Yesterday was a sad day. We ate the last fresh tomato from our garden. For the next 6 months or so we will be eating plastic, tasteless tomatoes from the grocery store. If there is one reason to have a garden – even a little garden, it’s fresh tomatoes.
My tomatoes didn’t fare as well this year as it did the year before. The early drought and heat wave slowed thingsdown, and many of my tomatoes split at the tops when the severe heat was followed up by too much rain. But despite their flaws, fresh tomatoes from the garden are hard to beat.
Here’s a suggestion if you don’t currently have a garden bed.
Buy a raised bed from Lowe’s – under $50. In March, plant some Black Simson leaf lettuce which will keep you in salad greens until mid-May. Then plant a few Big Boy or Better Boy tomato plants. If you keep them watered, they will deliver fresh tomatoes through September, then switch back to lettuce or any greens and enjoy up through November. One little garden bed will provide fresh veggies for almost 9 months.
They should put all that in the Farmer’s Almanac.
