I had my first cherry tomatoes from the garden last week! Delicious!
I need to learn to be a better tomato trimmer - to trim off the little shoots/suckers so that the bottom of the plant is more lean and it doesn’t become so much of a jungle. That I think would help with the overcrowding and dwarfing smaller plants especially in a raised bed.
@abasket , I have started to trim tomatoes too. I think it is going to help to get more fruits and have fruits ripen quicker.
I have some buttercup this year. They just grow to half of the soccer ball and stop growing. Do anyone know why?
I do love to watch YouTube videos on vegetable gardening. Lol
I’m a newbie to gardening, starting this past May when we planted a bunch of vegie seeds, and half dozen fruit trees, grape vines and strawberries, etc. Our natural soil is pretty bad, so for vegies I made several raised beds. Surprisingly, and to my absolute delight, the fruits of my labor are now being realized – literally! The zucchinis, lettuces, tomatoes, anaheim and jalepeno peppers, beets and the rest of them are producing like crazy.
One problem, however. Although I was ab"le to block all cracks and crevices around my huge yard to keep the bunnies out successfully, gophers are a different issue all together. These have been destroying things from under. I discovered several tunnels running along my raised beds, so I declared war on them.
Initially, I resorted to using poison pellets by dropping them into their tunnels, but soon I realized that these poison can get into our food source, so I stopped using this method. Upon researching into the matter, I concluded that I’d have to do it a bit harder way: trapping. Upon further research, I decided on Victor “Black Box” with great reviews and good pricing, although the price on these traps have gone up about twice as much from a few years ago, probably due to their popularity and demand.
I went to work on setting the trap for the first time yesterday evening. Finding the tunnel was pretty easy. Just go to the mound of dirt and dig a hole about two feet all around the mound with a shovel, then poke around with a long screwdriver to find the connecting tunnel holes. Then, I set two traps back to back, each facing the hole since the gophers could come from either direction. I also place a slice of carrot inside the trap to entice them. Then, the rain storm hit our area pretty hard. I didn’t want to ruin the trap effort, so I placed a large, heavy bag of Miracle Gro soil bag over my work and retired for the night.
The result this morning? As soon as I lifted up the soil bag, a dead gopher was inside the trap that was facing the hole that was leading toward the raised bed. So, the trap works great! I tried to order a couple more (from Amazon), but they’re on back order until past mid-Aug. I’m quite happy that I found a great solution to the problem that has been plaguing me all summer. I should have used this method much earlier, as these gophers have done some damages already.
Great job! If that method fails, you can always use a Rodenator!! ?
Mister had a good luck gassing the buggers with CO2 by dropping a bucket of dry ice chunks down the tunnels… 
Making my first batch of tomato paste today!! I have 10 Roma tomato plants and 10 Amish Paste variety. It is labor intensive, but the result is amazing!!
Yuck to the gophers! They raise the case for raised beds off the ground!!
YUM to tomato paste! I make marinara to freeze but have never done paste!
Tomatoes are just ROLLING in - have some sauce going right now. Took all the “ugly” tomatoes and threw them in a pan with garlic, fresh mushrooms, fresh basil and oregano and some red pepper flakes. Simmered for awhile and now added more completed marinara to it - it’s dinner with some pasta!
My broccoli and brussel sprout plants are big and oh so leafy but not sure if any product is going to develop. 
I’ve been experiencing very low yields of tomatoes, but a lot of Cucumbers , Green Beans and Pumpkins this year. I’m sure it is because of The hot weather (98).
The worry I have about my tomatoes is that they seem to be all turning at the same time - I NEED to have fresh tomatoes for awhile - as long as possible!
My cukes did lousy - got a few and that was it.
I only had one cucumber and the plant was full of flowers last month. Tomatoes still coming.
Tomatoes won’t set fruit unless it goes below 80 degrees at night. They do love heat during the day though.
Posting this here so I try and make myself hold myself to the promise to make these!
My neighbor who has a few raised beds has her house on the market and has largely moved. I discovered the other day that she planted a couple of those raised beds with tomatoes. These plants are FULL and exploding! So large the cages are actually on their side due to weight! The tomatoes are starting to ripen. I texted her and asked if I could somehow pick and hold them for her or help in some way. She told me to just take them and give them away or make sauce/salsa for winter.
SO. I WILL give some away to neighbors but am also going to try these three recipes. The marinara I made a lot of last year in my instant pot - it was very good.
My D1 has made the tomato jam and I tasted it - SO GOOD!
The pickled cherry tomatoes looks so easy why not try?!
I’m not a canner so won’t do that. I prefer to make a product then to just cut and freeze the tomatoes.
https://mealplanaddict.com/2017/01/instant-pot-roasted-garlic-marinara-sauce/
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/09/fresh-tomato-caramelized-onion-jam-recipe.html
https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-pickle-cherry-tomatoes-234385
Well, I just discovered why I haven’t had many tomatoes this year. Last night, I saw both a Raccoon and an Opossum foraging in my back yard.
^^^ Angry face!!!
Just harvested 6 tomatoes and had one for snack - soooooooo sweet and so amazing! The tomatoes and zucchini have definitely done the best for us. (Lettuces and herbs too).
I forgot about this thread!! My cherry tomatoes are going gangbusters this year, but they grow so tall they grow out of the cages and taller than the bamboo shoots I tie them to and then the “branches” break. I do pinch off the little suckers that grow between the branches. I’ve let the plants sorta grow on top of each other and they seem to support each other, so have had much less breakage of “branches”, but I wonder if I should, next year, cut off some main shoots before they get so tall so that they grow from some of those shoots and the plants grow lower. Some of these plants are almost 9 feet tall! I have them in pots on the deck and some of the branches are growing down below the deck, which is fine. I harvest probably 25-30 tomatoes a day! Any suggestions on how to get them to stay closer to the ground so they dont break is appreciated.
My basil peaked about 2 weeks ago. Looking pretty sad now. The pea plants dried out and died.
@jym626 , my daughter has the same situation with her grape sized tomato plants. She calls it her “tomato village”. I think think some of those smaller sized fruit plants can get really out of hand!!
@abasket - it takes a village!
I just brought in about 15-20 more tomatoes!
Rats. Just noticed a big branch with several tomatoes jsut growing and several flowers broke off and died