Tomato Planting

Dave and I have been closely watching our budget, but it's just hard for us to let a year go by without fresh tomatoes. Especially this year, because we didn't get a good yield last year. Normally we plant our tomatoes in empty cat litter buckets, but last year, we'd decided to try a Topsy Turvy. I didn't work. I got two tomatoes at the beginning, then no more for the rest of the season. I don't think the Topsy Turvy is to blame. I personally believe that after the pecan tree in the back yard leafed out, it was too shady for the plants. Thier growth was stunted, and they eventually died. This year, we're going back to the litter buckets. They're not very attractive, but they've worked well for us in the past.
Since we're now on a tight budget, my plant shopping behavior has changed somewhat. I have to look for smaller plants, and I get much more irritated if something isn't priced. For tomatoes, we like to buy either Early Girl or Bush Goliath. They are larger than cherry tomatoes, and still suitable for containers. We found these at Home Depot for $1.98 each. Normally we'd have grabbed two plants, and a bell pepper plant (also suitable for containers) for our veggie growing, but we kept looking. It's a good thing, because we found four-packs of Early Girl tomatoes, priced at only $1.68. I know they're smaller plants, but four for less than the cost of one? Yes, this was the way to go. We didn't get bell peppers this year. Four is way too many for us, and they never do that well for me anyway. We picked up a bag of regular potting mix instead of moisture control, which is fine. I honestly can't tell that much difference anyway.
So yesterday, after Church, Dave got four litter buckets out of the shed, and drilled holes in them. I spent the day planting tomatoes, and repotting some of my coral bells. This I had to do, because I buy cheap pots, and after being exposed to the elements over a period of time, some had cracked. Dave weed-eated (is that a word?) around the rocks in the walkway, and shop vacced (another non-word) the screened porch. We're both very proud of what we got accomplished. Especially on a weekend where we didn't have much time to work.