Garden 2020: Tomato Blossoms

In January I planted tomato seeds.  In March I happened to find Cherokee Purple tomato plants already started at Lowes.  Also Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes.  In the South Carolina growing zone where we live the last frost is expected on Good Friday.  Since I was afraid of killing these good-looking tomato plants in the house, I decided to just go ahead and plant them a month early.

So, I put them in the ground.  When the bug man came for the quarterly bug eradication outside (not coming inside this time because we might be sick inside...which only works for a bit because I have now seen ants inside three days in a row!!!  We pay not to have ants in the house surprisingly so I will be calling the bugs and request inside service) I was sort of complaining about the hard orange clay soil that I could not put the tomato cages or posts into.  The guy said, "Get a four pound hammer and a piece of rebar.  Pound the rebar into the ground where you want the cages to go." What a great idea!  It never occurred to me to do that.  The bug guy also said it was a great time to do this because of all the rain we had just had so the ground would be somewhat soft.

So, off I went, homemade face mask installed, to the Ace Hardware where I found both the hammer and the rebar.  Also a couple more stakes.  The next morning I went down to the place I had planted the tomatoes and went to town on the project.  About the fourth strike on the rebar the hammer slipped. I still have a very impressive black and blue and yellow and purple mark on my lower leg.  BUT I was able to complete the job.  Yes, I could have asked Dear One to help and he would have been happy to do so...however, I prefer to do my own projects since I still can.  If I was physically (or maybe mentally!!) unable to do anything, I would ask.  Otherwise, I will do my own projects.

The cages were successfully installed.  The tomatoes have blossoms but are hard to see in this picture.  I am pretty happy with these tomatoes.

The very next day after this tomato project was the day we saw the water moccasin in the pond for the first time.  The tomatoes are right down pretty near the pond.  R-r-r!  I guess I will have to get over phobias.