You Grow Girl™

On Friday night we popped over to the Duff (Dufferin Mall) where I purchased the largest block of compressed container soil ever and a few plastic garbage containers! That night I woke up at 4 am with the overwhelming fear that I had gone way too far. I started to think about how much work it was going to be to water everything (especially during the next two months) and how much work it would be to deal with all this soil and pots and plants if and when we ever move. It took me an hour to get back to sleep my mind was so taxed.

Saturday morning I spent a few hours working at that solid block of bone dry soil and then redhydrating it for use in containers. My arms got a good workout. I drilled holes into the pots, filled them with soil, added some organic fertilizers and planted up a bunch of tomatoes and basil seedlings that had been kicking around forever. I know I'm so late and behind but I know I'll get plenty of ripe tomatoes in time.

Later in the evening my neighbour helped and we finished the job. I had way too many seedlings and had always planned to give her a bunch. She also had some green peppers and basil to plant. Between us we used up nearly the entire block of soil! We strategized for what seemed like hours, agonizing over which of the remaining tomatoes were to go in which containers, and which tomatoes we should just give away. But we're both so greedy! We just kept thinking about all the delicious tomatoes we would have in a rainbow of colours. We thought about canning the tomatoes and making sauces and how during the cold of winter we would still be enjoying the fruits of our labour. The other big dilema was that I had neglected to label a bunch of the seeds when I planted them thinking I would somehow remember which was which. One of the varieties was the black plum and I really wanted to grow as many of those as possible. My fear is that somehow we managed to grow everything but the black plum which would be a tragedy beyond belief.

By the end we were giddy over the absurdity of what the deck had become. Pots and pots of tomatoes, many of which will grow to be close to 8 feet tall. It was a jungle last year. This year is going to be insane.

The good news is that many of the other varieties have been planted for a while and they are all doing well. The lemon boy is currently the leader of the indeterminates in both height and maturity. It even has flowers. The sunrise III determinate is leading that pack with both flowers and little, green fruit.

A total list of tomatoes:

Indeterminates