Wall Tomatoes and CATS

I am pretty happy with how these are growing. Tomatoes are basically a vine, if indeterminate. That's really why it is necessary to stake or cage them.

A few years ago, I had some supersweet on a stoop growing out of strawbales. This experiment ended up being fairly high maintenance as I lacked any soil and had to thoroughly water and very frequently fertilize them but still, the results were very spectacular. They grew much better than the ones in back. One major reason I believe is that they were growing on a very hot, tar paved alley, my place's front entrance was a crowded, alleyway, largely devoid of any life except litter, some weeds and irresponsible neighbor's dog poop. I swear the sweltering heat made them thrive.

I am happy to say that I have moved up a bit. Now my neighbors... well, I won't get into specifics, but my surroundings are closer to 'middle class'. I suppose it depends on your perspective. They do pick up after their dogs. Er, so out of this experience I realized that tomatoes will grow endlessly if the conditions are right and you let them. I imagined building a tomato hut.

I will return to the present. I am not keen on this railroad tie wall here not the globe arborvitaes. Arborvitaes are an interesting tree and shrub native to North America that the locals ate for its vitamin C content. I can't remember the specific history, but it has been used to prevent scurvy in many situation where fresh food was not to be found. So I do have some admiration for arborvitae.

I just don't have much room and these plants are in a very prime location as far as light and warmth are concerned. Rather than destroy them I compromised by trimming them back a bit and planting some things in spaces that they aren't supposed to grow.

If you click on either tomato picture you'll see a stake coming out of nowhere and a staple or 2 driven into the railroad ties with some velcro tomato ties attached. I've been limiting these from branching out a lot. I consider these tomatoes to be my 'guerilla style' tomatoes. Click on that link for more info and many fun pictures, like people planting cabbages while police lights flash. I thought it was pretty funny that they refer to a 360th anniversary of guerrilla gardening taking place at the same time of the G20 protests in London because the G20 is going to be in Pittsburgh in September. That doesn't have much to do with anything but I like the idea of people defiantly planting vegetables in 1649.

I probably should have made this 2 post but anyway, here's a couple cat pictures. The cheddarhead and abe aren't exactly friends but they do swat playfully at each other every once in a while. They have a rivalry over the catnip dome.

Sally prefers solitude but does tolerate others. She's just a little queen.