Tomato Gardening

These tomatoes are our very own produce from the small garden in the backyard. When we first started planting tomatoes in the garden, we were so happy to see the flowers when they came out. We used to count the number of flowers on each vine everyday and we could hardly wait for them to grow up fast enough so we could gather them. The plants grew thick and healthy and they were about 5 feet tall with plenty of fruits on the vine. Then one day, they all got attacked by something that we don't know of and the stems started to turn brown. The fruits were not spared and they got some brown spots on them too until they all died. That was really very very frustrating for us. 

We tried planting again the second time. This time, we planted them in pots and kept them away from the garden thinking that there might be a lot of pests that are affecting them in the garden. Since we didn't want to use any pesticides, so what we did is to place some of them on the stairs away from the garden and some at the back porch. They grew well but not as tall as the ones that we had in the past when we planted them in the garden. We were able to get some small tomatoes but most of them ended up with the same  brown spots on the stems and fruits. So we gave up, said that we're done, no more planting of tomatoes! 

Well, easier said than done, we did try planting tomatoes again the 3rd time. What did we do this time that's different from the previous experiments? Well, we planted them at the right time, just after the rains. Whenever we water the plants, we try and avoid getting the leaves to get wet so they will not get easily attacked by pests. We also planted them apart at some distance from each other so if one should get attacked, it will not transfer to the rest. The plants made it this time and they produced plenty of big beefy tomatoes as shown in the pictures above.  I processed some of the produce into green tomato relish and it has served us for many months. I also gave some bottled green tomato relish to some of our friends who were delighted, knowing that our produce came from an organic garden. We used some in our salads and sandwiches after ripening them on the window sill in the picture window. It was really a very rewarding experience for us.