Tangling With The Tomato's

  As promised, I intended to show you some of the more humorous mistakes that I have made along the way as a "gardener."  A few years back, I decided to plant an entire garden in containers and give container gardening a whirl.  I did the research...google of course:)....found the varieties of plants that seemed to do well in pots...and I was on my way to a wonderful container garden right on my back porch! Sounds great huh? It was a ton of fun to grow all sorts of new veggies and herbs that I had never grown before. I have discovered that no matter how many websites you visit, books you buy, or pictures you look at, experimenting on your own is the best teacher on how plants grow.

   So for my 1st container gardening experiment, I started with the good ol trusty tomato plant.  Hybrid, disease resistant, compatible in a container...all the best qualities for a successful crop!  And as a firm believer that every plant should have a "friend" (i.e. companion plant) I thru in a basil plant that I purchased from Lowes.  At the time, the basil towered over the tomato plantS...yes yes...that 1 little leaf you see on the side is indeed a tomato plant buried 3/4's of the way down!
 

2 Tomato plants and a Basil

   Although small and a little skraggly, it looks pretty ok huh?  I put them in a big plastics bucket (10 gallons, I think) and miracle grow potting mix, because Hey...it ain't called miracle grow for no reason!

   A couple of weeks later it looked even better!

Both tomato plants took off without a hitch and I kept pinching the basil to give it a very leafy look! I ended up wasting a lot of basil leaves in the beginning, but trust me, it is worth it to pinch them off in the beginning to keep a constant, steady supply throughout the spring and summer! Not to mention a huge, gorgeous, wonderful smelling herb!  And weather you believe in companion planting, I assure you the sweet basil will give your tomato's the most amazing taste!

   After another couple of weeks, the tomato plants had finally gotten taller than the sweet basil! It was a monumentous moment for me because the plant was growing fast, looking healthy, and had finally grown larger than the basil! I was stoked!

   To my utter amazement the plants just kept growing and growing!  My tomato plants in the yard had never taken off with such a zest! I was totally hooked on this container gardening thing! 

   After another few weeks, I felt like I had the prettiest little container of tomato's and herb!  All 3 plants were doing wonderful, looking happy, and producing the beginnings of a plentiful crop!

  Now...the next few pictures are a little graphic... and... well, quite honestly may hurt a little to other gardeners. They do me....I guess the plants did a little too well.  But remember, I was totally new to this whole container thing!  I hope your ready for this....

  I KNOW RIGHT! WHAT HAVE I DONE!  WHERE DID MY PRETTY PLANTS GO? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?  WHAT THE HECK IS THAT TANGLED MESS? Well, let me tell you something... these plants grew alot more than I thought they would.

  Those plants grew up and over the deck rail and almost to the ground on the other side!  Although it wasn't the nicest looking container plant, these babies easily produced 200+ tomato's that season!  I realized my mistake was not only underestimating how large plants become but not establishing any support structure what-so-ever...MY BAD!

   Wrapping this up, I hope that you have learned from just a few of my many mistakes! Never underestimate how big those plants may get. Start a suppost structue before you put your plants into their container homes.  They do not need to be expensive.  A stick of bamboo is what I know use to support most of my plants.  It grows in my yard, needs to be kept in check, and is free so bamboo has become my anchor of choice:)

Happy Gardening! And Don't Be Afraid To "Tangle" With Your Tomato Plants!