Garden With Me - The Year of the Tomato - Part 1

This year I decided to try tomatoes, again. For the last two years the plants had fed the local squirrels and birds so this year it was my turn.
I had recently added a couple of more raised beds and had turned the soil under another - turning soil means taking a jackhammer and digging down 2 to 3 feet into the hard clay soil and removing big rounded river rocks that are pervasive here.

Rocks from digging in the yard

The jackhammer, a Makita HM1214C, has really changed gardening in this yard. It is a bit heavy, but with the clay spade it cuts down into the soil/clay and through the rocks...But I digress.
After a trip to the local nursery I had:
- 2 yellow plums
- 1 sweet cherry
- 2 San Marzano (an Italian friend said were the best for sauce)
- 1 Big Beef
Those and an unknown volunteer from the past year were going to supply the crop.
Remembering that tomatoes like their space and our damp mornings I planted them about 3 feet apart and put cages around most of them - 6 plants, 5 cages.

About a week or two in I fertilized the plants, well over fertilized them, and they shot up and soon they were about about 6 feet tall. Unfortunately, while they were doing this amazing growth spurt they were not setting fruit - note to self, be conservative with fertilizer in the future. So, I now had beautiful tall, strong, big stemmed and leaved plants, with no flowers.


Tomatoes after fertilizer

Next: Fruit and plenty of it