Garden Tips: Tomato Planting

Now that tomato planting weather is upon us, I want to write a little about some questions we often receive from customers. One of them is "When can I plant tomatoes?"

Tomatoes are best planted when the soil is warm (night time temperatures are 50F or above) and all danger of frost has gone by. In Burlington that is generally the end of May or the first week in June.  The best planting method for tomatoes involves digging a shallow trench and laying them in it. You can break off the leaves on the bottom 2/3 of the plant and bury the whole stem horizontally in the warm top layer of soil. The buried stem will turn into a huge and healthy root system. The top of the plant is gently bent upwards and soil is patted around the base.  Tomatoes must be trellised for best results; it keeps the plant healthy, off the ground, and the fruit stays clean.

Here are some photos of a tomato planting that happened recently in our display garden:

The language that describes tomato plants can be a little confusing. Here are a few tomato terms explained: Hybrid - a tomato that is a cross between two different types of tomatoes. Seeds from these tomatoes will not grow out true to type, but will revert back to one of the parent tomato varieties. Hybrids are not genetically modified, they are just a simple cross between two types. For example, one tomato with good disease resistance is crossed with another variety that is known for good flavor in hopes of producing a healthy yet tasty tomato. Some of our favorite hybrids are Big Beef and Early Girl. Open Pollinated - a tomato that is the product of two parents that are the same variety. The seeds from these tomatoes will be true to type. All of our "heirloom" tomatoes are open pollinated and the seeds could be saved from those fruit. Heirloom - a variety with a story. These are plants which have been handed down, brought to the new world in various ways, found in distant parts, or in your neighbors back yard. These are all open pollinated. Heirloom is not a botanical terms, it just means that it is an older variety with a lot of flavor or other appealing characteristic like color of shape. Sometimes heirlooms are less disease resistant than hybrids, but they make up for it with flavor. Heirlooms are sought after by home gardeners since those types of tomatoes are not found in conventional grocery stores. Around here they are easily purchased at farmers markets, but it is always nice to eat something harvested just seconds ago from your own garden. Determinate - a tomato that only grows to a certain height and then all of the fruit ripen at once and then the plant dies. This is a good option for people who can or freeze tomatoes so that they will have a big batch ready to use all at once. Some of our favorite determinate tomatoes are Glacier (which is also an heirloom and very early to boot) and Celebrity. Indeterminate - a tomato that grows and grows, with the fruit ripening in various stages. The plant grows until it is killed by frost or disease. In a warm climate these plants would grow into woody vines.  Most of the tomatoes we grow are indeterminate. They require staking or cages, and there are many different methods for doing so. I've seen hockey sticks used in community gardens in Montreal!  Concrete reinforcement wire can be cut into 6 foot sections and bent into a tube shape - this makes once of the strongest and largest cages possible. There are lots of great trellising and caging systems available at Gardeners' Supply Company and your local hardware store will have simple wooden stakes and twine. Professional vegetable growers oftenuse a method called "bakset weaving" which is simple, efficient and affordable.  Here is a description from the University of New Hampshire Extension Service:

•Remove suckers (new shoots that develop in the leaf axils) before they reach an inch in length. • Leave the first sucker that grows below the first flower cluster, removing all others below the first flower cluster; allow suckers above first flower cluster to grow. • Pinch off tops once plants reach a few inches above stake. • Use 4 ft. sturdy wooden stakes, with double stakes at end of each row for strength. • Set stakes six inches deep, one stake for every two plants, as soon as seedlings are transplanted. • Begin supporting tomato seedlings after they have set the first flower clusters. • Tie sturdy, untreated twine at one end of row, about 18” up from soil level. Weave twine between tomato plants, wrapping twice around each stake down the row. After reaching the end- stakes, weave twine back up the row in the opposite direction, alternating with the weave-pattern of the first strand so each plant stem is encircled by twine. • As plants grow, weave another layer of twine every 6-8 inches to keep plants well supported. Four layers of twine will support most varieties.

Hope this information helps, and as always feel free to stop by our greenhouses where our staff can always talk to your about your tomato growing concerns. Happy gardening!

Planning for a Full Harvest all Season Long

Growing vegetables in your backyard, community garden or in some containers by the kitchen door is a great way to feed yourself -- whether it be just a few ripe tomatoes in August or a full fledged homesteaders garden, you are on the right path to feeding yourself and your family.  Gardening is a great way to improve how you eat while spending some contemplative time outside. With all of these benefits in mind, it is easy to jump into gardening enthusiastically, and you will reap even more rewards with a little bit of planning. In Vermont, our gardening season seems short but can be stretched year round with a few simple tips.  I always recommend that people take a look at how their vegetable gardens have been in the past and find just one or two things they would like to improve so that they can grow more of it for a longer season.  For example a common questions I hear is "how can I keep cilantro from bolting?"  Well, in short, you can't! But with a few changes in your gardening practices, you can grow it all spring, summer, and fall without ever seeing it go to seed.  The trick is to understand the life cycle of each food crop and how to best plant it to maximize it's harvest.  With certain crops, like zucchini, it is best to understand how prolific they are and to plant them conservatively so that the entire garden (and thereby your diet and your neighbors' diet) is not taken over with just one thing.  It is also helpful to plant things seasonally so that the harvest is not so overwhelming in August with little to eat before or after. Succession Planting for Successful Gardening Certain crops should be planted multiple times throughout the season to ensure a continuous harvest.  How often you plant is a matter of taste and space and time. The following list describes the maximum you could do with each crop, but adjust according to your needs and priorities -- this is just a guide.

Lettuce can be planted from seed or from transplants.  Seed grown lettuce is often grown in a row that can be cut and will re-grow a few times.  Transplanted lettuce can be grown for full heads like what you find in the store.  Both methods require regular planting every week or two for a continuous harvest.  It can be planted from seed in mid-April to mid-August for cut greens and transplanted for full heads from late April through early August.  Some people will transplant a few plants and plant some seeds at the same time in a different area; this method provides two generations of lettuce.  Once the cut lettuce becomes bitter in the heat of summer, it is best to pull it up, recondition the soil and plant something else.  If the goal is to always have fresh lettuce and it is very simple to do if you remember to replant.

Cilantro is very similar to lettuce in its growing habits.  It will grow up to a point and then goes to seed, or bolts.  It i will bolt more quickly in summer heat and, conversely, will stand ready to harvest for many weeks in the cool weather of spring and fall--even early winter.  It can be transplanted or grown from seed.  Like lettuce, it is simple to do both at the same time, thereby giving the gardener two generations.  Cilantro seed is coriander, so it does have a use if you enjoy that flavor.

Dill can be treated just like cilantro, and like coriander seed, dill seed heads have a use in the kitchen, so it is fine to let some of the dill patch go to seed.

Basil can be planted multiple times for best results.  Plants can be pinched to slow down the flowering, but best flavor will come from newly replanted basil plants.  Heat loving. Should only be planted once soil temps are in the upper 50's.

Cucumbers, cantaloupes, and zucchini and summer squash are best in quality when well tended. Just a single plant or two of any of those is usually enough for the home gardener, but by planting it three different times, the quality will always be good. The dates are: June 1st (or last week in May if you are in a warm spot), July 1st and July 15th.  This method will ensure a continuous harvest of prime looking vegetables.  Just remember to pull out and discard the pest and disease prone plants.  If your compost gets very hot and is well managed, it is okay to compost these plants.  Pest problems will diminish when the older, less healthy plants are removed.

Arugula, Cress, and other cutting greens for salads are best if sown or transplanted on a weekly or biweekly basis.  Again, a small amount can be seeded next to the transplanted crops in order to give you 2 generations at once.  This way you can have smaller quantities coming in at various times. Broccoli gives the gardener a couple of options.  It is best if transplanted and can be planted 3 dates in the spring and 3 dates in late summer for a continuous harvest.  I would choose late April, early May and mid May for the spring plantings and then Early August, mid August and early September for the fall plantings.  Full heads can be harvested and the plants can stay in the ground to produce side shoots. Green Beans -- are best when fresh and young.  The seed is relatively cheap, so it is better to rip out old plants and have new ones coming along regularly.  Having multiple plantings also means that no on is stuck picking beans for ours on end.  Sow new seeds when the previous or first generation is about 6 inches high.

Boc Choi, Cabbage, Scallions, Cauliflower -- these can also be planted multiple times.  Cabbage holds well in heat and can be planted every couple of weeks late April through early August.  Boc Choi and Cauliflower are not as heat tolerant and should be planted around the same dates as broccoli (see above). It is best to use row cover like reemay on these young transplants so that flea beetles do not destroy the plants. Spinach is another one that does not do well in the heat, but can be planted multiple times in spring and late summer.  It can also overwinter with a little straw mulch for very early spring eating.  Date to plant are (up to every week) mid April to early June and then early August to mid September. The last plantings in September are the ones which will be over-wintered and eaten the following spring.

Beets, Carrots, Turnips can be planted every two or three weeks from mid-April until about the third week in July.  Summer carrots are not the same as fall carrots and certain varieties do better in summer than in fall. Celery and Celeriac are slower growing and can be planted 2 to 3 times during the season.  Mid May until early July.  These need lots of water and benefit from straw mulch.

Bulb fennel and radishes are similar to lettuce -- they can be planted each week if really loved, but they bolt in the heat and do best in cooler temperatures of spring and fall.  Best if planted late April to early June and then again late August to mid September.  Very cold tolerant and hold well in late fall,  radishes are sown from seeds and fennel is best transplanted. Corn -- it is possible to do multiple plantings over different weeks, but an easier method is to plant all at once, but with various varieties that have different days to maturity.  There can be a 40 day span between early and late varieties. Peas -- can be planted every week, but this requires a lot of harvesting, irrigating, trellising, and variety research.  It is possible though.  More practically, the home gardener can sow 2 or 3 varieties in late April with various days to maturity.  Fall plantings are sometimes successful but weather dependent. These should be done in mid August.

The following are generally planted just once a year, but the harvest can be staggered with a few tricks: Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant -- try a few varieties of each in order to not have everything at once.  Determinate tomatoes will provide you with a big harvest all at once which is a good thing for people who make big batches of sauce for canning or freezing.

Onions and Potatoes are generally planted all at once, and again a few different varieties will provide you with a longer period of fresh eating.  Both onions and potatoes can be stored for long periods of time in cool and dark conditions.  Both can also be eaten fresh. Winter Squash is another crop that is just planted once and stored.  Best if cured for a week or two in a warm spot before eating.

Marigolds

Tiger Eye French Marigold

Marigolds are one of my favorite plants and I find myself often defending them. They have a reputation for being stodgy and boring, and while they are certainly ubiquitous, there are plenty of interesting varieties out there that no one needs to get bored with them.  Discoveries of unusual marigolds continue to delight me as I peruse catalogs and put the finishing touches on our seeding plans.

he first European discovery of them was by the Portuguese in Central America. I am not sure if they were cultivated by Native Americans, or just growing wild, but they were no doubt appreciated. The Portuguese brought them to Europe and India. Now they are used widely throughout the world for ornamental, medicinal, ritual, and culinary purposes. All marigolds are edible, but the small flowere tagetes type, like the gem series are best used for this purpose.

I am working out the timing of all our marigold varieties. Doing the timing means figuring out when to plant them, how often to plant them and what kind of pot they should end up in. When you buy marigolds, they usually come in 4 packs or 6 packs, and have often by treated with a hormone that induces them to bloom on short stems so that you know what they will look like once planted.

We don't use any kind of hormone sprays or growth regulators. So sometimes, we sell marigolds and other annuals while they are still green, without blooms. It involves a little more work because we have to have pictures of the marigolds around the greenhouse and we have to explain why we do it, but really it much better than using  a bunch of chemicals.

Here are some of the new varieties we are doing this year.

I really love marigolds. I know that they are not unusual or rare, but they fire up some sort of ofalctory memory center for me. Maybe my grandmother had them, or my parents planted them. I have no visual memory of them that is as strong as the scent memory. Their pungent, almost citrus-like aroma is a deterent to some and appealing to others. How do you feel about marigolds?

Anyhow, here are a few that I am excited about.

crackerjack Mix Marigold

Creamy Vanilla African Marigold

French Bonanza Flame Marigold

Jolly Jester Marigold

This last one is, Jolly Jester, is one of my favorites. It is about 4 feet tall, and not at all a typical marigold. The striped blooms are a contrasting play of lively yellow and deep orange, and they sway gently in the breeze. They do not at all have the stiff appearance of many marigolds and kids just love them. This is an old-fashioned variety - we find the seeds at Seed Savers Exchange which specializes in heirloom seeds of harder to find plants. 97 of our 679 varieties come from them.

Plants for Honey Bees

Calendula

Cleome

Cosmos

Heliotrope

Hyacinth Bean Vine

Salvia

Mints

Scarlet Runner Bean

Sorghum

Basils

Borage

Catnip

Chamomile

Chives

Cilantro

Dill

Germander

Lavender

marjoram

Oregano

Rosemary

Sage

Thyme

Savory

Clematis

Dicentra (Bleeding Heart)

Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed)

Verbena bonariensis

Lemon Balm

Asclepias

Liatris

Ajuga

Allysum

Echinacea

Perovskia (Russian Sage)

Nepeta

Salix (Willows)

Sambucus (Elderberry)

Physocarpus (Nine Bark)

Lyng's Giant Grey Stripe Sunflower

Fennel, Bronze Leaf

In general, bees like plants whose colors have alot of contrast and they go out to feed off one type of plant at a time, so it is a good idea to plant multiple plants of one type in an area. Creating a pollinator friendly garden will not only help the bees, but will also help your yields in the vegetable and fruit garden. The more pollinators come visiting the better your results...you will see it in the fruit set of squashes, cucumbers, melons, etc. Pollinator gardens help the bees, help our food supply and add beauty to our worlds.

Please visit the resources section of our garden journal for a growing list of resources pertaining to bees and pollination.

Salix nana or the Willow Wonder

Certain plants look just right in the snow, and since I am home so much more in the winter than in the summer, I like to make sure there is some winter appeal to our gardens. We have a hedgerow of Salix nana, or Arctic Blue Willow. They are a fast growing plant, perfect for privacy screens, bird habitat and bee forage.

Here is the same shrub in winter. I love how the snow just hangs in the branches. Birds perch here and get out of the wind. And the twiggy nature of these willows keeps them well employed as a privacy screen all year long.

A Time of Acceptance

I love garlic planting time.  You can really learn a lot about your soil when it is fall and the garden has spent a summer being tended (or not).  This is the second burst of good intentions, the first one being the entire month of May when ideas run ecstatically through the garden plan .  Garden cleanup is a confessional time in the gardening calendar. It is a time to look at mistakes, assess and swear to never make them again, renew your commitment to gardening, and prepare to let the passage of a long winter slowly rekindle your optimism for that spring burst.   Or you can  just learn to live with your shortcomings and realize that the garden is a very forgiving place, where perfection, motivation, and execution don't have to be the priorities.  In other words, it's time to take the pressure off.  There is so much of it in our lives, why not let the garden be a place where we accept and embrace imperfection. Garlic planting is a perfect way to mark the impending doom of winter and the shortening days.  Tucking those fat cloves deep into the earth, I feel unbounded optimism, a deep sense of satisfaction that I am punctuating the calendar with an earthy tradition, full of meaning and metaphor.  The garden is a great place to create your own traditions that are in step with changing seasons; it's a place of rituals that are private and intimate,  between you and your dirt. When I plant garlic, I imagine winter as a time to prepare for spring, as a passage in the circular cycle.  The thought of those cloves, tucked into their bed and nestled in straw, remind me that it is alright to take time to just rest and renew come those cold and bleak days.

I always start by selecting a site for the garlic that will benefit both the garden, the garlic and future crops.  Garlic brings a full  9 months of cultivation to the garden, much more than other vegetable plantings.  With it also comes a deep soil work up, a thick layer of composted manure, and another thick layer of straw.  These are all great ways to treat your soil and whatever is planted in that spot, in your garden's future, will feel the love.  As part of my garden rotation, I spend the winter imagining what will be planted where the garlic once stood, which crop will benefit from the extra organic matter and nutrients and care that the garlic received.  Many people think that garlic is a healing food with all sorts of immune boosting properties....I think it does the same type of work in the garden.  Once again, I am reminded of the way gardening is a microcosm of life and of the body, following the cycle not just of the seasons, but also, of growth and acceptance.