Garden Tomatoes

Some gardeners worry how their garden will survive while they are away on holidays. With a little organization and preparation, you can go on holidays without worrying about facing impending doom in your veggie patch when you get home.1: Plan the timing of your holiday. Donâ??t decide to go lay on a beach somewhere when you know your gorgeous tomatoes will be turning ripe. Youâ??ll miss out on your harvest and be so disappointed (well I would!). I find the best time to go â?? if I must go in summer â?? is mid-summer. My spring vegetables are finished and my summer vegetables arenâ??t ready yet. 2: Adjust the planting of your garden. If you know youâ??re going to be away later in summer, then plant everything later so that it matures later â?? when youâ??re back and refreshed. This works well for tomatoes, capsicums / peppers, beans etc.3: Harvest before you leave. If youâ??re going to be gone a week or so, pick all your beans, even the ones that are too small to use. Beans stop producing when they are allowed to mature, so pick those that will mature while youâ??re gone. Do the same with eggplant. Tomatoes and peppers can generally either stay on the plant or fall onto the ground without harming the plants. Pick all the female flowers from your summer squash plants. Itâ??s amazing how fast a zucchini can grow into the size of a house when youâ??re not looking.

Take any fresh veggies along with you, especially if youâ??re visiting friends or relatives. Iâ??m sure theyâ??ll love it. 4: Get on top of the weeds. Pull out any larger weeds. You donâ??t want to come home to find your garden taken over by triffids. And gardeners know that one season of weed seeds, means seven years of weeding!5: Water deeply. Even if it has rained recently before you go away, you still should give your plants a healthy watering before you leave. Even better, is to have an irrigation system set up, with a timer â?? set and forget.6: Apply mulch. Mulch thickly (15cm / 6inches) with moistened pea-straw or similar after a good watering. Add some compost under the mulch as an extra bonus for your plants. The mulch will conserve water and prevent weeds. 7: Enjoy your holiday. Now you can leave your garden knowing that it has already been well cared for.

Imagine finding a way to save money, get some fresh air and eat healthier- all at the same time. The easy way to slash your grocery bill this summer is to grow a kitchen garden. A simple garden, that’s easy to tend to and maintain will supply you with an abundance of healthy vegetables and herbs all summer. Even a small investment of $50 in some basic supplies and seeds can result over $1200 in produce! That’s a huge return- plus you know it will all taste better than anything that’s been shipped to your local grocery store. There are three basic steps to get started. Plan, Prepare and Plant, it’s that simple. 1) Planning: It can be overwhelming to stand in front of a display of seeds and try to decide what to grab. First start with what you enjoy eating. There’s no sense in growing peppers if you won’t be enjoying them on your salad. You are in charge here and there is no obligation to grow certain things just because you think you should, or your neighbor is growing it. Sit down and really be honest about what you eat and enjoy. Start simple, maybe just go with two types of tomatoes, snap peas and green beans. Don’t go crazy and try to start with a dozen different vegetables, you’ll just get overwhelmed and not tend to the plants, or throw away excess. 2) Prepare: Head out into the yard and see what areas receive the most amount of sun during the day- Vegetable gardens need full sun! Now you’ll need to decide how much space you want to devote to your new garden. If you want to keep it simple, something as small as a 4 x 4 foot space would be enough. You could even get started with pots on a deck- the point it to just get growing! Next you need to dig up the soil and remove any sod (grass) from the area. Digging down about 6 inches to loosen up the dirt will suffice. Remove any roots, rocks and debris you unearth. To make sure you new plants are happy, you should amend the soil with some peat moss and compost. Compost is available for purchase, but starting your own compost pile is easy! 3) Plant: You know what you want to grow and you’ve got your seeds started, or purchased seedlings at your local greenhouse. Following directions for each to ensure proper spacing. Some plants will need some vertical support if they’re vining plants (i.e. green beans). You can string up trellis netting, or build a simple three-leg pyramid out of long branches. And keep up with the watering. Long hot stretches of dry weather will keep you plant too busy growing roots to find water, instead of growing up and producing! Put out some clean buckets and start catching free rainwater. Enjoying that warm juicy tomato you grew yourself will get you hooked on gardening forever. Maybe you want to have a more elaborate garden and are ready to take the next step beyond tomatoes and peas? Maybe you’re ready to get your own compost pile started so you can put that “black gold” straight into your garden? Go to: www.FirstLadyGardens.com for more tips and plans to create the kitchen garden of your dreams.

Tomatoes, although technically short-lived perennials, are treated as annuals and raised from seed each year. They are sub-tropical plants that require a consistent temperature of at least 55ºF in order to germinate successfully, but a temperature of 70ºF will produce much quicker emergence and is generally preferred. Given warmth, good light and a damp friable growing medium tomatoes are very easy to raise from seed.

For most gardeners, even those that live in warmer districts where tomatoes are cultivated outdoors from their very early stages of growth, it is usual to start the seeds off in pans or flats of compost under controlled conditions. Tomatoes can be sown directly into the open ground, where the climate and soil conditions are suitable, but much better establishment of better quality plants always results from controlled seed raising and growing the seedlings during their initial stages of growth in independent modules or pots. Transplanting is easier and establishment is rapid.

As tomato seeds are large enough to handle individually, it is best to space them out on the surface of the prepared compost so that when they germinate they do not crowd each other. Also when they are pricked out there is no undue disturbance of the fragile root systems through them having become entangled with each other. A properly formulated seed compost is essential. A sterile medium of a texture and quality that will offer the best start for the germinating seeds.

There are a number of different composts available, but for the hobby gardener a good soil-based seed compost is to be preferred to a soil-less one. Soil-based composts, although generally slower to warm-up, and often slightly impairing the speed of seed germination, usually yield the finest and strongest plants, especially for planting directly into the garden outdoors.

Plants that have been raised in a soil-less compost, which almost always comprises a high proportion of friable peat, often take time to adapt their roots to the more hostile and less forgiving medium of natural garden soil when planted in their permanent positions. Sometimes a check in growth occurs while the roots adapt, resulting in an impairment in the plant’s development.

Soil-based composts also overcome the problem, commonly encountered with tomato seedlings raised in a soil-less medium, of the seed coat sticking the two seed leaves together, often making them inseparable without causing damage. The seed coat is generally detached by the coarser soil-based medium as the seedlings emerge.

Once the seedlings have their two seed leaves fully expanded they should be pricked out, ideally into individual modules or small pots, although they can spend two or three weeks pricked out into flats in order to save space when this is necessary. Like all seedlings, tomatoes that are raised in this manner are vulnerable to damping off disease. This causes the seedlings to rot at the base of the stem and collapse. The routine use of a fungicidal treatment is to be recommended.

Here are some easy guidelines you should follow when buying your tomato plants. Step one, be sure the starter plants you buy have no yellow leaves on them as this is a sign that you could be buying trouble right from the start. Inspect the container. An indication the plant has been in the container too long is if the roots are growing out of the slits. Do not buy any starter plants that bear fruit already, as these plants will most likely produce very few tomatoes in the long run.

Step two is to prepare the soil. Tomato gardening is best in a soft soil. Mixing in some sand and compost will give them a healthy start. We have that colloidal humus is the best product to use as a compost. Preheating the soil in your tomato garden will give your tomatoes a boost that they will love. Just place plastic bags (black is best) over the dirt for a couple of weeks before planting. This will raise the temperature of the ground. This will help you obtain early tomatoes.

Step three is getting them in the ground. Tomatoes should be planted deeper than they come in the pot. You can plant them all the way up to a few top leaves. You can dig a deep hole or a long shallow hole and lay the plant sideways. It will find the sun and grow straight up through the soil. Tomatoes are capable of rooting all along their stems.

Step four is optional but recommended. Mulching is always a good idea for tomato gardens for moisture retention; however give the ground a chance to warm up some more after the planting before you put down your mulch. Mulch will also keep the soil born diseases from splashing onto the plants. Plastic mulch is best for heat lovers like tomatoes and peppers.    Step five is not widely known but critical to a tasty and bountiful harvest. When the tomato plants are about 3ft. tall, removing the leaves from the bottom of the plant about 1ft. of the way up will help prevent fungus problems since these are the leaves most likely to be effected. Spraying once a week with an organic compost tea can also be effective at warding off fungus in your tomato garden. One little secret is the tomato needs lots of air flow. A mature plant should have VERY FEW LEAVES left on them! 

Step six would be to remove suckers from your tomato plants at the cross joint of two branches will add more energy to the plant as these suckers will not bear fruit anyway. Thinning the leaves will allow the tomato garden to receive more sunlight. A tomato plant requires as much air movement as water. Indeterminate type tomatoes can be coaxed into early growth by just pinching off the tips of the main stems in early summer. Determinate tomatoes usually set and ripen their fruit at the same time.  

The final step is to make sure to water generously while the plants are developing. Once the tomatoes start to ripen lessen the water so the plants will sweeten up a bit more. Be sure not to let the plants wilt or the tomato plants may drop their blossoms or even sometimes it’s fruit. Planting in containers will make them portable. Follow these steps to insure a healthy and fruitful tomato garden.