Okay, I’ll admit that this summer was a terrible one for growing tomatoes, and no, I can’t make claims that my garden was immune from the sting of Tomato Blight! But you know what, I still had more than enough homegrown tomatoes to enjoy and share with friends in spite of the widespread disease. This [...]

What can be worse than rambling tomato vines and rotting fruits sprawling all over the garden? How about spending money on tomato cages and fancy supports that really are not up to the task of keeping your tomato vines upright, productive, and happy!
I’m trying a brand new tomato staking system in my garden this summer [...]

Well I finally set my heirloom tomato seedlings out into the garden. It’s a bit later than usual, but with the weather being as cool as it has been this shouldn’t amount to much of a setback for them.
Marc over at the Garden Desk announced his starting tomato lineup way back in February, and Hanna [...]

Despite the similarities in habit and appearance to the popular tomato vine, you won’t find tomatillos growing in too many backyard vegetable gardens. This unusual plant is rare in the home garden, but the fruits are popular in salsas and many other ethnic recipes.

I recently shared some of my favorite tips for growing tomatoes, but I like receiving a good tip just as much as anyone and today it’s your turn. Following are some terrific homegrown ideas for growing tomatoes picked from your very own gardens!

The theme of the latest issue of the Gardening Secrets Newsletter centered on Homegrown Tomatoes so I thought I’d post a brief summary here of some of the tips for growing tomatoes that were covered in the newsletter:

My recent trek to the Landis Valley Herb & Garden Faire rewarded me with a half dozen heirloom tomato seedlings to add to the collection of tomato transplants that I grew from seed. The biggest surprise was that many of the heirlooms purchased were varieties that I had never even heard of.

After planting about fifty tomato seeds that were given the opportunity to germinate, grow, and compete in my annual tomato seedling competition, I’m now down to twelve strong and healthy tomato plants that have earned their spots out in the garden. I selected a dozen interesting tomato varieties, most of them heirlooms, to grow from seed this season. It wasn’t easy to choose among the candidates as there are hundreds of unique heirlooms to select from.