DonDiego's Tomato Ranch

It was a warm Spring heh' in Appalachia. So the vegetables got an earlier than usual start.

And the wild animals hereabouts too. teechur and DonDiego has been seein' lots more little birdies, some of which they hadn't seen 'afore, and teeny bunnies. And more visitors to the backyard, comprising about .05 acre, including extended turkey families, deers, groundhogs, a fox now and again, and one goat.
But 'cept fer an occasional bird peck and some chipmunk or squirrel chomping on low hanging 'maters, there's almost no animal damage to the garden.

After the warm start, the hills up heh' have been subjected to lots of rain and cloudy days, . . . so's the 'maters split or some succumb to blossom-end rot. And without sunny days ripening slows.

But there's still plenty.

The Tomato Ranch:


DonDiego examining the bounty:

Looks like you got some good eatin' ahead of you DD. And thanks fer puttin' on yer Sunday go-to-meetin' duds before having yer pitcher taken.

Don Diego looks like the country sherriff of that tomato ranch. I'm guessing there better not be any rascals (including those hideous looking tomator worms) that try to fool with DD's tomatos.

Home grown tomatos have so much more more flavor than many of the supermarket tomatos.

My congrats on your 'mater jungle you got there DD, we were so fortunate. My little container garden got munched on by the deer, the SOB's were so bold as they came up ON the deck and have been munchin' away, got a few flowers as well. Ate an entire marigold which surprised me, I always heard they didn't like marigolds, ate the flowers right off. Here's what's left of my ,maters.

SONSABITCHES!


My herbs haven't fared very well at all(well basil and mint have) I think the heat took its' toll on everything even tho we watered every night nothing seemed to do very good this go 'round. Ah well, the nursery is having a clearence sale ,might not be too late to replant some stuff and still get a good herb harvest.

J

Those tomato plants look wickedly tal by the windows. Wow.

They are. I keep telling DonDiego to prune, prune, prune....but he just does not have the heart to cut his "babies" which he grows from seeds and multiple transplantings from indoor small pots to bigger pots to outdoor pots and FINALLY to the garden. His garden is his pride and joy! lol

From seed!? WOW, I'm thoroughly impressed!, I've tried to grow a few things from seed, its a lot more involved than one would think. I did get a pretty good mess of green onions, but nothing else(tho I didn't try reeeal hard). My hats off to you for sure DD, great job.

J

alanleroy's tomatos are smaller than DonDiego's...but they're more colorful and oddly shaped.

Up heh' in the mountains, them such 'maters is called "DE-formed". Them that grows 'em are usually up to some sorta devilment.

DonDiego thanks jatki99 for his kind words. Tomato ranchin' can, indeed, be hard work.

Poor old DonDiego tuckered out after a day of tomato ranching.

Hmmm. Seems to me we've been hoodwinked. DonDiego looks neither poor nor old. Those are some mighty fancy gardening clothes. Can't even fathom what his Sunday best wardrobe must look like.