My 7ft Tall Heirloom Tomato Plants

When the Byrd House Market first opened this spring, I bought some heirloom tomato seedlings called "Green Giant" or something equally ominous. The guy selling them said that you could tell they were heirlooms because the leaves were wide and flat. "They'll get to be 7ft tall if you can support'em," said the farmer. Well, he was right. The gifted and talented seedlings really took to the fresh dirt in my new container gardens.


The plats outgrew their cages several weeks ago and fell over in one of those rain storms. I was heartbroken. But, with a little courage, I stuck some really long poles in the ground around the plants and carefully wrapped twine around the whole mess, forcing my vertical agenda. Now, they're reaching for the sky.

The heirlooms had gotten tangled with the romas and better boys and now they're all encased in twine (towering tendrills belonging to the heirlooms). It'll be a miracle if I can even see into the throng well enough to find the ripe tomatoes. Well, this one by Jasper's foot is obvious enough, but it needs another few days, at least. And check out the size of those prehistoric "wide and flat" leaves.

If I get my act together, I'll take pictures of every variety of tomato that I've got growing. Some of them are really crazy looking.