alannarene: Vomit and Fish Heads: Detox Day 2

Well, either I'm coming down with some evil little microscopic bug that has a vendetta against me, or I got really dehydrated on my bike ride today. Pretty sure it's not the latter because I've already drank 2 liters today. I suppose I could blame it on the detoxing, but that's never happened before. *Sigh*

Either way, today has been miserable. The sun is out and the sky is blue...it's a gorgeous day... One plus, I got to enjoy a nap! That NEVER happens and when it does, it's pretty much amazing.

There are SOOO many blossoms on my plants. We even have some little green tomato fruits starting. I CAN'T wait to pop these juicy little guys in my mouth.

Today I rode another easy 13 miles instead of the planned 26, mostly because I feel like...well, you finish that sentence. Cycling always makes me feel so much better. For those of you who don't know, I have a pretty nasty fracture in my back and when I'm on Marty (that's my bike) I feel like a million bucks and there is ZERO back pain. I would ride all day long if my legs would allow it just to make my back feel better. I'm telling you, if you don't exercise, you really should. It's SO addicting :)

Oh, and thanks to all of you out there (real or imagined!) for giving me a place to be accountable. I pretend I have hundreds of readers who are waiting to hear my daily report. HAHA. Hundreds of imaginary readers maybe. They're the modern day imaginary friends!

Anyway, I thought today I would tell you about a secret I discovered for how to grow amazing tomatoes. I've always gotten a lot of produce out of my little garden, but only before the sun burns everything up or the hook worms or other pests devour my juicy, vibrant, organic goodness. Lame.

What I never really realized is how important placement, pruning, tending, and feeding is. I've got a ton to tell you but today I just want to show you what I used to "pre-feed" my tomato plants. Apart from working in compost and steer manure into my soil like every year, we also put some slowly decomposing elements to provide longer term fertilizer.

I got the ideas from here and here and sort of adjusted it based on my own soil. So here we go. First, you'll want to dig a hole at least twice the depth of the plant you're transplanting. Ours were 1/2 gallon size and our hole was about 14 inches. Then you'll put several things into the hole:

There's some aspirin in there somewhere! I'm not going to lie, it was a little creepy having all these fish heads staring back up at me while planting!

1. Fish parts. We just bought a cheap package of fish (total of about $2 for 4 decent sized fish) and cut them into thirds, one for each plant (we have 12 tomato plants). Put these in first. You can probably ask your butcher for some leftover parts for free. We just didn't have the time.

2. Aspirin tablets. Any brand, doesn't matter. I put four in each hole. This helps give a boost to the plant's immune system.

3. Egg shells. We always save our egg shells for composting but this time we kept them for a few weeks to use for the tomatoes. I put four egg shells per hole. This (along with the fish bones) helps to supply calcium. Tomato plants that don't have enough calcium get blossom end rot.

4. Tomato fertilizer. There is a lot of debating over what ratio is best for fertilizing different vegetables. Really, it's going to depend on your soil and what works for you. You can buy soil test kits for pretty cheap and pick your fertilizer based on your results. We've always used Vigoro Tomato & Vegetable Garden Plant food. We may change it in the future depending on what our soil shows. To be quite honest though, we do a lot of trial and error.

5. Cover with a few inches of good quality manure and/or compost. This keeps the decomposing matter away from direct plant contact. Then put in your tomato plant and fill in with soil as usual.