tomato plants

I think I have never had such healthy-looking tomato plants.

They are blooming now.

I put the six cherry tomato ones in the favored deck spot, and they look just amazing. A week and a half's growth between these two pictures.

The beefsteak and brandywine tomatoes are in pots down on ground level by the small garden plots, and the romas are on the lower deck- not growing nearly so quickly, but still doing very well.

I attribute their health to the soil I used- it took a good long search to find bagged soil at the local home improvement store (because sometimes I don't have time to drive further to the nursery) that wasn't a Miracle Grow brand. In fact in the entire gardening section there, only two bagged soils that were not MG. I bought premium organic Dr. Earth- a bag each of the rich compost mix and of the plainer soil mix (but still looks and smells terrific). No strange chemical smell like the other packaged product, nor any strange warnings to avoid touching it. Nice, earthy compost smell and bits of stick here and there. I felt this was good, familiar stuff again and the plants sure are telling me the same.

Already I am looking forward to one of my favorite summer dishes- homemade pizza with mozarella, cherry tomatoes and fresh basil. It's scrumptious!