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| And one more post! Now that I’ve gotten my pictures downloaded, I’m getting caught up here!
Here are my last 4 tomato plants before I cut them down.
The first plants I cut down I just cut off the individual stems of tomatoes, but then I decided that the way I stored them last year would actually take up less room, so the last four I cut off all the foliage again, then cut them off at the base, rubberbanded the stems together, and hung them in the garage again. Here they are!
And here’s what’s left of the garden this year! I’m standing where the tomatoes were, and that’s the Parsnips, beets, and carrots on the left, with swisschard on the right, the compost "bin" on the far end, and the perpetual purple violas that I let reseed wherever they want to. For anyone who doesn’t believe just how small my garden is, now you’ve seen it!
I still wish summer wouldn’t be quite over! I so love being able to sit quietly out in the backyard and doing things which, if I were being paid to do them, I’d consider tedious and boring! But in my own yard, on my own time, at my own pace, I love doing them. It’s so peaceful, relaxing, being one with the earth! Ok! Enough philosophizing! It’s fall and I love the rustling leaves too! Happy fall everyone,
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Follow-Up Postings:
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| Obviously, a person who thinks and acts with deliberation - just look at those tomatoes! (I hope you have foam rubber under 'em. ;o) Steve's digits |
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| I have thick carpet under them, Digit. I learned that lesson the hard way the first year I hung them. Skybird |
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- Posted by singcharlene Zone 5 CO (My Page) on Sun, Oct 28, 07 at 0:07
| Funny! That looks great Skybird. You'll be enjoying tomatoes for a while! I have lots of green tomatoes all along the kitchen window ledge that are ripening and it's nice to just grab them when I need them but as they dwindle, I'm sad to see them go. I don't think I'll do store bought this winter (I'm saying for the moment.) Besides all of the puree I froze, I dried lots of tomatoes and froze them in baggies as well tons of whole raw cherry maters. I also made tomato pesto this afternoon and froze in ice cube trays. So we'll see how long the tomato season can extend for our family without resorting to store bought :) Charlene |
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| Put some of the green ones in the dark, Charlene. They'll ripen more slowly so you'll still have a few longer. Last winter I had them well into January---but I started with more green ones than I have this year. And if you get to where you're absolutely dying for a fresh one when yours are gone, buy the cherry ones in the store---the ones that come in a bag, can't remember what they're called right now, are usually surprisingly good. The big ones aren't worth the time or effort---and definitely aren't worth the money. Skybird |
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| Well, here's me, kicking myself for not "harvesting" all of my tomato vines and hanging them in the garage. I wasn't sure if this would work, so when a branch got broken off about a month ago, I hung it in the garage. The tomatos (my black ones) were awfully green and kind smallish. Time went by and nothing seemed to be happening, so I'd about given up on them. But then last night when I got home from vacation and happened out into the garage, there they were all ripe and ready to eat!! I brought in several promising looking fruit before I left (we hadn't had a freeze yet)to ripen in a box. When I got home, the freeze had happened and Steve hadn't covered the plants. But surprisingly, while the foliage was affected on the Black plant, many of the tomatoes still looked fine. So I harvested those today. I suppose this has something to do with the Russian heritage, as the Bush Celebrity tomatoes on the plant right next to it were all mushy. |
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- Posted by dafygardennut 5b-ish, CO (My Page) on Tue, Oct 30, 07 at 1:08
| Surprise, I finally pulled my poor sad little tomato plants out of the yard and found three little cherry tomatoes starting to turn red and a little green Early Girl, all undamaged, surrounded by the icky mushy frost damaged ones that I had missed. |
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| I LOVE your hang-em high harvest! Someone told me long ago that when you do a "post-frost/freeze" harvesting, to remove each tom w/ a bit of stem, then wrap them individually before putting in a box in a dark cool place. Worked great for us last year. Not half as many to work w/ this year/sadly. |
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