I Can Eat a Tomato Soon -Part 1

Tomatoes—there’s a subject that will inspire strong feelings. How to start them, how to grow them, how to feed them, how to support them, which ones to grow, what a great tomato should taste like, what’s a good year etc. etc.

I remember one year when my neighbor and colleague Vicki told me that her favorite tomato of the year was Costeluto Genovese. The same tomato had been tart and boring in my yard. So I’ll start out right away by saying that I’m very opinionated on the subject and if you try growing tomatoes my way you will DEFINITELY find that what I say will not work for you. Well…. at least some of it.

Gardening is all about cycles. There is the weather cycle, the moon cycle, the soil micro-organism cycle, the watering cycle, the insect hatching cycles, the sun strength cycle, the when you get around to weeding/feeding/mulching cycles, the are you paying attention cycle and the did you harvest at the right time for all the other cycles cycle. If you are lucky you will plant, care and harvest with the cycles in a way that strengthens your plants and gives you a bumper crop. One good tomato year my dear friend Adela came to visit. I had a huge shopping basket that was full to the brim with tomatoes and I told her she could have some. Much to my surprise, after she left, I discovered she had taken them all. That was ok. I went back out in the garden and filled it up again. Last year was abysmal and I couldn’t have filled that basket to save my life. I didn’t do anything differently.

Recently, in one of my gardening groups, there was a heated and unfriendly discussion of whether tomatoes should be started in a sterile potting medium or in a home concoction that included organism rich compost. Jeeeeeeeeeeez When I was done following it I felt like I had just read the damn election voter pamphlet. You read it all and you still haven’t a clue what to do. Some beginners read this stuff and give up before they even start. In some ways they were better off sticking a plant in the ground that Aunt Edith gave them and following her instructions.

So—if you want to plant some tomatoes still this year— get yourself down to OSH and buy one of their great 6-packs that have 6 different tomatoes in it for $2.19 and stick them in the ground in the sun. While you’re there get a couple bags of compost and fix up your soil a little. And maybe some organic fertilizer that has very little nitrogen in it (the first of the 3 numbers is the lowest i.e. 5-10-10 or 2-6-6) As they grow tie them up to something and water them well a couple times a week- more when it gets hot.. End of story. I admit this is the short version. I’ll share the longer one soon, but there is no reason why that much information couldn’t get you some great tomatoes.