Here’s a look behind the scenes at my tomato-planting journey.
Today is one of my favorite days of the year: the day I get to plant my tomatoes. We realized over the winter when buying store-bought tomatoes that the heirloom tomatoes were incredibly good. My thought was, “What if I grew the heirloom tomatoes in my garden? How good could they get?” That’s what I’m going to find out this year.
“If a tomato isn’t labeled ‘heirloom,’ don’t trust it.”
According to Ed Ott, owner of Starview Greenhouse in La Grange, the draw of heirloom tomatoes is that they have the best flavor of all tomatoes. If you’ve never been there before, I highly recommend taking a trip. You’ll find tomatoes, potatoes, hanging plants, and everything in between. As for the heirloom tomatoes? They have a wide variety of species you can plant. Ed recommends the Brandywine, German Johnson, and Delicious varieties.
Ed says that if a tomato isn’t labeled heirloom, don’t trust that it is. Pink and yellow tomatoes have lower acid levels than red ones, and if you can grow a regular tomato, you can grow pink and yellow ones. Treat them the same way.
At 3:12 in the video above, I finally made it back home with all of my heirloom and non-heirloom tomatoes. I tilled the beds with an electric tiller, laid out a weed blocker, and spaced my tomato cages apart. Then I dug the plants in with a spade and a drill. A few hours later, they’re ready to be watered.
The bottom line is that it will take about two to three months before I see any tomatoes harvested. I’m looking forward to it; it should be well worth it!
If you have any questions for me about gardening or anything related to real estate, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
