No room in the bed?

Heated by the sun, the tomato's are loving it

The new kitchen garden

Every year the kitchen garden at Menagerie Manor has produced a bounty of tomato's, an annual crop that I take great pride in and Mema took equal pride in the fact that no tomato ever went to waste. Her spicy spaghetti sauce, tomato paste, brochette that is too die for and salsa that made your nose run and last but not least green tomato pie.....yummmm! Well now that the two legged inhabitants at the Manor have dwindled to the two of us I have blended the old kitchen garden into the rest of the landscape and the new Kitchen garden has no room for tomatoes. This year I planted leaks, Spanish onions carrots, beats and bunching onions in the garden. And as you can see in the photo....no room for tomato's. Problem solved, I went to my local feed supplier and purchased a metal stock tank measuring 2'x2'x6'. It just fits four of the large tomato cages and is the perfect height for this old duffer to work in without bending over. My soil mix is a good topsoil, well rotted manure, sand  and dark fine compost. I then added my usual Cotton seed meal, fish bone meal and blood meal. I mix all the ingredients very well, then before I plant the tomato's themselves I add a cup of hydrated lime and a cup of bone meal to combat the dreaded blossom end rot. The later two ingredients I mix well into the hole and then through a hand full of soil on top before sticking each plant into the soil that way the roots will grow into it. I used to have such a terrible time with blight before and since I started using this method there has never been any blight. The stock tank is placed on the south side of the house so gets full sun heating the sides of the metal tank and warming the tomato roots all day and well into the cool evening. I will post a follow-up on the tomato progress.