You say to-mA-to, I say to-maa-to

Either way, we’ve got ’em!! Or at least one anyway. Kyle and I planted 6 tomato plants in pots on our deck over Memorial Day weekend and they are doing beautifully! And as you can see from the pic below, we’ve already got an actual tomato! This one is a Roma.

After visiting our favorite local nursery for their Tomato-mania event back in May, we decided to try our hand at homegrown tomatoes. We had originally intended on digging up a plot in the backyard for an actual garden but since neither of us had ever actually had a garden, we figured we’d start small. Or so we thought. Six 8″ tomato plants later (2 Brandywine, 2 Roma, and 2 Isis Candy), we walked out of the nursery with big hopes and a little nervousness…and 6 basil plants as well. What?? You know there isn’t anything like a nice, refreshing tomato, basil and mozz salad! And believe me, if we could make the mozz in our house, we would. 🙂

We’ve got the tomato plants in huge pots – 3 clay and 3 plastic. We used organic potting soil and organic vegetable fertilizer. We’ve got them all staked with 1/2″ stainless steel rods that Kyle uses for work and are thus free of charge for our plants.

The basil is growing beautifully as well. There are two plants in the pot in the below pic and four other plants in a long rectangular pot up on one of the railings. We used the same soil and fertilizer for the basil. It’s just delicious!!!

For next year, we’ve already discussed planting an actual garden in the yard. We’d like to try our hands at strawberries, sweet peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes again, and some other various herbs. In preparation for this garden, we’ll be starting a compost pile this summer that will be perfectly ready to go for next year’s plantings. Can’t wait!!!