TOMATO JOYS – YES! It’s probably a great time to plant them. The weather is doing well.
Green Acres Goodies in Roseville
Our Roseville Green Acres was popping with people last week when I stopped in – many of whom, like me, were looking at all the tomato plants. Talk about tomato joys to the max!
And the knowledgeable and helpful staff at Green Acres helped me find just what I was looking for.
I walked in with the list I made from my post, Gardening Joys in the Roseville Sacramento Area, which led me to Farmer Fred who then led me to the Tomato Taste Tests 2017 at Morning Star Herb Farm of Vacaville. Their #1 best tomato under the category Best Tomato is SunGold followed by PorkChop (best Yellow Orange). With some expert guidance from the Green Acres Staff, I soon had 4 SunGold and 2 PorkChops in my cart.
Then I read a bit further on my notes and discovered that SunGold tomatoes were CHERRY tomatoes. Oh dear! I was actually shopping for my senior mom who usually does regular tomatoes. I asked him about it. He commented that cherry tomatoes can actually be easier to grow. So I kept my selections, figuring I could always buy a couple more later if need be. When I got up to the checkout stand, one of the gals there heard me mention SunGold and RAVED about them. She said she got TONS last year and they were SOOOO good! So I was very happy I kept them. And my sweet mom was OK about them as well. Time will tell how well ours do, of course. But we’re looking forward to see what happens.
Tomato Joys While Planting
Once home, I have to admit, I didn’t take Debbie Arrington’s advice about temp testing by sitting on the cement. Nor has my senior mom. But that wouldn’t really work well for us anyway. I’d probably sit and say it feels fine. She’d probably sit and say it was freezing. And both of us would be irked having to get up again. 😉
Then again, for us, it probably doesn’t matter. My mom developed a great system several years ago where she puts her tomatoes in pots. Then she puts the pots in her rolling wagons. Her version of raised beds gardening – which has been shown to be much easier for boomers and seniors. Plus then, she has fun moving them all around the yard to stay in and out of the sun. Not to mention in and out of windstorms, hailstorms, tornadoes and other issues. 😉 They are her babies and she really does take great care of them. Tomato Joys indeed!
This year, I helped her get them transplanted into the big pots.
Tomato Planting Woes
We even found we had some plant food by E. B. Stone left over. One of my faves, normally. I don’t know if I just have never used this one or if sitting over the year plus getting a bit wet on one end caused this, but oyyyyyy, my hands and clothes REEKED when I was done. I washed and washed my hands – still could smell it. So I did some research and found some creative ideas like rubbing salt on your hands (that didn’t do much) and rubbing Vick’s VapoRub on your hands. I think that one helped – or just changed the smell to something better. I also tried tomato paste (after all, you are supposed to rinse a skunk-sprayed dog with tomato sauce 😉 ). Although the AKC has a different solution – I wish now that I’d tried that as well. Although, after spotting the same recipe at Dogtime.com with the warning – “Note: Do not make the above mixture in advance and store it, as it will explode if left over time” – maybe not! 🙂 However I did read several posts who generally agreed, the tomato sauce actually does little and the solution with hydrogen peroxide works much better. And I gotta say, the tomato paste didn’t do much for my hands. The Vicks worked better.
Tomato Joys For Us! How About You?
Fortunately, a few days later and the smell is a distant memory while we continue to bask in tomato joys! They are looking quite nice, if I do say so myself. And my senior mom and I enjoyed a fun time working on this project. How about you? Have you planted any tomatoes or other veggies or flowers yet? We’d love to hear.
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