Hello homestead friends,
Who wouldn't be happy to wake up to a beautiful sight of a tomato-filled garden and flourishing onions?
Having seen a fellow homesteader posting an update about his grandma's tomatoes yesterday, I was moved to check on my tomatoes in the garden as well. The bulk of our farm work has kept me busy with consistent checks and keeping of my garden. Everything has been growing on its own for the past 2–4 weeks.
I walked into the garden this morning with a lot of tomatoes delighting my eyes. Everywhere was filled with them, and I was so surprised and happy to welcome tomatoes fruits😀. I never knew how tomatoes are grown, and this first experience is giving me joy.
Despite the fact that the tomato stems were all lying across the ground, they had produced fruits everywhere along the stems and are still producing more tomato fruits.
Here are a few things I have learned about growing tomatoes:
Tomatoes need an adequate supply of nutrients and sunlight for optimum growth. I have heard of the importance of potassium for flowering and fruit production, and our admin here has also advised about additional calcium presence. Using as little as banana peels, he said, can add to the calcium contents of the soil.
It's a bit necessary to create wood bridges and support the stems so that they can stay up above the ground. All of these lessons are what I hold in high esteem.
Can you spot tomato fruits in the picture here?
Having our tomatoes lying across the ground like this while growing will cause some of the fruits to rot, just like I have some ants and snails feasting on my fruits already.
We are having an abundance of rain at this time, almost an everyday shower, and I did apply a bit of fertilizer here before planting the tomatoes.
One major challenge I am facing right now is the unavailability of soil. Imagine growing a garden on shallow ground. While I was determined to grow a garden here, I had not realized how shallow the soil here is and the possible effects it will have on my veggies.
The tomato plant roots are viable and almost pulling up from the ground. I barely have enough soil for the roots to grow deeper into the soil. There is nothing I can do about this now because even the other veggies I had wished to grow in sacs are also experiencing the same issue. I barely get enough soil to grow veggies here.
My jute mallow and other veggies have been flourishing well all through the time because they are not deep-rooted plants; they don't grow deep into the soil like this one.
The constant flooding of the compound keeps washing away the soil here, and I am left with a shallow and stone-filled ground. This has been a challenge I am facing with gardening here, with no solution in sight yet.
Any possible suggestions will be highly appreciated, as I enjoy the pleasure of growing veggies here. I wish I had. I can add some fruit trees too, pawpaw, and some that may not grow into large trees to disturb the environment here, as the property owner is conscious of having trees or other tall plants in the compound.