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<p>KINGSTON &#8212; His garden may be small enough for his dog to run the length in about one second, but John O&#8217;Rourke knew he&#8217;d have plenty of room for tomato plants, especially after he built a trellis.</p><p>His tomato vines have grown over the structure and formed a tunnel that makes picking easy, and for &#8220;a backyard farmer,&#8221; as he calls himself, O&#8217;Rourke does a lot of picking.</p><p>&#8220;If I don&#8217;t pull them just right, they could split,&#8221; he said as he harvested some of the tiny cherry and grape varieties on a recent sunny afternoon. &#8220;Sometimes I have to pull 100 in order to get 10 good ones.&#8221;</p><p>It&#8217;s not that the other 90 aren&#8217;t good &#8212; and tasty. O&#8217;Rourke and his wife, Diane, enjoy lots of tomato sandwiches and happily share the bounty with friends, neighbors and their four grown children.</p><p>It&#8217;s just that the avid gardener wants some especially pretty, well-formed specimens to submit to competition at the Bloomsburg Fair, which is set for Sept. 26 to Oct. 3. He&#8217;s hoping to add to the collection of 17 ribbons, representing first, second and third place, he&#8217;s won during the past five years.</p><p>Growers he&#8217;s met at past fairs have given him advice on entering fruit, including a tip about leaving a bit of the green stem on each tomato because it looks attractive. &#8220;The farmers I&#8217;ve met there have been really nice,&#8221; he said.</p><p>He&#8217;s also learned from experience he should bring along extra tomatoes, more than he plans to enter, because some might start to show their age on the 40-mile trip to Bloomsburg.</p><p>O&#8217;Rourke plans to enter several categories of tomatoes &#8212; cherry, grape, larger red and yellow varieties, Roma tomatoes, perhaps even a sample of green tomatoes.</p><p>Depending on the size, he&#8217;ll include 10 small tomatoes, five medium or three large ones in an entry.</p><p>&#8220;Everybody&#8217;s got a hobby,&#8221; he said as he searched for more tomatoes and put them on his porch banister for further ripening.</p><p>&#8220;I used to roller skate, until I was about 73 or 74,&#8221; he said, explaining a herniated disk and sciatica prevent him from enjoying that pastime now.</p><p>But O&#8217;Rourke, 77, who is retired after 40 years with Acme Markets, keeps busy with his tomatoes as well as some peppers and cucumbers on his &#8220;backyard farm.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;I start in April, turning the ground over,&#8221; he said. &#8220;By June I&#8217;m spending two hours a day out here.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">&#8216;Backyard farmer&#8217; John O&#8217;Rourke of Kingston put some tomatoes on the porch banister for further ripening. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_tomatoes01.jpg</photo0><caption0>&#8216;Backyard farmer&#8217; John O&#8217;Rourke of Kingston put some tomatoes on the porch banister for further ripening. </caption0><photoCredit0>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_tomatoes02.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">John O&#8217;Rourke&#8217;s tomato vines just keep growing, so he continues to secure them to a trellis in his Kingston backyard. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_tomatoes02.jpg</photo1><caption1>John O&#8217;Rourke&#8217;s tomato vines just keep growing, so he continues to secure them to a trellis in his Kingston backyard. </caption1><photoCredit1>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_tomatoes03.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">With tomatoes growing on a trellis, John O&#8217;Rourke of Kingston doesn&#8217;t have to stoop to pick much of the harvest. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_tomatoes03.jpg</photo2><caption2>With tomatoes growing on a trellis, John O&#8217;Rourke of Kingston doesn&#8217;t have to stoop to pick much of the harvest. </caption2><photoCredit2>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_tomatoes04.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">For smaller varieties of tomatoes, such as grape or cherry, John O&#8217;Rourke of Kingston will select 10 to enter to the Bloomsburg Fair. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_tomatoes04.jpg</photo3><caption3>For smaller varieties of tomatoes, such as grape or cherry, John O&#8217;Rourke of Kingston will select 10 to enter to the Bloomsburg Fair. </caption3><photoCredit3>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p><strong>By Mary Therese Biebel</strong></p><p>mbiebel@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mary Therese Biebel at 570-991-6109 or on Twitter @BiebelMT</p></shirttailMeta></div>

How does your garden grow: Kingston man hopes this year’s tomato crop will help add to his collection of Bloomsburg Fair ribbons