Pics of my efforts

[travis]

ZBQ,

I think those Mortgage Lifters are some of the best looking large tomatoes I've seen posted here this summer. From the good looks of your tomatoes, I can see why the deer find them so attractive.

By the way, your basil looks lush. A couple of questions ... do you fertilize it? And do you always harvest it by cropping it so severely?

Usually, I just keep it topped off to prevent flowers setting seed and maybe clip it back to a place where some side shoots are showing promise. Then strip off a lot of larger individual leaves to get enough for what I intend to do with it ... which is usually take it to a restauranteur friend of mine who grinds it into pesto.

When I do it that way, the plants seem to spring back into growth immediately and I harvest increasing amounts each week over the growing season.

From the looks of it, you must have a substantial planting of basil. That's why I'm wondering about how you harvest it. When I just take off the tops, and pluck of a lot of lower individual leaves, I can extend the harvest from early summer until the night before a killing frost. Then I take the whole plants inside and hang them for dried basil. Just my method ... I'm sure you have an equally good idea.

PV