How To Grow Vegetables and Vegetable Gardening Tips
About a year ago I was speaking with a friend of mine, and he mentioned dry farming. My first reaction to this was "Dry wha...?". He began to explain what dry farming was and the methodology behind it. To be honest, I was very skeptical and really thought he was pulling my leg.I jumped on the internet and did a little research. Come to find out dry farming tomatoes is a real practice, mostly used in the Southwest part of the country. I guess … [Read more...]
I started using Tomato-tone Organic Fertilizer in 2007, soon after planting my tomato plants for the season. I was at my local gardening center just loafing around, checking out what had recently come in. In the back of my mind, I was wanting to find a new fertilizer to use on my tomatoes and other vegetables. It was important that the new fertilizer be organic, and not contain any chemicals.During my garden center visit I came across … [Read more...]
Determining a ripe tomato might seem fairly obvious to most vegetable gardeners, right? A tomato is ripe once it turns (or begins turning) red. But what if it's an heirloom variety that is green when ripe? Or yellow? Or pink? Or orange?How can you determine it is ripe for the picking?Let's take a few minutes and talk about how to determine when a tomato is ripe and ready to be harvested. Here are a few steps you can take to make sure your … [Read more...]
One rainy day a couple weeks ago I was kicked back in the recliner catching up on some recently missed TV shows. While flipping through the channel I came across an infomercial about growing tomatoes using the Topsy Turvy Upside-Down Tomato Planter. For those that have no clue what a Topsy Turvy is, it is a system for growing tomatoes upside down. That's right.... upside down.The infomercial claimed the Topsy Turvy could grow about 60 pounds … [Read more...]
It has been a month since I planted my tomato plants, and I figured I would give an update on them. I planted 11 tomato plants in my garden on April 14th, 2009 and added two more tomato plants on May 3rd, 2009 for a total of 13 tomato plants. Some gardeners think having 13 plants is bad luck, but don't go getting superstitious on me (if I don't get any tomatoes this year, I will reconsidered my feelings on superstitions).Here's a picture of … [Read more...]
Tomatoes are vigorous, fast growing, and heavy feeding plants which require fertilization a few times during the season. Tomatoes have specific nutritional needs such as nitrogen, phosphate, potash, calcium, magnesium, potassium and other micro-nutrients to build cell wall structure and increase plant vigor.There has been much debate about what kind of fertilizer to use, how often to use it, and how to apply it. Here I will explain how I … [Read more...]
Tomatoes are without a doubt the most popular home-grown vegetable. There are many reasons for their popularity, such as great taste, an abundance of cultivars to choose from, and the ease of growing. Every home vegetable gardener should have tomatoes as a member of their garden. … [Read more...]
I'm intrigued by heirloom vegetables, and crazy about sharing my passions with others.
It is my wish to share as much of my vegetable knowledge that I can with you.
Hopefully, I can learn as much from you as you do from me.
So, I'd like to welcome you to Veggie Gardener, and please do not forget to say hello. I'd love to hear from you!
[Read More …]
Garden Connections