Ruler in picture is 12 inches long
"Maters" taste like good summer tomatoes from the garden

Dave's "Mater" Ring
picture taken in July 2005

Recipe for growing Tomatoes

For each Tomato Ring

*2 bags topsoil - or 2 wheelbarrows full of good garden soil
*2 bags of mulch - cypress or any other shredded bark muclch or good compost
*10 pound bag of 10-10-10 fertilizer - use 5 lbs to plant, 5 lbs later in season
*15 feet of 5 ft high wire farm fence or cocrete construction wire

You'll need about 80 quarts of good topsoil. Two bags of topsoil for each ring will work, or if you have an excess of good garden soil, use that; it will take about two wheelbarrows full.

You'll also need two bags of mulch.  You can use cypress mulch, or any other shredded bark mulch or good quality finished compost.

The only other ingredient is a 10-pound bag of 10-10-10.
 

*Take 15 feet of five foot high farm fence (or concrete construction) wire and roll it into a circle five feet in diameter, placing the cylinder in a sunny spot protected from the north and northwest winds if possible. Clear a seven-foot wide circle and break the topsoil a few inches deep. Place the wire ring in the circle, leaving a foot of cleared soil a foot outside the ring.

*Place the mulch or compost six inches deep in the ring and top it with a layer of soil and half the fertilizer. Add another layer of mulch or compost, another layer of soil and 2/3 of the remaining fertilizer on top of that. Save the rest of the fertilizer to sprinkle around the plants.

*Pat the topmost layer down in the middle to create a depression to hold water.

*Plant four, and only four tomatoes, spacing them evenly around the ring outside the wire. They will look small, but in time they will grow roots under and up into the pile.

*Lightly fertilize the new plants. We mean lightly, because too much will wither them.

*Water the plants outside the ring when they are small and inside the ring as they grow. Support the vines by tying them to the wire with soft cloth.

*Once tomato production starts pumping, top off the compost with the other five pounds of fertilizer.

Submitted by Dave Ray