Fruit Vegetables
More stories
-
Mastering Tomato Seed Starting: How to Grow Strong and Healthy Plants Indoors
Growing tomatoes successfully starts with strong seedlings. Having grown tomatoes for decades, I’ve learned that the right planting time, careful seed starting, and strategic potting up make all the difference between weak plants and a bumper crop. In this guide, I’ll share the best practices I’ve relied on to start tomatoes indoors and prepare them […] More
-
Getting Started With Tomatoes: A Gardener’s Guide to Success
Growing tomatoes is one of the most rewarding experiences in the garden. After decades of growing my own tomatoes—experimenting with different varieties, dealing with late frosts, and perfecting my planting schedule—I’ve learned a few key lessons that can help beginners get started with confidence. Getting Started with Tomatoes I’ve started tomatoes from both seeds and […] More
-
How to Grow Summer Squash and Zucchini: A Gardener’s Guide
Few vegetables are as productive and rewarding to grow as summer squash and zucchini. With the right care, these fast-growing plants can provide a steady harvest all season long, often producing more than you can eat! Over the years, I’ve grown multiple varieties, from classic green zucchini to yellow crookneck and pattypan squash, testing different […] More
-
How to Grow Tomatoes: The Ultimate Guide
Tomatoes are one of the most rewarding crops for home gardeners, offering a wide variety of flavors, textures, and colors that can’t be matched by store-bought options. With thousands of varieties to choose from—ranging from sweet cherry tomatoes to meaty beefsteaks—there’s a tomato for every culinary need. Having grown tomatoes for years, I’ve learned that […] More
-
How to Ripen Tomatoes
Standard-sized tomatoes take 20 to 30 days from blossom set to reach full size–commonly called “mature green”; they take another 20 to 30 days to ripen, that is begin to change color. A tomato can be picked when it begins to change color–from green to red, pink, yellow, or orange depending upon the cultivar. The […] More
-
How to Choose a Tomato for Your Garden: Best Varieties for Success
How do you choose which tomatoes to grow in your garden? Here’s a suggestion: Make a list of how you and those in your household enjoy tomatoes. Consider the 5-S’s— salads, sandwiches, sauces, soups., and salsa. There are tomatoes perfect for each of these uses. Plant 1 to 3 tomato plants for each household member […] More
-
Heirloom and Hybrid Tomatoes
Do heirloom tomatoes (or other heirloom vegetables, for that matter) have benefits or advantages when compared to hybrid tomatoes? The answer is not simple. Natural selection of tomatoes Most of the crops we eat today, including tomatoes, have evolved from less desirable wild plants. Over generations and generations, humans have selectively created many plant varieties […] More
-
Growing Early-Season Tomatoes for Great Taste
Early-season tomatoes ripen fruit 55 to 70 days after being transplanted to the garden as 6-week-old plants. Because great tomato flavor comes with just the right combination of sugars and acids that are the product of sunlight and photosynthesis, early-season tomatoes are often dismissed as less tasty than mid- and late-season tomatoes (which require 80 […] More
-
How to Plant and Grow Eggplant
Eggplant is a very tender warm season perennial grown as an annual. Grow eggplant in the warmest, frost-free time of the year. The edible fruit can be long and slender or round or egg-shaped fruit. The fruit is creamy-white, yellow, brown, purple, or sometimes almost black. Eggplant is a small- to medium-sized bush vegetable that […] More
-
Creative Eggplant Cooking Ideas – Harvest to Table
Eggplant can be broiled, grilled, sautéed, steamed, pan-fried, or stuffed and baked. You can make ratatouille or eggplant parmesan. The mild flavor and light, spongy texture of the eggplant make it a good match for other vegetables, browned and chopped meat, cooked fish, or shellfish. Favorite eggplant recipe Eggplant Ratatouille The subtle flavor and meaty […] More
-
How to Grow Sweet Peppers: A Gardener’s Guide to a Bountiful Harvest
Sweet peppers are one of the most rewarding vegetables to grow in a home garden. Their crisp texture and mild, sweet flavor make them a favorite for fresh eating, cooking, and preserving. Over the decades I’ve been gardening, I’ve experimented with dozens of sweet pepper varieties, tested different soil amendments, and learned how to deal […] More
-
How to Plant and Grow Hot Peppers: A Gardener’s Guide to Spicy Success
Growing hot peppers is both an art and a science, and after years of cultivating different varieties in my own garden, I’ve learned what it takes to produce strong, healthy plants with fiery, flavorful peppers. Whether you’re planting mild jalapeños or extreme Carolina Reapers, the key to success starts with proper planting, soil preparation, and […] More
Stephen Albert
