Planting

Zero gravity bites.

Ground Control To Major Tomato

Silver reflective mulch has such a  space age look and feel that we put Matt Mason Spaceman on the case. Matt reports that he needed shades as he gently floated over our freshly-planted tomato plants — despite the overcast day. Finding a few dry hours has proven challenging. But we’ve been disciplined and avoided the temptation of planting […]

A Late Start!

A moist spring and a busy work schedule conspired to delay our planting plans. Once the soil dried out enough to till, we zipped out to churn up the weeds that had taken over our beds.

Farmer R gives the seedlings a long drink

With a Little Help from Our Friends

  We are excited about this year’s new crop of tomatoes!  A few days of ill-timed rain kept us from planting for several days, but a fortunate window presented itself and we just managed to get our plants in before a deluge.  Torrential rain after planting is most welcome and it will give our young […]


On the Hunt

Rockin’ Robin

These sultry, summer temperatures have seduced us. We never plant tomatoes before the first full week of May, but the temptation to experiment proved too great. We planted twelve tomatoes in our back plot and are hoping for the best. While we worked, our digging drew the attention of an American Robin who bravely darted between […]

Heirloom Tomato Varieties Midwest

Making a List, Checking it Twice

Farmer J likes to plan her garden long before most people are thinking about planting.  Good thing James Worley publishes his list of seedlings in February. There are the foundation tomatoes: Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Opalka, Kosovo, Yellow Pear, Black Cherry, Absinthe, Carbon, Stupice, Brandywine Sudduth’s Strain, and Eva Purple Ball.  And then there are the […]

Planting the New Plot

Plants in the Ground

It has taken two weeks to get all of our plant in the ground.  At long last, we are close to the finish line.  Rain, frost warnings, and moving massive amounts of compost has delayed the process, but it feels good to see the young plants standing tall in the garden.


A Plastic Owl Watches Over the Garden

It Was a Dark and Stormy Day…

Despite clouds and cold spring winds, we set out to collect our young tomato plants. Within minutes of our arrival at the Worley’s doorstep, sleet began to fall. Ever the hosts, James and his lovely wife Jennifer invited us in to wait for a break in the weather. Inevitably, the talk turned to gardening and […]

Disco Dancing in TomatoTown

Farmer T actually took disco dancing lessons with his mom and sister back in the 70’s, and thanks to Silver Reflective Mulch he can relive those sweet moves he learned, as TomatoTown has gone DISCO! Our garden is so bright, I’ve got to wear shades. Seriously. A welding mask might be more appropriate for daytime […]

Seedlings!

On Sunday, we paid a visit to James Worley, our good friend and tomato guru.  James has been hard at work this winter meticulously tending to some 80 varieties of tomato plants. With so many varieties to choose from, it was difficult for us to decide what tomatoes to plant this year, but we carefully narrowed […]


The Tomato Hydra

Farmer J admits that she can be a little too soft-hearted to be a true gardener.  Weeding still troubles her, but she is slowly coming around. To her horror, she discovered that weaving the branches into the fence sometimes results in the breakage of a branch or two.  While some might toss these branches into […]

The West 34

Farmer T’s mom is worried that we are working too hard in our garden. “You don’t have TomatoTown, you have TomatoCountry!” She’s right. We started off with 34 plants in the west plot and 16 in the east plot. (Click on the photo for the video!) Once we had the plants in the ground, we […]

It’s a Jungle in Here!

Plant Us! This is getting ridiculous! Our kitchen has become a very crowded nursery for our plantlings.  We managed to miss our planting window on Mother’s Day and heavy rains have prevented us from getting out and digging in the ground.  So we are left shuttling our tomatoes and peppers between porch and kitchen during […]


A Basket of Seedlings

You Say Tomato

On Saturday afternoon we paid a visit to James Worley, our favorite tomato aficionado.  James has been hard at work selecting and growing hundreds of heirloom tomato plants in his backyard greenhouse.  He is a great regional resource for tips on growing tomatoes and garden vegetables. http://kctomatotimes.wordpress.com/ Here at Tomato Town, we are growing around […]