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How We Build Tomato Cages
Tomatoes come in two different types of varieties: determinate and indeterminate. Determinate varieties grow to a certain predetermined height and set all of their fruit in a short window. Indeterminate tomatoes are considered vining plants and they will continue to grow up and out throughout the growing season as they produce tomatoes more gradually. The varieties of paste tomatoes that we grow are all indeterminate, and as such they need sturdy cages to support their height and vigor. The types of cages you can buy at most home and garden stores, in addition to being expensive, typically don’t provide adequate support for larger plants, so we decided to make our own. I’d read…
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The Kitchen Garden Magazine
Is there anything more exciting than the first warm, sunny weekend after a long winter? Just one week ago a lake effect blizzard dropped two and a half feet of snow on us but today it’s 55°F outside and and the birds are chirping. Spring is on its way! If the prospect of warmer weather has you as excited as it does us, you’re probably aching to get your hands in some dirt. In this inaugural issue of The Kitchen Garden magazine, I give you all the information you’ll need to design your own kitchen garden, select and plant seeds indoors, and care for your plants once they’re in the ground. I’ve also…
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How to Buy Compost
When we decided to create a vegetable garden large enough to sustain our family all summer with enough extra produce to freeze and can for winter, we did a lot of research before settling on Charles Dowding’s famous no-dig method. It seemed like the easiest and most likely path to success for people who had previously only tended a single 4’x8′ raised garden bed. Plus, we knew our soil was less than ideal, meaning we’d have to amend it no matter what approach we chose, so since we knew we’d be placing a large order for compost anyway, we figured we might as well save ourselves the extra work of digging out the…
