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Tomatoes, Cubed

Last year I planted Baker heirloom tomatoes from seed, a gift from my nurseryman friend, Doug. They produced beautifully through the early fall.

orange tomatoes 2013

Tomatoes on the vine, 2013

Tomato seeds are small, so I left a glob of wet seeds together to dry on a piece of cardboard.  I usually dry seeds on wax paper, but I was fresh out, so I used the back of a tea box instead. Once dried, all the seeds stuck to the paper.  No worries.  I just stored them in a glassine bag, cardboard and all.  Earlier this week I planted the seeds along with the cardboard in my mini green house.  We’ll see how it goes.

Tomatoes, squared:

In order to hedge my bets, I bought a packet of seeds from fellow blogger Stacey Weichert at Down To Earth Digs.  The seeds from Stacey’s garden are  also heirloom.  She calls them Natures Riddle.  They came packaged in a cute paper envelope. You can check them out at her Etsy shop.

Tomatoes to the third power:

While busy saving and buying seeds, my garden bed had a good chuckle and then planted a few of its own.  They’re  spaced nicely, too so minimal thinning required. Prior experience tells me that these volunteers will be a hardy bunch.  Since I planted five or six varieties last year, I don’t know which ones will come up.

Volunteer tomatoes

Volunteer tomatoes

Tomatoes cubed:

The mathematical goddess of tomatoes is really having a good time with me.  One small tomato plant seeded and grew out of the bottom of my cylinder composting bin.  I don’t know what it’s chances of survival are, but I’m inclined to let it grow and see what comes of it.  Plenty of people grow tomatoes upside down in Topsy Turvy containers.  Why not a compost bin?

Compost tomato

Compost tomato

tomato in compost bin

Composting bin, the long view

In the world of gardening, anything can happen between now and tomato time. Blight, tobacco horn worms, the Cosmos.  Preferring the optimists path however,  if things work out I’ll be giving away little tomato plants all over town.

I’ll leave you with this funny quote:

“Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing that a tomato doesn’t belong in a fruit salad.”

― Miles Kington

13 thoughts on “Tomatoes, Cubed”

  1. That is a great quote! I love what you are doing with your tomatoes – I’m pretty sure it is only in the last couple of hundred years that gardeners have been intent on growing things in straight lines, neatly labelled and in ‘the right direction’. Nowadays we are way more in tune with natures inclination for life however it comes – I am rooting for the compost bin tomato to make it safely through and fruit like crazy!! 🙂

    [Do you say ‘rooting for’? it means ‘on the side of’ ‘in favour of’ ]

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    • Yes we do use that term ‘rooting for’. It’s a nice play on words in a garden blog, too, don’t you think?

      I think we’re all rooting for that tomato. I’m not rotating the bin again until it decides its course of action. When I opened it last week, an onion had taken root in there as well. I dug it out, popped it into the 4 x 4 bed, and it’s doing fine.

      I think you’re right, that some randomness made sense. The rows came about for harvesting and later tractors. It’s easier with a large crop to access things with reasonable spacing.

      My tiny box has no such requirements. xox

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  2. Oh how I love volunteer tomatoes. I’m only concerned about the one in the bin when you have to turn it. But who knows, stranger things have happened. I love the quote about knowledge and wisdom. But the things that can happen to a tomato plant tickled me. ” Blight, tobacco horn worms, the Cosmos”. Yes, the cosmos has a lot to do with everything. 🙂 We’ll be watching.

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    • Marlene, you are so like me. I share your concern, and have decided to leave that side of the bin alone to see what develops. I’ll just water from the top and let it grow. Won’t that be fun?

      Whenever you say you smiled or tickled I get a warm glow. Thank you for that! xoxoxo

      I

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  3. Those must have be extra-ordinary tomato plants last year. I remember you having fruit on them when they almost looked dead. Now they’re regenerating themselves. They will not be denied their day in the sun 😀 When I saw the title of your post in email, I thought I was going to see square tomatoes, HA. Have you seen those? I don’t know how they do it.

    Do you have things growing in the greenhouse already? Amazing. You probably haven’t seen todays weather in Toronto, but it’s ‘full-on’ winter down there. So surprising because they are way south of us. Poor guys.

    I always keep my tomatoes in the fruit crisper. I’m a fan of Roma. Mr B prefers the small squirting ones. There’s so many varieties, I usually just buy what’s on sale. I think we’re starting to know the downside of some weather phenomena’s at the market. Fruit and Vegetables are very pricey presently. I had a spaghetti squash in my basket this week, not big at all. It rang thru at $6.34 !! I had to say, “sorry, I’ll have to leave that”….crazy, I was stunned!

    So Bravo for growing your own food. So many benefits: you enjoy growing it, you know how it’s grown, no pesticides, you save money and it’s a healthy meal for your family. I intend to do my best to emulate your example when we finally have a yard. xox

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    • The winter (everywhere but here it seems) has been brutal. Canada, the east coast, all miserable. It seems to have overstayed its welcome, too. I hope the sun comes out soon for everyone.

      I’ve heard about squared watermelon. They place a box around it while it is still soft so that when it grows, it’s restrained by the side of the boxes.

      You have an amazing memory. Those tomato vines were looking spent on your visit here in October, but still cranking out fruit. It’s true of the pumpkins as well. Right when the vines look their worst, all the energy is pumping into the fruit on the vine.

      I have a few seeds planted in the greenhouse. I meant to post Friday, but had zero free minutes from start to end.

      Wow, over six bucks for one squash. It will be bad here, too, due to the frost in the fall and the ongoing drought.

      It’s fun growing things you can eat. My dad grew tomatoes and peas during the short Ontario growing season. He may have grown more, but those are the two I remember. Our garden was huge (or at least in my memory it was), but so little of the year to truly garden.

      What will you plant in your new garden?

      xoxo

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      • This morning looked not too promising weather wise, but as usual, the sun burned off the greyness and it’s not half bad out there 😀 So maybe spring is on it’s way.

        Oh square watermelon, I forgot about those. I guess it’s for shipping purposes? Not really a necessity of life is it? HA.

        Southern Ontario has maybe three to four weeks longer to garden than us but the winter lows aren’t generally as cold so they get to grow some things we can’t.

        Here’s an interesting zone map I found on-line,
        http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/climzoneveg.htm

        Toronto sure got nailed this year with the snow though.

        What will I plant? Well, if I’m lucky enough to have a spot to garden, I love carrots, peas, lots of snap dragons and I should try squash. I should park my card at the market and sell them from my trunk for $5.00 each…LOL. Tomatoes and butter lettuce would be nice too. I’d also love to continue planting my sweet peas because I adore having them in the house….Love the smell 😀

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  4. Can it be time already? I’m so behind. I just put the last Christmas decoration away this morning – although actually I still have one of my evergreen door wreaths up (AND IT STILL SMELLS LOVELY-ISH). And also, it is now snowing and will produce 10 inches of snow, so I’m not feeling wholly out of season.
    I planted a few spring greens last week, and they’ve all burned with the frost. I’ve covered my fig trees with a blanket for today’s snow, but I can hear their little fig tree teeth chattering.
    Winter came late to Virginia, and is hanging on for dear life.
    Tomatoes will be planted probably just before Thanksgiving.
    I shall live vicariously through your garden. 😉

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    • Ten inches of snow during the week of spring?! That seems entirely unfair, though I’m reading that same bit of news everywhere.

      Do you have a greenhouse or a warm window for starting some seeds?

      Your poor little fig tree. I hope the blanket did the trick.

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