and they were delicious. I ate a couple of them right over the sink like and apple. A juicy tomato in one hand and the salt shaker in the other. I also sliced a couple of them up and ate them on a piece of freshly cut bread. We were at a farmers market a few weeks ago and one of the booths was selling both tomatoes and bread. They had slices of tomatoes and slices of bread. I took one of each, put them together and ate. I was amazed at how well just the two of them together complimented each other. The salt from the bread balanced out the tangy and sweet of the tomato, and it also soaked up the juices. I of course have had tomatoes on sandwiches my whole life, but just having the two tastes together and nothing else to get in their way was a nice surprise from a place I never would have expected to find something new. Try it.

Our Treegator holds 20 gallons of water and we fill it up twice a week. It takes about 12 hours to drain through two pin holes in the bottom. They say that this allows the water to penetrate deeper and with less waste. The tree has never looked better. I think the tree we are using it on was planted improperly. It looks like they left the metal cage around the root ball and it is root bound. The tree has always had a small number of leaves and hasn’t grown many new branches. This year, even with the drought, it is full of large healthy lush leaves and I think it has shown some branch growth.





We are going to make a trip to Meijer for some dinner fixin's. Hamburgers on the grill, sans buns, with some melted pepper jack we got at Bobak's yesterday. A couple ears of corn, a tomato for slicing, and some baked beans will round out our perfect summer dinner. (And plenty of fresh iced tea of course.)