Tomatoes are a staple of summer gardening. We cover everything from choosing the right variety to techniques for staking and watering.
Welcome to the Tomato Club. Rule number one: we do not let fruit-laden vines snap, rot, or dry out in the late-summer heat. Rule number two: we respect regional growing calendars. Rule number three: we bow only to the almighty salsa and only while licking our plates. So grab your snips, stakes, and watering wand,…
Tomato plants can get heavy fast, especially once the fruit starts filling out. Give them the right support early, and you’ll avoid sagging stems, snapped branches, and tomatoes dragging through the soil. Here are eleven sturdy, field-tested setups that keep plants upright and make harvest season a whole lot less chaotic. If you’re also sorting…
Tomatoes are easily the most vulnerable crops out there… at least in my experience. I’ve dealt with pretty much everything, including heat stress, poor fruiting, rot, pest infestations – you name it, it’s probably happened in my mom’s backyard tomato patch. Despite all that, however, today, our tomato crops thrive and give us bigger and…
One of the crops I’ve had trouble growing throughout my gardening journey is the mighty tomato. Yeah…let’s just say that tomatoes have given me a VERY hard time. But every challenge is a chance to learn, and today, I’m proud to say I have a thriving tomato patch that produces bigger and better yields every…
There’s no shortage of old wisdom in the garden, and companion planting—growing certain crops close together for mutual benefit—is one of the more enduring ideas. Among the most talked-about pairings is basil alongside tomatoes. It’s often repeated in gardening circles, passed on from grower to grower, and while not every claim about this duo is…
Ever noticed how most gardening advice floating around sounds like your grandma’s incantations to her prize-winning tomatoes? You hear it, you nod, but when you’re actually standing in front of your own sprawling plant… suddenly the magic feels a little lost in translation. There’s no voodoo, no chanting under a full moon, no elaborate rain…