Garden Stalwarts

Do you know that in mild SoCal tomato plants can go around the bend

and make it through winter?

It's true!
We get frost rarely enough that tomatoes,
many of which are "tender perennials,"
 can just keep on chugging along.

Case in point:
this Costoluto.

 

It was a volunteer the summer of 2013,

but it's been reliably pumping out tomatoes ever since.

I counted about sixteen healthy tomatoes on its lanky stems,

including this bulbous beauty.

I also have a Black Krim that volunteered in a Topsy-Turvy last summer...

and it's also been reliably giving me super-tasty tomatoes.

So, my garden advice?

If something flourishes in your garden,
run with it.

Why fight your climate and try to grow struggling plants?

Gaze Upon Them And Weep, Cold Weather Folks

A SoCal perk:

I just harvested these tomatoes, 

and I've got another two dozen ripening on the vine.

Hope I'm not rubbing it in, snowbunnies.

Mystery Solved!

'Member when I potted up some mystery tomato seedlings

that had taken root in some of my pots?

Well, the mystery has been solved!

These little tomatoes have the distinctive pumpkin-y shape of a Costoluto.

And these are the bright orange of Sungolds.

These two types of tomatoes are also coincidentally 

the best performers in my garden this year.

And speaking of "best performers"...

These were NOT.

This tomato plant was a "Lincoln,"

and it got munched on by some dang grasshoppers early in the season.

Instead of rallying, like a little punk it just gave up and and died.

So what to do?

How about some FALL tomatoes?

Armstrong Nurseries has taken advantage of California gardeners

just not being ready to give up our tomato harvest,

and has designated some tomato seedlings "fall tomatoes."

This is a bit of a racket:  these aren't specially bred tomatoes or anything.

They're just tough tomatoes.  I know this because one of the tomatoes offered is

my beloved Costoluto, the volunteer tomato already planted and growing in my garden.

But I picked up three new tomatoes last weekend

-- Long Keeper, Oregon Star, and Stupice --

and planted them in the super-duper expensive high-end potting soil that Armstrong offers.

Because I never get tired of fresh tomatoes.