Everything is bigger in Texas

.......including their Tomato Cages!

Last year after the wild sprawling mess that was my tomato plants I searched for alternative ways to cage up my tomatoes (and no I was not going to prune them down to one central lead... that was never really an option :) ) what I ended up finding was that unless you wanted to make something yourself the alternative was Texas Tomato Cages. I ended up getting them for my birthday (Thanks Dad!). I didn't get the 10ft extensions I am just going to train the tomatoes back down the outside (or maybe start pruning them... I said maybe).

So far this year I am absolutely loving these cages!  I don't know how well you can see them in this picture but my daughter is about 3.5 ft tall and I am using them in the raised beds in front of her.

 Last year at this time I had my first ripe cherry tomato... this year I am probably a week away. Looks like again for the second year in a row my Sungold will be the first to ripen. My grape tomato plant  is giving this one a run for the money (it is the big monster in the earthbox container in the picture above) but looks like the sungold (pictured below) will win again.  I think the sungold taste better anyway. 

For the full size tomatos looks like my Indian stripe (pictured below) will be the first.. just a guess.

If its not the Indian Stripe it will be my Kellogg's Breakfast (pictured below). Although I wonder if that spot is Blossom end rot (BER)... oh well just have to see. Last year I had a lot of BER.

My Opalka (pictured below) had a rough start but is now chugging right along and fruiting along with the others. 

 My Cherokee Chocolate (pictured below) beat out my Rutgers tomato for the last spot in my raised bed... the Rutgers tomato is outside my fenced garden in a container and is protesting a bit... I'll need to give it some extra attention over the next few weeks (I am sure a bit of fish emulsion and seaweed emulsion would cheer it up). 

Funny enough we harvested a small handful of okra today (kids ate it straight from the garden).  I can't remember last year whether I had okra before my tomatoes but regardless I am loving this  Millionaire Okra from Johnny's select seed. 

 Also in our harvest today was blueberries... the bird netting is really doing the job! I don't think I ever saw this plant with so much ripe fruit last year. 

This was about half of what we harvested because....

of these little hands. 

My daughter won't eat tart blueberries from the grocery stores but if its straight off the plant she won't care that you are supposed to wait another week or two. She's been struggling a bit to get to the berries through the netting but she's getting better at it.