By end of April the garden is growing on, some things are going to make it and some are not…I like to think of myself as a urban farmer but I cannot imagine if I had to depend on this garden for my livelihood. 

At Roundtop, I bought two old garden gates.  On one of them, the people had taken the time to attach all the screws and extra pieces on a wire and tie it on the gate, I left them there.  It looked like they had been there for 50 years.

So we come to the time when the tomatoes are 5 or 6 feet tall and producing lots of yellow flowers, then the temperamental heirlooms think twice about producing and start a bit of bud drop.  If I told you I have tried every remedy from epsom salts, to bud drop prevent spray, to a plant hormone, to outdoor fans cooling the temperatures, would you believe me?

That yellowing stem is hours away from dropping and another heirloom tomato to-be is a has-been. 

Since heirloom tomatoes have very little disease resistance, they are very susceptible to blights, wilts, and other perplexing diseases.  Despite being a State Certified Master Gardner, I am almost never sure (100%) whether it was a wilt or a blight or something else entirely.  Here is one under-achiever.

 Alive, green, healthy with tomatoes one day and gone the next.  Like I said, thank goodness my livelihood does not depend on heirloom tomatoes.

The good growing on news..

A forest of tomato plants growing and growing..