Juliet cherry tomatoes!

I admire the tenacity of the Juliet cherry tomato. I grow them every year for my friends and family who simply want some tomatoes which were not purchased in a store. I personally think they are bland tasting, but they compliment a salad well. They also serve well when frozen in bags and tossed into a pasta sauce to cook. They produce early and abundantly all summer until the first frost kills them.

Last fall, I must have dropped one beside my garden fence. This past spring I noticed a straight line of tomato volunteers growing along the fence. Since I had no other use for the real estate at the bottom of the fence, I let them grow to see what kind of surprise may develop.

The soil at the bottom of my fence has never been prepared to grow anything. It is about two inches of rock hard topsoil over hard red clay. It never gets supplemental water or nutrients and we have had a very dry summer and now it is dry into the fall.

The Juliet volunteer plants grew better and have produced better than the Juliets growing in prepared beds with balanced moisture and nutrients. They now have the largest cherry tomatoes I have ever grown ripening on the vines. It makes me wonder if I may have had this gardening thing all wrong for all those years. Maybe all I should do is plant the seed and let them fend for themselves.

Next year, I plan on breaking my habit and growing Black Cherry instead of Juliet. I know I will have lots more Juliet volunteers which I may let grow. They are tough and resilient and I admire that.

Ted