Photographs of this planting through the 2026 season, oldest first.
The photographs
Week of 29 JuneAn Eva Purple Ball tomato on 29 June, pale yellow-green from tip to base with the oldest leaves curled dry, standing among cut-down food jars and a drink bottle pressed into service as cloches on a bench between bare wall studs.Week of 6 JulyAn Eva Purple Ball tomato on 7 July, still only two thin arching stems and a dozen leaves, small extra leaflets tucked in along each rachis and every stalk furred white, with seeding grass and clover banked up behind it in flat light.Week of 13 JulyAn Eva Purple Ball tomato on 17 July, a flattened pale green globe under a whitish bloom of fine hairs with a paler ring around the blossom end, its calyx arms curled back tight against the shoulder, everything still wet from rain.Week of 3 AugustAn Eva Purple Ball tomato on 5 August, still smooth and pale green, its shoulder flecked and speckled with rust-tan corky scabbing down one side and its calyx lobes curled back and hooked against the stem, under flat light and gray cloud.Week of 7 SeptemberTwo Eva Purple Ball tomatoes share a forked truss on 8 September — the larger a pale sage globe with white fuzz just catching along its silhouette, the smaller paler still and pleated with six or seven shallow ribs, its browned calyx splayed out like a claw.Week of 21 SeptemberTwo round, slightly flattened fruits, unripe on 21 September, skin pale green with a yellow blush and finely stippled with paler flecks, shoulders softly ribbed and lobed. Soft indoor light glosses them on a rumpled white cloth beside beans and chiles.
