Get ready for a delightful treat! Unlike the uniform and hard tomatoes you find at grocery stores, homegrown tomatoes come in a wide range of shapes and offer much better flavors. Let’s dive in and learn more! Ripeness & Storage: While fried green tomatoes are delicious, it’s generally best to pick tomatoes when they are fully ripe. Tomatoes may change […]

As a gardener, it’s important to recognize that you have a cooperative relationship with Nature. This ongoing connection involves learning how to effectively manage the various conditions and variables that arise in your garden. Acceptance is a valuable aspect of my gardening journey. I’ve faced significant challenges such as disease outbreaks, infestations, and weather-related issues that have resulted in the […]

Tomatoes are a great, nutritious, and rewarding plant that you can enjoy for many months to come – but how do you grow them? And, more importantly, how to grow tomatoes in pots? If you have a small garden or no garden at all, you can still cultivate these wonderful fruits with just a little bit of insight – and […]

If there’s one thing we gardeners in the Pacific Northwest know about, it’s how to grow tomatoes in the most difficult conditions. It’s bad enough that our summers are normally very cool but now the coming weeks are filled with hot days and warm nights, the perfect breeding ground for late blight disease. Phytophthora infestans, the fungus that causes this […]

Purchase and Prepare Your Tomato Seed Because your garden soil compacts too easily and can harbor organisms that may cause diseases it’s a better choice to purchase a prepared seed starting mix. A good commercial seed starting mix is often a blend of peat moss, vermiculite, and perlite. I like to thoroughly combine the seed starting mix with warm water […]

SEED QUALITYOnly the highest-quality seed, purchased from a reputable source, should be sown. It will probably have been prepared by acid extraction, to reduce the chances of spreading any seed-borne diseases. Most seedsmen supply their seeds in sealed laminated-foil packets, to prevent moisture absorption and loss of vitality. Seed stored in these sealed packets retains its ger­minating power for several […]

The following is a list of tomato terms I assembled to provide you useful information while you shop for the most suitable varieties of tomatoes for your garden. Beefsteak – A type of tomato rather than a variety (although there really is a particular variety named ‘Beefsteak.’) Usually considered a large, irregular shaped tomato with solid flesh.Cotyledons – The first […]