Everything you need to know to grow tomatoes

Summer tomato plant

Monday, May 12, 2025

Tomatoes are Americans favorite vegetable to grow.  There really is no comparison between a home grown tomato and a store bought tomato.  There are just a few tips to know about growing great tasting tomatoes. 

The first is knowing what type of tomato to purchase

There are two types of tomatoes-indeterminate and determinate.  Determinate grow to a set height and the fruit sets all at once.  These can be a great candidate for canning if you would like to get your tomato canning done all at once.  Indeterminate continue to grow and yield fruits (yes, the tomato is actually a fruit) until frost.  These are the best for fresh tomatoes all season long.  Determinates height typically stays below 4'; indeterminates can grow well over 8' in a season.

Choosing which tomatoes to grow

I grow only indeterminates.  For what we don’t eat, I freeze whole in quart freezer bags for chili and salsa until fall.  Come fall, I start canning the surplus.  I like growing a variety of tomatoes, with different colors, salad tomatoes, slicers, and paste tomatoes.  I like adding paste tomatoes to each freezer bag as they give a silky sauce.  And colors are just fun!  I always have red and purple tomatoes in the garden.  Three that I have every year are Chocolate Pear for salads, heirloom Italian Pear Paste for sauces, and heirloom Cherokee Purple for slicers.
The Power of Purple

This year I am trying a medium purple slicer, Ukranian Purple, that is an early fruiting variety, taking 55-68 days to produce ripe tomatoes.  I started all my tomatoes from seed a couple of months ago and planted them out a couple of weeks ago.  Fingers crossed it gives us some ripe tomatoes in June!

There are several "storage" tomato varieties available.  You can pick these at frost and they will keep for up to 4 weeks longer than typical tomatoes.  I planted A'Grappoli D'Inverno and a yellow Sicilian storage tomato. 

Right before the first frost, I pick all the tomatoes left on the vine and put in a dark place for them to ripen.  We have fresh tomatoes into December.  They are definitely not the same as summer tomatoes, but better than anything you can buy in the store!  For more tips on preserving the tomato harvest:  Preserving the tomato harvest

Tomatoes kept in pantry at Christmas

All tomatoes are chock full of antioxidants and lycopene.  They contain vitamins A, C, E, K, and B-complex as well as potassium, manganese, and copper.

Tomato supports/cages

With indeterminate tomatoes, they definitely need something to help them grow upwards (although not required, it does make harvesting much easier, takes up less garden space and protects against disease).  A very sturdy pole can be used and the plant tied onto it as it grows.  The more popular option is a “tomato cage” that the tomato grows up in to.  This is what we use.  It is important to get the cage on while the plants are small or severe damage may ensue when you try to force the gangly plant into it’s cage.  Be sure to get a strong cage for large indeterminate types of tomato plants.  I also add a stake to the really big tomatoes to give extra support.  If using smaller cages, you can just pinch off the top when the plant starts growing too large.

In my garden, even the determinate benefit from a cage to keep them upright.  Determinates just don't need to be pinched to keep from outgrowing their cage.

If you grow dwarf or patio tomatoes, they may not need any support at all.  I did end up using a stake for the dwarfs I have grown in the past as they put on large tomatoes which caused the plant to lean without support.  

Staked dwarf tomato

Tips when planting

Tomatoes are susceptible to blossom-end rot and fungal diseases.  End rot is typically caused by not having enough calcium in the soil.  Fungal diseases remain the soil.  It is important to rotate vegetable plants and not plant them in the same spot every year.  You can use organic fungicides as a preventative.  You should spray when you transplant your seedlings and continue to spray every couple of weeks.  Organic fungicides are preventative so you have to keep the fungus from growing to start with.  Keeping fungal diseases at bay will greatly increase yields in late summer.  

Another preventative of disease is to provide the right fertilizer and nutrients when planting.  In each planting hole, I add a handful of worm castings, balanced fertilizer, and dust the roots with mycorrhizal life support which contains mycorrhizal, vitamins and minerals.  This blend improves soil fertility and the plants ability to take in the nutrition it needs.  It is not all about just the big 3-nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium.  They are important but vitamins, minerals, and particularly living soil makes a huge difference in how healthy and lush the plants become.  I use fertilizer made specifically for tomatoes so that they get the calcium they need.  As your plants take up minerals, you will get these minerals when you eat your garden produce.  Every other year, I add Azomite to all my plants which contains over 70 minerals and trace elements just to make sure the plants have all the micronutrients they need.
The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals

Another option is to replant new tomato plants in late June.  These plants will be coming on strong as the early planted ones start winding down.

When you plant your tomato, make sure to plant it deeply.  I take off all the limbs except the top couple and bury the plant up to these stems.  Roots will grow from where the stems are removed.  This gives the plants a much stronger root system to support growth.

I like to plant early in the season and then again in the middle of the summer.  When the new plants come on strong, the early planted ones are slowing down.  It keeps the harvest going strong.  This year, if I add any, it will be one cherry type and one slicer as I get enough for all the sauce and frozen tomatoes I need for the year off the first 14 spring planted tomatoes.  Plus, I have enough to give away lots of sauce.

Pruning tips

Now that your plants have the right start, pruning is the next step.  To get the highest yields, some say it is important to prune your tomatoes.  You want no branches below 12” (some recommend 18”).  You also want to prune the plant to only 2 branches, the center stalk and one side stalk.  You want to keep the “suckers” cut or pinched off as well as the tomato grows.

The amount of pruning is controversial among tomato growing connoisseurs.  Some swear by pruning, others say it makes no difference.  If you live further south, keeping the greenery helps protect the fruits from sun scald.  If your plants seem to get fungal diseases, doing some pruning to open up the plant for air circulation can be beneficial.  For plants up north, increased greenery helps the plant have more energy going to its fruits.  I have tried both and for my garden, very limited pruning has worked the best.  I prune out the suckers but leave all the other stems and leaves.

Watering and fertilizing

Now, to on-going watering and fertilizing.  Many think more is better when it comes to watering and fertilizing.  Not so for tomatoes!  What you end up with are tons of greenery, mushy tomatoes, and very few of them.  Some tomato afficiados recommend a deep watering and fertilizer at planting, then again at flowering, and that is it.  I do water when there is a long dry spell.  Overwatering or erratic watering can also cause the fruits to crack and blossom end rot.  I provide the same water to my tomatoes as my other veggies, trying to make sure they are getting about 1" of rain or watering each week.  

For the tomatoes in the garden, I fertilize when planting, again when the first flowers appear, and monthly thereafter.  If growing in containers, I fertilize every other week with a liquid fertilizer when flowering.  I also add Azomite every other season to make sure the plants are getting all the trace minerals they need.  The first time I added Azomite, my plants seemed to grow and bush out within a few days.  If they respond favorably, then they really needed those nutrients.  Kelp meal also contains alot of minerals and hormones.  Kelp will stimulate your plants to grow upwards.  If your plants are staying stubby, I would apply kelp meal.

If your plant will not flower and fruit with lush green foliage, quit fertilizing and watering.  Nitrogen stimulates green growth.  If you go overboard, the plant will be focused on its greenery instead of fruiting.  A little stress should jump start it into producing flowers and fruits.

Although tomatoes love hot weather (they will not flower until night time temps get above 55), they also don’t like it too hot.  If daytime temps get above 90 and nighttime temps above 76, the plant will drop its flowers.  Not to worry, as soon as temps come back down, your plants will begin flowering again.
 Summer garden tips

Growing in containers

If you want to grow tomatoes in a container, you need to either have a really big container for full size tomatoes (5 gallon) or plant varieties that are adapted for containers. Tomatoes for containers would be labelled as dwarf, patio, container.  Some varieties that fit this bill:  BushSteak, Patio Princess, Bush Early Girl, Tumbler, Bush Big Boy, Baxter’s Bush Cherry, Lizzano, Sweetheart of the Patio, Tumbling Tom Yellow or Red, Bush Better Bush, Balcony (look for bush/patio/container types), Husky Bush.
Compact tomatoes for small spaces and pots

If you grow in containers, you will need to water weekly or maybe even more depending on the container and plant size combo used.  For more on container gardening and types to purchase for pots, Decorative container gardening for edibles

I have grown dwarfs in a larger container and have only needed to water weekly when I put a large catch pan under the pot so the plant can absorb water from the bottom.  They have grown and fruited the same as growing in the ground.  I have also grown indeterminates in extra large containers about the size of a half whisky barrel.  These plants did fine in the pot, but did not produce nearly what they do when planted in the ground.  My husband is trying the upside down 5 gallon bucket technique this year with any automatic watering system so we will see how that does.  Always fun to try something new! 

Seed saving

If you are growing open pollinated or heirloom tomatoes, you can save the seed from the best fruits and plants to grow for next season.  If you are growing hybrids, the seed will not produce a plant like the parent.  For very productive hybrids, I will save seed just to see what I get from them.

Why save seed?  Saving seed from the plants that produce the best fruits year on year will give you plants acclimated to your garden conditions and the best producers.  Save seed from plants that have the characteristics you want in future plants.  The ones with the best fruit, the largest fruit, the best tasting fruit, the earliest producer, the latest producer or the best producer.  You get to choose what you want in your future tomato plants.  Just do not save seed from any diseased plant as the disease stays in the seed.
Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

Add edible flowers to your veggie garden and pots

Edible daylilies in bloom edging the vegetable garden

Saturday, May 10, 2025

If you want to add a beautiful touch and taste to a salad, dinner plate or drink, add a flower!  Many common flowers are edible.  These flowers do triple duty-adding beauty to the garden, attracting pollinators to increase harvests, and food.

All herb flowers are edible-like anise hyssop, basil, bee balm,  borage, calendula/pot marigold, chamomile, cilantro, fennel, lavender, garden chives, garlic chives, mint, mustard, onions, oregano, parsley, sage, savory,  shallot, rosemary, tarragon and thyme.  They add great color and flavor to salads and dishes.  Their flavor is  usually  a lighter version of the herb.  Let's not forget saffron; a pricey spice from the stigmas of the saffron crocus that you can grow in your own garden.  Start a kitchen herb garden!

Edible garlic chives in bloom

Vegetable flowers are edible-like broccoli, cabbage, kale, bean, pea, onion, garlic, zucchini, chicory.    Fried squash blooms are delish!  Just stuff them with a cheese mixture and fry.

Some plants we consider weeds are edible-like chickweed, dandelion, red clover, purslane, wild strawberry, wild violet and wood sorrel flowers as well as their greens.  Chickweed tastes pretty good.  Cultivated dandelions are sweeter in the cool temperatures.  When it gets warmer, harvest the young leaves and flowers for salads and the large for steamed greens.  Full of great nutrition.  Edible, nutritious "weeds"

Edible lavender flowers in bloom

Then there are the ornamentals that are edible like alliums, tuberous-rioted begonias, garden forms of Bellis perennis daisies, dahlias, daylilies, fascia, tiger lilies, erythroniums, fuchsias, gardenias, hostas, orchids, violets, houttuynia, the pinks, Salvia patens, chrysanthemums, grape hyacinth, honeysuckle, roses, dianthus, nasturtiums, passion flower, pansies, Johnny Jump Ups, scented geraniums, violas, yucca, snapdragons, tulips, zinnias and sunflowers.

A variety of tree and shrub flowers are edible: apple, crab apple, elderberry, Japanese honeysuckle, lilac, citrus blooms, plum, redbud and wild rose.  Redbud flowers are one of my favorites.  Redbud is in the pea family and their flowers are reminiscent of pea flavor.

Self sowing edible flowers:

Borage
Calendula

Chamomile

Signet dwarf Marigolds

Nasturtiums

Sunflowers

Zinnias

Plant these, allow to go to seed, and they will continue to re-establish themselves year after year.  These are referred to as "volunteers" in the garden.  You can also save their seeds and sow in the spring where you want them to grow.  They do great in garden beds and containers.  This year, I had many self sowing zinnias return in light pink, medium pink and fuchsia. 
Self sustaining gardening appealing? Try the self-seeders!

You can also make beautiful flower sugars to spoon into teas, over berries and desserts.  Or add herbal flowers to sea salt for seasoning dishes.  Using herbs, flowers and fruit for flavored sugars and salts  You can  make flavored vinegars  Make your own flavored vinegars  The flower color will tint the vinegar as well as flavor it.  After straining, add a whole flower for its beauty. You can even make candied flowers!  Or add them to homemade drinks as a garnish  Use herbs for signature desserts and grown up beverages   or main ingredient Homegrown flavored waters and sodas

Homemade herbal sugars and salts

You can quickly look on line to verify that your ornamental is indeed edible, which is always recommended just to be on the safe side.  There are many misleading names of flowers that can lead you to believe a flower is part of an edible family when it actually is not.  

Add edible beauty to your garden this season!

What's happening in the early May edible garden

Potted lettuce in May

Sunday, May 4, 2025

Everything is lush and green this time of year.  The edibles are growing quickly.   Salad fixings are in their prime with the summer edibles just getting started.  Herbs are filling out nicely.  By this time of year, we no longer need to purchase produce from the grocery store and can get fresh herbs to add to dishes that make them taste wonderful and are chock full of antioxidants.

The greens we are eating-French sorrel, spinach, dandelion greens, winter cress, arugula, chick weed, sweet clover, celery, Ruby Streaks mustard, Chinese Giant Leaf mustard, sprouting broccoli leaves, many varieties of lettuce, chard and snow peas.  Many are overwintered or volunteers from last year.  I also bought a few transplants from the store.  I like to have new lettuces coming on all the time so there is always plenty for salads.

I have lots of volunteer Blue Feather lettuce, carrots, sprouting broccoli, Red Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, celosias and Giant Leaf mustard popping up all over the garden.  

Herbs to add to dishes and salads-garlic chives, regular chives, oregano, thyme, horseradish, Egyptian walking onions, tarragon, sage, young garlic, cilantro, rosemary, parsley.  All are perennials or self-sowers so they come back year after year.

The flowers that are blooming-irises, spiderwort, roses, peonies, marigolds, Sweet William, pansies, hellebores, coreopsis and petunias.  The herbs and veggies going to seed-yellow flowers of the sprouting broccoli, mustard, chard and cress, yellow and pink dandelion flowers.  Soon, the beautiful purple flowers of sage, the white flowers of thyme, and the white garlic chive flowers will be showing off.  All veggie and herb flowers are edible.  A fun way to add flavor and beauty to salads or other dishes.

The overwintering and early spring planted lettuce and spinach is beginning to bolt so soon there will be the white, yellow and blue flowers from the different kinds of lettuce.  Several carrots are starting to bolt, too.  If not pulled, they have beautiful white flowers resembling Queen Ann's Lace, which are in the same family, that bees love.

The lilacs have already come and gone.  They and the peonies were heavy with flowers this spring.

We put in a new raised bed 4' x 8' for strawberries this spring.  There are many green strawberries on the plants and the plants have really started growing.  We are growing ever bearing strawberries so they will produce fruit into the summer months.  

In the fall, we put in a bed for raspberries and blackberries.  So far, only the wild blackberry is blooming.  We also have thornless blackberry bush that is not blooming yet and 3 thornless raspberry bushes.  The raspberries are ever bearing too.  They will bear from June to frost.

I also transplanted blueberries into pots in the fall and added 2 more this spring.  3 of the 5 plants have little blueberries on them.  I doubt we will get many berries this year, but we will get some!  The 2 I added this spring are Rabbiteye-Brightwell and Tifblue.  These varieties do well in our hot and humid climate.  I think it is just too hot for the northern varieties for them to thrive.  If your summers are hot like ours, I'd make sure the northern varieties are getting afternoon shade.  Rabbiteye and southern high bush varieties do well in full sun in our hot and humid summers. 

Last week, I planted bean (Yard Long, 1500 Year Old Cave, and Christmas Speckles), cucumber (Bush Champion and Beit Alpha), melon (Lemon Drop), squash (Butternut and Trombetta), Dragon's Tail Radish, marjoram, rosemary, Sweet Pickle pepper, Bull Nose sweet pepper, chervil, and wild basil seeds in the garden and pots.  The tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, basil, herbs and greens that I started indoors and transplanted into pots and the garden bed a couple of weeks ago are doing well.  There were a few that didn't make it that I re-seeded; many of them are up.   

My husband transplanted the tomato plants I started for him into his upside down 5 gallon bucket growing system last week and they are all doing well.  He wanted a very large tomato that we saw at a local nursery that I put into a very large pot.  It had one tomato on it and now has 5.  I did transplant a Lucid Gem tomato into the garden bed at the same time.  I've been wanting to see how they do and since I had an extra from seed, decided to go ahead and plant it.

I have around 100 creeping thyme seedlings and 100 lavender seedlings going in 6 packs on the patio.  I sowed seed in 6" coir pots and many more than I expected sprouted.  Some of the seed packets were almost 20 years old.  I'll be planting them in the new beds to deter voles and deer.  They need to get a bit bigger before I transplant them.  Maybe a couple more weeks of growing time outside will do the trick.

It is a good idea to wait 10 days after planting new plants before you give them much fertilizer.  I'll add a diluted liquid fertilizer to all that have their first set of true leaves in the next week.  I am using Neptune kelp and fish liquid fertilizer for spring feeding this year.  Kelp really stimulates growth so I use it only in the spring.  Also, when I transplant, I add char, worm castings and starting fertilizer to each planting hole for sustained nutrition.

It's okay to just be getting started in the edible garden with the summer lovers.  You can plant a summer garden into June and still have a nice harvest.

Volunteer Red Malabar spinach and Chinese Multicolor amaranth

I have been harvesting the greens by taking only the outer leaves so that the plants will continue to grow.  By harvesting, it stimulates the plant to grow even more leaves.  If you have extra greens, besides lettuce, you can blanch and freeze them.  I still have plenty left in the freezer.  Preservation garden

I am doing good right now on lettuce, but will need to start transplanting some of the volunteers coming up in the yard into pots to keep the harvest going.  If you don't have volunteers, it is a good idea to sow lettuce seeds now.  If you start seeds every 2-3 weeks, it keeps you in lettuce all the way until winter.  This time of year, start the heat tolerant varieties.   

I have also moved to using greens that stay sweet during the dog days of summer to supplement lettuce.  The greens I have found so far that are great lettuce and spinach substitutes in salads are Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, Perpetual Spinach chard, Chinese Multicolored amaranth, all colors of orach, Chinese Hilton cabbage (doubles as a great wrap, too), and sprouting broccoli.  Keep salads going all summer long. 

I overwintered New Zealand spinach in the house.  I put it outside a month ago.  It is doing well and has long tresses of leaves.  We use their leaves just like spinach in salads.  They are heat lovers with leaves that stay sweet all summer; a great spinach substitute. 

What to plant in the May edible garden

May edible garden

Saturday, May 3, 2025

May is a "shoulder" month.  The cold crops are peaking and it is warm enough to start the summer lovers like tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, melons and eggplants.  It will take a couple of months for the summer crops to begin producing well. You can count on having fresh from the vine tomatoes by the 4^th of July.  A double reason to celebrate!

Here is a list of plants and seeds you can put in the May garden: 

May-transplants or seeds

Artichoke  Growing artichokes and cardoons

Basil  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Bee balm (monarda)

Beans-bush and pole  Growing beans

Beets  All about beautiful beets

Borage  Flowers that are edible

Broccoli  How to grow broccoli and cauliflower

Brussels sprouts  Growing Brussel sprouts

Catnip

Cantaloupe  Growing melons and cantaloupe

Celery  Give celery a try, an easy to grow garden staple

Chard  For year round steamed greens, grow chard!

Chives  Add chives to your garden

Cilantro (Slo Bolt)  Growing cilantro (coriander)

Cucumber  How to grow cucumbers-in pots or in the garden

Dill

Eggplant  Eggplant-add this native from India to your garden

Fruit bushes  Fruit for small spaces and pots

Horseradish

Lavender  All about lovely lavender

Lemon balm

Lettuce (heat tolerant)  Everything you need to know about growing lettuce

Lovage

Okra  Growing and harvesting okra

Peppers  Peppers are for every taste and garden

Pumpkins  Everything you need to know to grow squash

Radicchio

Rosemary  Start a kitchen herb garden!

Sage 

Stevia  A sweet alternative-grow your own

Strawberries  Back yard strawberries

Summer and winter squash  Everything you need to know to grow squash

Sweet potatoes  Growing sweet potatoes

Tarragon

Thyme

Tomatoes  Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes

Turnips  All about turnips

Valerian

Watermelon  Growing melons and cantaloupe

May-start seeds directly in the garden

Beets  All about beautiful beets

Carrots  All you need to know about growing carrots

Corn  Growing corn

Peas  Time to plant peas!

Potatoes (seed potatoes)  Time to plant potatoes, even if you only have a patio

Radishes  Easy to grow crispy, peppery radishes

For tips on starting your seeds in the garden:  Outdoor seed starting tips  I also like to put a pot on our covered deck and start seeds there throughout spring, summer and fall.  Once they are to a good size, I transplant them into their permanent pot or into the garden bed.  Vegetables you can grow in pots

May 2025 Edible Garden Planner

Early May edible garden

Sunday, April 27, 2025

May Day is when the old timers say is the best time to plant your summer garden in the Midwest.  Prior to May 1, there is still a good chance of poor weather, chilly temps, and even a late frost in our Zone 7 garden.  This can be catastrophic for tomatoes, eggplants, basil and other heat lovers.  This year our last frost was 2 weeks ago.

Check out your 15 day forecast to know if it looks safe to plant those tender summer veggies as it is possible to have chilly temps even into May.  If direct planting summer vegetable seeds, chilly and rainy conditions can cause the seeds to rot.  Warm, moist conditions are the best for summer seed success!

You just don't want to plant the summer lovers too early as they don't like being cold and don't grow much until the soil warms.  Earlier is not always better.  If you have already planted, no worries as long as you protect them if Jack Frost comes calling.  They just won't grow fast until the weather warms.

I started the summer lovers from seeds this year indoors for veggies with small seeds in late March and directly in the garden this past week for large seed plants like squash, melons, cucumbers and beans.  I have hardened off all the indoor started plants.  The small seeded plants like basil, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant were transplanted a couple of weeks ago.  

If you started yours indoors and have already transplanted outdoors, what do you do if they are forecasting frost?  Give them a jacket!  You can cover your frost sensitive plants with a row cover or light sheet.  You just want to be sure that the cover is not too heavy and crushes your plants.  For heavier covers, be sure to put stakes around your plants to protect them from the weight.  Remove after the frost is melted.  If you plant in pots, you can move your pots into the garage for the night.  For more on protection for plants, see Starting the garden earlier, outwitting Jack Frost... 

Row cover

Spring has had days above and days below average temperatures and above and below average rainfall.  We got a record 16" of rain a couple of weeks ago.  I've had to water all my pots on and off through April.  The greens that love the cool weather are doing great!  

May is the time to get the summer lovers growing.  All about the summer edible garden  For the plants to get going in May:  What to plant in the May edible garden   If sowing your summer veggie seeds outdoors, see Outdoor seed starting tips 

The cold crops are at their peak at the beginning of the month with many bolting and going to seed by month's end like spinach, cilantro, lettuce, chard, kale, sprouting broccoli, and onions.  To preserve greens while they are still at their peak is quick and easy.  Freezing the extras for winter  The only green that is not frozen?  Lettuce.  I keep lettuce going in the garden by planting new seed every 3 weeks.

Lettuce, spinach and cilantro all go to bolting as soon as the temps hit the 80's in our garden.  I have chard, Ruby Streaks mustard and winter cress that are flowering.  You can let them go to seed and either save the seed to plant or let the seed fall where it may to give you new lettuce, spinach and cilantro plants.  An added bonus to letting these plants go to seed is that the bees love their small flowers.  Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

Mid May garden

So, what are we planting this year?  Of course, we will plant the number one veggie in the USA-tomatoes!   This year, I am growing them all from seed.  You could also just buy plants as there is a great selection of heirlooms at local nurseries, hardware stores and big box stores these days.  I have planted too many tomatoes the last couple of years so I am trying very hard to limit the number this year.  I have 13 planted right now and about 10 plants that I could transplant.  I think I'll see if a neighbor wants them.  Choosing which tomatoes to grow   Loving the purple tomatoes with all their fantastic antioxidants!  Different colors in tomatoes give different nutrition

 Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes  

If you have limited space, look for the dwarf/bush types like Bush Early Girl (only 54 days till ripe tomatoes), Patio Princess, Husky Red, Lizzano, Little Napoli, Front Runner, Tumbling Tom among many others. Typically, you can expect to have your first ripe tomatoes around the 4th of July.  The earliest tomato bearing variety I have grown is Yellow Tumbling Tom that gave me tomatoes in June.  They grow great in the garden or pots.  Since they are smaller plants, their yields will be less than the big plants in the ground.  Compact tomato plants for small spaces  Nowadays, you can purchase full grown plants to get instant fresh tomatoes at this time of year.

I will be growing vining yard long beans (Chinese Red and Purple Yard Mart for disease resistance and production), winged beans, Christmas Speckles lima beans, 1500 Year Old Cave beans this year.  The 1500 beans can be picked for either snap beans or left on the vine to be storage beans.  Now is a great time to get beans planted.  Legumes-peas for spring, beans for summer  

For peppers, I am growing a few different sweet peppers for fresh snacking-Red Bell, Spinach Bull Nose, a yellow Banana pepper, Habanada, Sweet Pickle and a sweet Jalapeño hybrid, 3 Ancho/Pablanos for drying to make into chili powder, a hot pepper plant Jigsaw plant and Tunisian Baklouti that I overwintered indoors.  I grow hot peppers for hot sauce and to add to my salsa.  Homemade hot sauce wings with homegrown celery  Quick, homemade salsa  Preserving peppers

I also overwinter an ancient hot pepper in the basement called Chiltepin.  It is thought to be the ancestor of all hot peppers.  This is its ninth winter and it did great.  It produces very small, very hot round red peppers.  I dry them and use them in my grilling spice mix and for spicy olive oil.  Using herbs, flowers and fruit for flavored sugars and salts

 This year I am again going to plant all my peppers in pots, .  It just seems that my peppers do better in a pot than in the ground for the smaller peppers except for the Red Bell, Spanish Bullnose, and Sweet Pickle.  I tend to plant more of the smaller peppers because the plants produce more than larger pepper plants.  Bell peppers seemed to produce more in ground when I have grown them in the past.  It's a good idea to refresh your potting soil each year to get the most production.  Re-energize your potting soil!   Peppers are for every taste and garden

I am growing a few eggplants that have stayed sweet in our garden, all in pots.  Our summers get so hot here that eggplant skins can get tough and the fruits bitter so I always look for the varieties that are good for our temps.  My choices this year are Rotanda Bianca, Amadeo, and AO Daimaru.  Eggplant-add this native from India to your garden

White eggplant fruit

I am growing just vining summer squash, Trombetta.   I like this squash for several reasons.  They were not affected by the squash vine borer or squash bugs, they had almost no powdery mildew, and you can eat when the fruits are young as you would zucchini or let them stay on the vine and the skins will toughen to use as winter squash.  Growing zucchini and summer squash  One plant produces as much as a typical family needs during the summer.  This type has vines up to 20 feet long so I just let it grow on the ground.

I found some great ways to use and preserve zucchini that any extra will be stored for many new ways of using.  What to do with all that zucchini?!  I really liked spiralizing zucchini into "zoodles" and using in place of spaghetti.  I'll spiralize and put into freezer bags so I have a low carb, nutritious option anytime for spaghetti.

I am also growing a winter squash that I saved from seed, a butternut.  The fruits last year were superb in pies and pumpkin bread.  I am only growing one type of summer and one type of winter squash to be able to save seed that isn't crossed.

I am sticking with Red Burgundy okra this year.  I've tried a few different varieties but this one seems to do the best in my garden.  Growing and harvesting okra

  I've got cucumber, spinach, and lettuce seedlings this year for salads and to make green smoothies.  Grow your own juice garden   I am growing a bush cucumber and a vining cucumber so I'll only need one trellis.  Cucumber info and tips for growing  I have plenty of volunteer celery and mustard in the garden so no planting needed for them.  The pink celery I started last year looks healthy so hoping for some volunteers from it this summer.  I am trying to grow orach, Chinese Multi Color Spinach amaranth and Pink Beauty amaranth which are great for summer salad leaves when lettuce and spinach have bolted.  Orach and amaranth leaves stay sweet all summer.

Lettuce varieties that are in my spring garden are Red and Green Roma, Iceberg, Buttercrunch, Giant Blue Feather, Grand Rapids, Royal Oak, Forellenschluss, Bronze Beauty, Butter King, Lunix, and Solar Flare.  I am always trying new varieties to see which are the best at staying sweet in our summer heat and also re-sowing themselves.

Lettuce and spinach aren't the only greens you can use for salads, see more at  Growing summer salads

For summer salads, I have New Zealand spinach I overwintered indoors, seedlings of Perpetual Spinach and Verde de Taglio chard, have Hilton Chinese cabbage for salads and wraps, Komatsuna Tendergreen and Giant Leaf mustard for sweet summer salad leaves.  Red Malabar spinach volunteers will be coming up this month, too.  I always grow Radish Dragon's Tail for salads, too.  They're just fun and add a pop of not too strong radish flavor.

For the next round of lettuce sowings, I'll go with the more heat resistant varieties like Jericho Romaine which has been tested to last 3 months before bolting as well as Red Sails loose leaf lettuce which stays sweet after bolting.   Want continuous harvests? Succession planting!   Look for varieties that have heat tolerant in the descriptor.  Here are some varieties that are proven to do well in the summer   Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces

Spring potted lettuce

For herbs, I have a bay tree and moringa tree that overwintered in the basement. I have sown seeds for Genovese basil, Cardinal basil, parsley, dill, Butterfly papalo (cilantro substitute that does well in the summer), rosemary, winter savory, lemon savory, marjoram and variegated sage.  Many of my herbs are perennials and are going strong in the garden right now-tarragon, garlic chives, garden chives, onions, oregano, thyme, mint, and garlic.  For more on herbs, see  Start a kitchen herb garden!

As I transplant my seedlings, I like to powder the roots of each plant with plant starter as well as dig in some fertilizer in each hole.  Plant starter has mycorrhizal microbes which fixes nitrogen to the roots of the plant, helping it to grow sturdier, bigger and faster.  Once you have the microbes in the soil, they should stay year after year, but adding each year can't hurt anything!

I added Azomite in each hole of my transplants when I planted this year.   Azomite contains many minerals which can result in significantly improved growth for your plants and more minerals in your harvested plants for a healthier you.  A win-win for your garden and your family.

During the growing season, you should fertilize monthly.  Only add what a soil test said your garden needed when it comes to phosphorous and potassium.  You can get too much of both in the garden.  My soil test said I needed to lower the pH of the soil, add nitrogen and potassium.  I didn't need any phosphorous.  I added sulfur, lignite, compost, kelp and potassium to my beds before mulching and planting. 

I added pelletized sulfur to lower the pH in March.  My pH is at 7.8.  For edibles, it really shouldn't go above 7.5 for the plants to be able to absorb all the minerals it needs from the soil.   The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals

Before you send your new transplants into the garden, insure they have been sufficiently "hardened off."  If you started your own seeds indoors, take your plants out daily over a week or so into a partially shady spot, letting them get used to the strong sun and wind.  I put mine out on the deck to get used to the sun and wind for several days before planting out.  "Hardening off" seedlings

If you purchased your transplants and they were already outdoors, they are ready to be plopped into the ground or pot and grow!

I always interplant my garden with flowers.  This year, I am using petunias, red flowering Hummingbird Vine, Blue morning glory flowering vine, cock's comb, marigolds, Love Lies Bleeding, dwarf Cocks Comb and Sweet William for annuals.  For perennials, there are pink Fairy lilies, white flowering jasmine vine,  hollyhocks in a variety of colors-Summer Carnival, Red and Peach, purple coneflower, lilies, day-lilies, irises, and gladiolas.  I am also encircling all my beds with daffodils and creeping thyme to repel voles.

May is an exciting time in the garden.  Every day you go out, you can see things growing.  The spring vegetables are in their prime, the summer veggies are just starting, and there are so many herbs ready for seasoning your favorite salads or dishes.  Just be sure to keep ahead of the weeds and provide even watering.