Maura bought one Roma tomato plant and one Early Girl plant. I imagined the Roma might develop well through the fruiting stage in the grow tent, so after the germinated seedlings were set out, I arranged the Roma in it.

We knew both night and daytime temperatures were too low to allow this indeterminate plant to grow well, so to protect it from moisture and retain some of the warmth that sunshine gave, we covered it in row cover. This beat keeping it in the house and carting it outside when weather forecasts were favorable (as we did in previous years).

The Early Girl tomato became our favorite in previous years. Then we grew the bush variety, but this year we cold only find the indeterminate plant. In spite of expansive growth, the Early Girl continues our appreciation for production.

I decided to trust my previous experience with peppers and leave the Lunchbox pepper (with its miniature fruits) out in the open in its container.

The Roma hadn't done well in the grow tent, so we moved it onto the west deck as temperatures warmed. At first I was puzzled about the poor development of the Roma in the grow tent. Reflection revealed one obvious condition, which I had not encountered before. We put the Roma in a growbag - a container made of fabric. Growing it outside next to the tomatoes revealed how much more watering it took, compared to when it was in the tent. I concluded that the fabric of the grow bag allowed more evaporation from the container than I anticipated.

After we took away the shroud from the Early Girl, it began spreading. Out in the open it required daily watering, as did the other two container plants, but branches extended into stems that blossomed with potential fruit.

Before fruiting had ended we counted two dozen developing tomatoes.