Back from Houston

Flight arrived on time into Tampa Int'l. On the way home from the airport, I had to stop by the garden and check on the progress. I hadn't seen it in over 4 days. When I saw the changes I couldn't believe it! There were small purple podded pole beans, small zucchinis,
3 red peppers ready to be picked, about a dozen orange sungold tomatoes, more cucumbers,
and some eggplants that had set fruit, and the best surprise of all, a perfectly ripe Brandy Boy tomato-the first ripe large tomato of the season.

I have to back up here and say that I have NEVER had any luck growing the large tomatoes here in Florida. The bugs always seem to ruin the fun--be it the hornworms, or the stinkbugs, or the aphids, or the leaf miners, or the slugs--you name it. In this particular garden I did not use ANY insecticides, and that includes any and all organic pest controls.
There have been NOTHING to date attacking these large tomatoes. I attribute it to the health of the plants, the minerals, and the microorganisms that I have added to the soil.
Plus, the compost tea and the earthworm castings.

So on the way home from the airport I picked 2 vine ripe Brandy Boy tomatoes (I'll definitely be planting some more of those), a cucumber (#33), and 2 red ripe bell peppers.
Once home I weighed the tomatoes--the larger one was 8 1/2 oz and the smaller 4 3/4 oz.
I can't wait to slice into one soon and take photos showing the inside.

Here are some photos from today's harvest:

And here is a photo just of the first tomato of the season--a 8 1/2 oz. Brandy Boy!

Here is another view--this tomato plant was started from seed by me, in my garage, on Dec. 1, 2010,

approximately 4 1/2 months ago! The plant is huge, and has set dozens of fruit, and is over 6 feet tall!