Hello! If you are coming over from Hometalk, thank you for visiting me! I’m a nobody blogger so your presence is appreciated so much!! I’d love for you to leave a comment and tell me something about yourself — like where you live! And now…back to the post on Five-Gallon-Bucket Tomatoes!!
We’ve never had great luck with tomatoes. We usually plant lots…like 40 plants…get the first group of tomatoes which we use like crazy–a sea of red in the kitchen while they’re being canned– and then we have blight. Blight means no more tomatoes.
This year, with Mike’s knee still having challenges, we decided not to plant tomatoes. Then, we reversed our thoughts and decided we could not imagine a summer in Mendota, Virginia without tomatoes. Just look at them…they are calling to me!!
This is where our Five-Gallon Bucket Tomatoes come in. We have a lot of five-gallon buckets. We get them to haul and store sugar when it’s donated to the Highlands Beekeepers. Mike had a brilliant idea (I hate it when it’s not mine, but oh well). We took about six five-gallon buckets to the City of Bristol to get some of their amazing compost. (Remember fellow citizens of Bristol…your garbage…my garden!!). This stuff is brown gold. It reminds me of Gilligan’s Island when the Professor grew radioactive carrots that were the size of Gilligan’s arm. Do you remember Gilligan’s Island? Every man I’ve known always liked Maryanne better than Ginger but never mind that. Back to buckets — and not the ones on Ginger’s chest!!
Here’s one happy tomato plant…we already had the wire cages and they fit perfectly.
Tomatoes like to grow deep, and they like to be dry. They are a berry. I can control how much water they get in these buckets, plus the amazing compost is very loamy and drains. I’m expecting great things from these Five-Gallon Bucket Tomatoes. I hope I’m not disappointed. Another thing about buckets is that they are cheaper than pots. At Lowe’s (my True Love), you can buy a bucket for $2.50.
Oh we’re lookin’ good. Here’s three in a row. There’s a fourth one but she’s camera shy. If this works out well, and I don’t see why it shouldn’t, I’m going to repeat this again next year and paint the buckets tomato red. I know…impressive!!
And just for your enjoyment…we had a little parade on Swinging Bridge Road. Got rained on but holding up pretty well! Lined up sweetly…”single file girls.” Do you recall hearing statements like that from elementary school? I do.
And the very best one…
YOUR TOMATO PLANTS LOOK GREAT. I HOPE THEY DO GREAT. BILLY HAS ONE TOMATO PLANT IN A CONTAINER–WE’LL SEE HOW IT DOES??
He can give it LOTS of attention!!
Love this idea. We live on a rocky hill and the ground is not really good for growing much of anything in the small area that is flat enough for gardening. We have added soil to a small space and have had reasonable luck with tomatoes in past years. This year they don’t seem to be doing well. I have planted a couple of big containers that I had with tomatoe plants and was thinking of going that direction entirely next year. I had not thought of using 5 gallon buckets! I will start collecting them and will be watching to see how yours turn out!
Thank you Deb! We’ve really done well with all of our container gardening, and it’s so much easier for my husband and me to actually do the work! Let me know how yours turn out!
Eva
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Dear Eva,
I found your blog via Hometalk. Seeing your tomatoes made me start thinking of planting my own potted tomatoes this summer. We are enjoying beautiful near 70 degree weather today but the weather channel is forecasting SNOW on Tuesday. Not time to get my tomatoes out yet 🙂 I love the cage you rigged up. I have only used bamboo poles but the tomato branches get a little unwieldy late in the season. Off hand I don’t recall what to do to prevent blossom rot but I found good advice at Hometalk that really worked.
Best wishes for a great growing season this year!
ps. I am from Harper Woods, Michigan (just outside Detroit)
Vivian…I sent a reply back to your email as I was afraid you’d never see this. Thanks so much for coming over to my blog. My note back to you was ont he tomatoes…I think I’d add a couple of inches of mulch above the compost in the buckets if I did this again (which I will). They dried out too quickly, but I loved having them nearby and moving them around if I needed to.
It was 80 degrees here today. Don’t you love Hometalk?
Hi, just wanted to say that I planted tomatoes in 5gal buckets this year for the first time in my life. I live in South Carolina where the weather is always good, but I have limited space; no room for a garden! So we decided to get 4 tomato plants, 2 hot banana peppers and 1 jalapeño plant. The tomatoes we planted in the 5gal buckets and have gotten some sweet tomatoes off of the plants so far. The pepper plants are planted in smaller pots and have produced an abundance of pepper’s so far, and it’s not even July yet!
My thing is that if you don’t want to plant a big garden, or you’re limited in space and want some fresh veggies and fruits, you can do it in small containers and 5gal buckets. Then you will have those for next year😀.
Happy Planting Everyone ☺😊
Hi Sheila
I have not been on the blog so I didn’t see this until today! Way up in July! I’m glad your “bucket” garden is doing good. I’m not growing tomatoes in mine this year, but I’m growing sweet bell peppers, too!
Thank you for sharing. Hope your garden is continuing to produce!!
Eva