Gardening Hub Interlude: All Things Tomatoes
A brief piece on all things gardening to share some of my favorite items I use to successfully plant, grow, and harvest tomatoes! I embarked on this gardening journey for the first time last year to take on a mini project while our kitchen was undergoing remodeling. We completely gutted/demoed the kitchen in early March 2023 and I bought my tomato plants and gardening tools shortly thereafter. They were such a success that I have planted more tomatoes for this year!
San Diego’s Mission Hills Nursery is the sweetest little nursery complete with every type of plant and flower you could imagine. Each year they have Tomatomania come through and set up shop for a weekend. When I tell you I never knew that amount of tomatoes even existed, I am so serious. This event is showstopping and they have tomato experts there for you to ask any and all questions and also recommend certain tomatoes depending on the climate you live in. People come from all over to experience this event. (They even have a barbecue with recipes using tomatoes that you can taste!)
This year, I got a sungold, a bronze torch, and a tomato supersweet 100. Sungold is a repeat (we loved them so much!!) and the other two are new to me. I have an empty flowerbed that I used last year and had success with. I am repeating that process and re-using the fabric tomato planters I bought last year. You do have to water the plants more than if they were planted in the ground but I love the look of the fabric planters and like how they regulated the temperature of the plants as well as kept each tomato plant contained in one area.
Once I had the old soil cleaned out of the fabric planters, I added the new soil and dug a deep hole. I sprinkled some fertilizer at the bottom of the hole, placed the tomato plant in the hole, and covered with soil and sprinkled some worm castings on top. I worked the worm castings into the soil and watered everything really well, ensuring I watered the close to the base of the tomato plant to ensure I was watering deep and getting all those roots directly below. I repeated this process for each tomato plant and then placed a tomato stake in each planter.
All of the items I use and have had success with are linked in my Amazon storefront, the idea list is called “Jo’s Tomato Gardening Must Haves” and is linked here.
Follow @injoskitchen on Instagram & stay tuned to watch Jo’s tomato planting for 2024!
Last year’s tomato plants!
