Tomatoes: “Wolf Peaches”
Tomatoes are something like that co-worker who sweetly wears pencil skirts and cardigans, and is all sunshine and timely expense reports.
Leave nothing to chance. Plant too soon, and your seedlings will have outgrown their pots more than once before the weather warms up.
Photograph by Ron Reason for Gardenista.
More than 7,500 varieties of tomatoes exist.
Photograph by Todd Porter and Diane Cu.
On indeterminate tomato plants, the fruit ripens one by one, rather than all at once. Removing the suckers sends energy down the main vines.
Photograph by Laura Edwards.
For more, see Required Reading: Kitchen Memories by Lucy Boyd.
Photograph by Michael A. Muller for Gardenista.
Cheat Sheet
A bit of history: The original tomato gardeners, Mesoamerican people like the Aztecs and Pueblos, ate tomatoes cooked, and believed the seeds could aid in divination. Following colonization, the seeds of those plants slowly spread across continents, meeting resistance in some places.
Photograph by Laura Silverman for Gardenista.
Keep It Alive
For one of our favorite easy tomato recipes, check out Irresistible Vegetable Soup in 30 Minutes or Less. See Summertime Delicacies: Corn and Tomato Salad.
Photograph by Erin Boyle.
Photograph by Paul Costello, courtesy of Rizzoli.
See Julia Reed’s tomatopalooza recipes in Required Reading: Julia Reed’s South. Finally, get more ideas on how to successfully plant, grow, and care for tomatoes with our Tomatoes: A Field Guide.