What Garden Suppliers Don’t Want You to Know About Growing Your Own Tomatoes
“Green” gardeners (as in beginners) may be in for a surprise
Spring has sprung, and a shower of gardening catalogs has descended on my mailbox, poised to inspire dreams of produce and blossoms galore.
I get them all: White Flower Farm, Annie’s Annuals, Burpee, Gardener’s Supply Company, Brecks, The Whole Seed Catalog, you name it.
As much as I enjoy looking through them (to an avid gardener, the photos are practically pornographic), over the years, I’ve come to realize that I will never coax some of the dreams they’re selling into reality.
Take the tomato, the most popular edible among home gardeners. Every year, even those who don’t grow anything else take a stab at growing tomatoes. And why not? One of life’s greatest joys is biting into a summer-ripe, fresh off the vine tomato that you grew yourself.
You can eat them straight off the vine like an apple, sliced in a salad, or cooked in a sauce. You can freeze them, dry them, or can them for later use. A wide range of varieties, colors, and flavors are…
