Gardening

The plants have been in the garden almost three weeks, and they are coming along nicely.  Only one or two of the plants died, and all appear to be thriving.

The hoses running along the rows near the plant are dripper hoses for irrigation.  I put an electronic timer on the faucet so I could water when we were out of town a couple of weeks ago.  We have had enough rain since that I have not had to water, but I think I will turn it on tonight since the surface seems a bit dry.  I used tent stakes to position the hoses and prevent them from breaking the plants as I pulled them into position.

I have ten or so tomato plants as I recall.   So we should have plenty for fried green tomatoes early on and plenty of vine ripened tomatoes later in the season.  Anyone who has not experienced a home grown tomato has missed one of the most sublime experiences of life.  Those "truck ripened" tomatoes you buy in the store range from barely passable to very bad.  

Despite being red, most supermarket tomatoes are not truly ripe.  The shelf life of naturally ripened tomatoes is so short that it would not be practical to truck them from California or Mexico. Instead they are picked green and artificially ripened using an inert gas.  They are red, but they are not ripe.