Unfortunately, this summer’s weather has been all over the place, and a lot of our tomatoes have split. And because our customers deserve only the best, we’re now… well… drowning in tomatoes. so, we’ve got a delicious problem: What on earth do we do with all these tomatoes? 

If you find yourself in a similar boat, first things first: let’s celebrate the chaos. Tomatoes taste like pure sunshine: sweet, tangy, and sóóooo juicy. But when they start piling up faster than you can slice them for a sandwich, it’s time to think beyond basic salads and standard red sauce. 

So here’s the plan: let’s dive into six creative ways to turn that tomato avalanche into pure edible joy: dishes and preserves that will carry the taste of summer all the way through the cold months ahead. 

1. Wine-Gummy Tomatoes – Jamie Oliver 

Not sure the name really does it justice, “Wine-Gummy Tomatoes” had me expecting… well, something completely different, haha. But what you actually get are a bit like sun-dried tomatoes, only juicier.  According to Jamie Oliver himself, the tomatoes go “wonderfully soft, sweet and sticky, and can be used in all sorts of other dishes.” Sold. 

Here’s the gist: 

• Preheat the oven to 100ºC/210ºF/. Halve your tomatoes and lay them cut-side up in baking trays. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt. 
• Slice some garlic and scatter a few slices over each tray. Drizzle generously with olive oil. 
• Roast low and slow, about 4 hours, until they’re soft and sticky. Cool them down. I could imagine a dehydrator might also work-out if you have one. Perhaps look into it, or ask an AI-friend.  
• Chop some fresh herbs and layer them into sterilized jars with the tomatoes. Top up with extra virgin olive oil so everything’s covered. 
• Store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks (if they last that long).  

They’re amazing on bruschetta, tossed into pasta or snuck straight from the jar with a fork. 

You can find Jamie’s full ingredient list and step-by-step on his website right here!

2. Pickled tomatoes 

If you’ve never tried lacto-fermenting tomatoes, you’re in for a treat. It’s the same process that turns cabbage into sauerkraut or cucumbers into pickles. If you’d like to know more about lacto-fermentation, check out our blog post on it!

The method is simple: pack tomatoes in a salt brine, let the friendly bacteria get to work, and watch as they transform into an awesome snack that keeps for weeks in the fridge. 

Ingredients (1-liter jar) 

• 500–600g cherry or small plum tomatoes (firm, unblemished) 
• 2–3 cloves garlic, smashed 
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns 
• 1–2 sprigs dill or thyme (optional) 
• 1 bay leaf (optional) 
• 20g sea salt (2% by weight of the water) 
• 1 liter non-chlorinated water 

Method 

1. Dissolve salt in water (the brine). 
2. Wash and dry tomatoes; pierce each once with a toothpick. 
3. Add garlic, peppercorns, herbs, and bay leaf to jar. Fill with tomatoes, leaving 3–4 cm headspace. 
4. Pour in brine to fully submerge tomatoes; weigh down so they stay under. 
5. Cover loosely and keep at room temp, out of sunlight, for 4–7 days.  
6. From day 4, check daily. When tangy enough, refrigerate to slow fermentation. 

Safety! 

• Make sure all the tomatoes are submerged in the brine (the water + salt) 
• The brine should stay clear to slightly cloudy, if you see mold (white, green, blue, black, or pink) discard and start fresh. 

3. The Creative Mom’s salsa!  

If there’s one jar you’ll be glad to have stashed away when winter hits, it’s this salsa. It somehow tastes garden-fresh months after canning, the perfect match for tortilla chips, breakfast burritos or even a thick slice of a crusty bread from you fav market stand.  

You can find the full ingredient list and step-by-step instructions over at The Creative Mom*,* check out her recipe right here and get ready to stock your pantry with summer in a jar. 

4. Serious Tomato Jam  

I’m slipping in a dad joke here: this tomato jam is gonna be your new jam (sorry!). If ketchup and chutney had a love child, it would be this: sweet, tangy, and a little spicy if you like it that way. It’s the condiment you didn’t know you needed until you start slathering it on… well, just about everything. 

This recipe from Serious Eats is seriously good. Check out the full ingredient list and step-by-step guide here!

5. Tomato Ice Cream 

Okay, I haven’t tried this one yet, so I’m not entirely sure what to expect, but Louise has! And she swears it’s perfect for a hot summer lunch. According to her, it even eliminates the need for mayonnaise, so you could say I’m intrigued. If you give it a go, let us know. We’d love to hear your opinion! I can imagine it being the perfect avant-garde twist when friends or family come over and you want to impress them with something a little bougie. Louise has the full recipe written up over here, so definitely check out her website. 

6. Tomato Shrub 

I didn’t really know what a shrub was, so I had to do a quick Google. Turns out, the term likely comes from the Arabic word sharāb, meaning “to drink.” In recipe terms, a shrub is a type of drinking vinegar: a tangy-sweet syrup made by combining: 

• Equal parts sugar and vinegar 
• Fruit or vegetables (like tomatoes!) 
• Optional spices or herbs for extra complexity 

While traditional shrubs often star berries or citrus, the tomato shrub is a modern, savory twist. It pairs the umami richness of ripe tomatoes with the bright acidity of vinegar, resulting in a drink that’s: 

• Perfect in cocktails (think Bloody Mary with a twist) 
• Refreshing as a mocktail with sparkling water 
• A bold base for culinary experiments 

The version featured on Nourish & Gather uses fresh tomatoes, sugar, and vinegar and cleverly turns the leftover solids into tomato jam (another recipe from this list!). 

Check out the full recipe and step-by-step instructions over at** Nourish & Gather!**

That’s the list for now, but there’s so much more out there. Many of these recipes are perfect as a base for your own kitchen experiments, so try, tweak, and make them your own. Before you know it, tomato season will be over and you’ll be wishing you had The Creative Mom’s Salsa tucked away in your cupboard for cozy movie nights, or a jar of pickled tomatoes ready to top your morning toast. 

Explore, play, and let your tastebuds be surprised! 

Happy tomato season,  Sarah-Manon

‘‘Nuchter’’

I grew up in a small village in the Netherlands, where we have a particular word to describe our outlook on life: ‘’nuchter’’. It roughly translates to “sober” in English, not in the sense of avoiding alcohol, but as a kind of no-nonsense attitude. We tend to see the world in a straightforward way. Things aren’t that deep. Or at least, we don’t talk about them like they are.

But gardening changed that for me. It cracked open that nuchtere view and let something softer in, more curious, more connected. I would now describe myself as a little bit spiritual or, as we say in Dutch, ‘‘zweverig’’. A word that’s hard to translate, but implies something like floating, dreaming, moving through the world with wonder.

Gardening opens your eyes to the life unfolding all around you. In my case, it opened my heart, too. To believe in something more than what’s just on the surface.

One of the things I’ve become more aware of is how a season turns. Not in big, dramatic gestures, but through a series of quiet, steady signals. August is that moment. The garden doesn’t shout about it, but if you pay attention, it tells you everything you need to know.

1. The moment between fullness and fade

The air feels warm and heavy in the mountains. It’s filled with the humming of bees, the buzz of flies, and the occasional rustle of dry leaves. The sun hangs lower now, but still burns hot. The soil is warm beneath my hands. Everything feels ripe, slightly overripe even. Many of my tomatoes split overnight, and the plants feel a little exhausted. My flowers are rich but dimming, like the fabric of my favourite sleeping shirt washed too many times. 

It’s in these days, when the heat has settled into the soil and the light has softened ever so slightly, that I notice the change. Not dramatic, but definite. A turning point.

Gardener’s Tip:

This is a great time to slow down your watering routine, but watch for signs of heat stress. Water early in the morning or late in the evening, and deeply rather than often. Shade sensitive crops with row cover or companion plants if needed. 

2. Signs of change

The first to go are the lettuces, their leaves stretching upwards in a final, bitter sprint to seed. The basil bolts in the same week, and seed heads form where bright petals once stood.

The fragrance of the garden deepens, less green now, more dry and mineral. If that makes sense. The first apples have fallen and their skins are turning into warm shades of red, gold and green. Pears, too, are firm but fragrant, promising sweetness soon. It’s no longer about growth, it’s about ripening.

Gardener’s Tip:

This is the ideal time to assess your garden: what thrived, what struggled. Take notes or photos. Harvest anything nearing its peak before it passes. Watch for self-seeding plants and decide if you want to let them spread.

3. The art of letting go

Seed-saving has become a quiet ritual for me. If you’re someone who enjoys ASMR videos, you’ll probably love this process too. There’s something almost sacred in plucking dried pods from spent pea plants, in gently cracking open calendula heads, and tucking their seeds into envelopes. I label each one, not just with the name and date, but often with a little note: ‘grew well near the tomatoes’ or ‘best bloom after early rain.’ Something personal. 

And then comes the clearing. The compost pile grows quickly now. 

Gardener’s Tip:

Start saving seeds from open-pollinated (non-hybrid) plants like beans, calendula, dill, or poppies. Let them dry fully before storing in paper envelopes. Compost what’s no longer producing, and refresh tired beds with compost or mulch.

Check-out our seed saving 101 guide!

4. Quiet Survivors and Lingering Life

Not everything fades. Some plants thrive in this in-between time. The thyme, the oregano, the sage, they’re just there: steady, fragrant and resilient. The sunflowers are wild and ragged now, their heads bent heavy with seed, but still they stand. The squash vines sprawl with full determination, claiming space wherever they can find it. 

Gardener’s Tip:

Keep harvesting herbs and tomatoes regularly to encourage further growth. Let sunflowers and some annuals dry out fully, they’ll feed the birds or provide seed. Cut back overgrown herbs lightly to prevent woodiness.

5. Looking Ahead 

Even as things wind down, there’s work to be done. I’ve started tucking in greens for fall like arugula, chard and kale. The garlic bed is ready, waiting for cloves that won’t show themselves until next spring. I scatter cover crops (phacelia, clover) to feed the soil through the cold.

Gardener’s Tip:

• Sow cool-season crops now: check out this guide for more depth on cool-season crops.
• Use covercrops like buckwheat or clover to suppress weeds and feed the soil.
• If you’re not planting, mulch your beds to retain moisture and prevent erosion!

6. A moment to be still

I know that in the depths of winter, I’ll be craving these summer nights. So, I try to be here for them now.

Sometimes I think this is the whole lesson: to notice. To not rush to fix things, or finish all the other stuff, just to be with it. I know there’s always a long list of things to do, but the garden also invites you to pause. You don’t have to be productive every second.

Take in the golden light at the end of the day. Listen to the humming. Breathe in the scent of sun-warmed soil and fading blooms. Enjoy this moment before the fall. Before the turning.

Gardener’s Tip:

Build in time to observe, journal, or sketch your garden. These quiet moments often offer the most insight, not just into your garden, but into your relationship with it.

Thank you for staying with me and reading all the way to the end.

Wishing you happy gardening,

and many small wonders along the way.

Tiny Tomatoes

I planted my tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and more. Things were going well. Then we got another unseasonable blast of heat, and some of the flowers got shriveled. That has impacted my production. Usually by the end of July, my tomato plants are loaded with ripening fruit. This year, not so much. It’s August, and I do not have the amount I expected. I do admit, I could have kept a better feeding schedule. But most years, I have volunteer tomato plants that I never pay attention to, and they do awesome. I do not have any volunteer plants at all this year!

Calendula Tries to Takeover

Calendula flowers continue to pop up everywhere, and I continue to pull them out. I have let a dozen or more survive because I like to have a lot of dried flowers for the winter.

Horseradish

One plant doing good this summer is horseradish. It’s supposed to be easy to take care of and often spreads vigorously, but I’ve never actually successfully grown it for some reason. So I’m happy to see it’s still alive. It looks a little rough and I think some bugs have gotten to it, but it’s still growing. I can’t wait to harvest some! I planted it in a raised garden bed so it can’t get too out of control.

Beginner Beekeeper

For some reason, I added to my list of things to take care of and decided to try my hand at beekeeping! I got two colonies this spring, and they have grown very fast. They have been hard at work pollinating, and they especially loved my lavender! I don’t think I’ll get any honey this season as they are growing their colony and need to keep their honey for themselves this winter. It also seems everything has bloomed early this season due to the hot weather, and the bees have been trying hard to find available nectar sources this late in the summer.

Speaking of Wildlife

I’ve been actively trying to invite more wildlife into my garden lately by doing some of the things mentioned in this post that I put together. I have a lot of birds that help keep the bug population down. Ladybugs are all over my dill plants this summer, helping to control the aphids. My birdhouses have been at full capacity with the next generation hatching along. One animal I’m not too thrilled to welcome is a gopher. It’s been pushing around some of my plants. I haven’t done anything to control it because it hasn’t been too bothersome. But I’m hoping he packs up and moves along soon. I am guessing that won’t be the case though. I was delighted to see a family of skunks in my field but then remembered that skunks love honey and will break into hives. Luckily, it seems they were just passing through and they haven’t caused any trouble.

Looking Forward

Going into fall, I’ve been clearing out some old spring plants and planting a few fall crops like carrots and lettuce. My fall crops never tend to do that well; they tend to be small plants by the time the frost arrives. Some things I overwinter, like carrots and kale.

I can’t believe summer is almost over, and I’m trying to savor every day. I’m already thinking about next gardening season and what I can do to improve my garden. My family and I have been travelling a lot this summer, and my garden has suffered a bit. I will work on ways to make my garden more self-sufficient for next year, like adding a lot more mulch this fall. It won’t be long before I’m harvesting some herbal roots here. I’ll share how you harvest roots from the garden this fall!

Thanks for following along with my garden journal.

Kale

Kale is truly an incredible plant. Not only is it astoundingly cold-hardy, once established it can grow through almost anything you can throw at it. Kale is a top low-maintenance plant pick because you plant it once and enjoy continuous harvests all season long (assuming you are harvesting it for larger, individual leaves). To harvest kale just snap off the lowest, largest leaves as close as possible to the stem, making sure to leave the top of the plant and several upper leaves intact. When harvested this way, kale can keep on producing well into fall and even winter…You might even find it grows back again the following year!

Chard

Like kale, chard is another season-long powerhouse producer. Chard is also cold hardy, so you can sow seeds early in the season when the planting schedule is not as intense! Chard has a spinach-like flavor and a similar texture when cooked, but unlike spinach chard is amazingly resistant to bolting. Chard leaves remain tasty and sweet all season long, even through the blazing heat of summer. Chard is harvested similarly to kale- cut off the largest, lower leaves as close to the base of the plant as possible.

Green onions

Green onions* are one of the least-fussy plants you can grow. They germinate readily, require minimal fertilizer, and can even tolerate a slight drought (emphasis on slight). Green onions are significantly less tricky to grow than bulbing onions, and there’s no curing process involved - you simply pull them out, wash them up and store them in the fridge. Green onions also ‘hold’ well in the garden - that is, you don’t have to harvest them all at a super-precise time. They’re happy to keep on growing until you need them (although eventually you might end up with some humongous green onions!)

*Note: green onions are a variety of onions in Planter!

Zucchini

Zucchini* makes the list of low-maintenance plants because of how hyper-productive it is! Growing just one or two zucchini plants could easily provide enough zucchini for your family (and you might even be giving it away!) Zucchini plants tend to be on the larger side but there are compact container varieties available that can help save space in the garden. With zucchini the only time-sensitive task is harvesting - it’s important to harvest the zucchinis before they get too large so the plant will keep on producing! Zucchini plants can produce all season long, although at some point they might succumb to pest and disease pressure. Rather than spending time battling pests and disease it may be more efficient to start a couple of back-up seedlings, timing them to reach maturity in the mid-late season. 

* Note: zucchini is a variety of squash in Planter!

Bush beans

While beans are a popular garden plant, for a low-maintenance bean harvest bush beans are the way to go. Bush bean varieties, as the name suggests, have a bushing growth habit which means they don’t require a trellis or support structure to grow and produce a harvest. Pole bean varieties in contrast are vining plants that do need a structure to climb on. Bush beans are also relatively easy to harvest since you don’t need to reach around a trellis. And, since bean plants fix nitrogen from the air (with the help of soil bacteria), you can skip the fertilizing routine for beans!

Herbs (not technically a plant)

‘Herbs’ is a bit of a catch-all, but truly they can be some of the easiest plants to grow. Mediterranean herbs such as rosemary, thyme, and oregano thrive in poor soil (soil low in nutrients) and actually prefer to dry out between waterings! Some herbs are also perennials- depending on the variety and your hardiness zone they can come back year after year without the need to re-plant. Then there are herbs such as mint and dill which are infamously easy to grow because they self-seed prolifically (and mint also spreads by rhizomes). Grow mint and dill in containers otherwise they grow so readily that they can turn into garden weeds!

Dwarf cherry tomatoes

Tomatoes can arguably be one of the most maintenance-intensive crops, depending on the variety, but dwarf cherry tomato varieties are easy-peasy. They are small, well-behaved little plants that produce prolifically without a need for trellising. They do not require much pruning - only to remove damaged or yellowing leaves and leaves touching the soil. Plus they grow well in containers- so weeding is minimized and you can keep them within reach for easy mealtime harvesting (or a quick garden snack!)

Incorporate these low-maintenance plants into your veggie garden this season to enjoy maximum harvests with minimal effort!

Motivation

In past years, I’ve had troubles getting all the components of salsa to grow well. In 2020, I had a bumper crop of tomatoes and peppers, but no onions. That worked out fine, since onions are rather inexpensive to buy at the grocery store. In contrast, in 2021, the only thing that grew well were the onions! The tomatoes suffered due to excessive rain. And the peppers never took off due to poor-quality soil; I built 2 new raised beds and filled each with bags of raised-bed garden soil from Home Depot. Due to the amount of soil, I had to take two trips from the store and it turns out that the second batch of soil was no good, while the first batch (same brand) was excellent.

Valuable lesson learned: even with bagged soil, it’s still worthwhile to get the soil tested. I didn’t realize that the soil was bad until the following year.

Starting the Seeds

In the past I’ve done pretty well starting my tomato plants from seed, so I decided to go that route again. I chose the classic Amish Paste tomato variety. This year, I also decided to grow peppers from seed! I chose two great varieties, King Arthur Hybrid Bell Peppers and Garden Salsa Hybrid Hot Peppers.

I started the tomato and pepper seeds on my workbench with a red-blue grow light. I put about 3 seeds in each container, assuming some of them wouldn’t germinate.

After a few weeks, seedlings emerge!

5 weeks after sowing, I realize that I started the seeds way too early…again (I can’t resist the gardening itch in the middle of winter 😅). At this stage there’s still more than 2 months until I can safely transplant them.

6 weeks after sowing, I started moving the tomatoes into gallon jug containers to encourage better root growth:

8 weeks after sowing, just before transplanting. The tomatoes had gotten so large I had to use their cages to keep them from falling over. I put them on a cart and wheeled them inside the basement door when it got too cold:

On the plus side, the peppers grew really well throughout this entire process. I did transplant them into larger containers mid-way through, but they never grew “leggy” as I feared.

Onion time!

While the tomatoes and peppers were growing inside, it was time to plant the onions outside. Onions are fairly resistant to frost, so it’s safe to plant them before your frost date. I like to use starter onions from Dixondale Farms. Starter onions look like green onions and give your crop a head-start, which is very useful for growers like me in colder climates. This year I chose Walla Walla, Red River, and Highlander onions. Using Planter’s useful spacing info, I started by putting 4 onions in each square foot. But rules are meant to be broken, and after realizing I received several dozen extra onions I managed to fit about 6 onions per square.

In the garden, finally!

Once the chance of frost was mostly gone, it was time to transplant the tomatoes and peppers into their final spots in the garden! I planted corn, beans, and squash (aka the “Three Sisters”) next to the tomatoes. The idea is that the squash will cover the ground, keeping weeds at bay. And the corn and tomato cages will act as a trellis for the beans. In the end, all the beans and squash did was provide snacks for the rabbits 🐰.

I intercropped the peppers with the onions, since they’re good companion plants.

Intercropping also reduces weeds, since the onions shade out much of the ground.

Harvest time!

I was able to make a good deal of fresh salsa from the garden this year! The limiting factor, surprisingly, were the tomatoes. They just weren’t as productive as I had hoped. I did get a decent amount of tomatoes from them, but nowhere near the 2020 yield. My guess is that they were too lanky and overgrown when they were first transplanted. Starting the seeds later in the spring would have resulted in better-supported, healthier plants.

In contrast, the peppers continue to produce heaps of delicious sweet and spicy peppers. Likewise, the onions that were in the pepper bed did really well! I harvested them in mid-August after their stems started falling over. I then laid down some straw to keep the weeds at bay. Once the onions were gone, the peppers received a bit more sunlight which is probably why they’re doing so well now. However, the onions in the raised garden bed with the poor-quality soil did not do well. I’m hoping to rejuvenate the soil in that bed this fall.

I also tried to grow cilantro from seed in the garden, but it didn’t germinate. Later in the summer I tried growing some indoors and it germinated without a problem, which I then transplanted into the garden.

Lessons learned and plans for next season

1. Don’t start tomatoes too early.
2. Test garden soil, even if it comes from a bag.
3. Start cilantro from seed indoors. Or purchase from a nursery.
4. Give the peppers more of a head start, so they’re taller than the onions when they’re transplanted.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my salsa garden adventure! Last but not least, here’s my simple fresh salsa recipe:

Peter’s Fresh Salsa

Ingredients

• 2 medium tomatoes (1.5 cups), chopped
• 1 green bell pepper (¼ cup) , chopped
• 1 small onion (¼ cup), chopped
• 1 jalapeño or garden salsa pepper, chopped (if you like it spicy!)
• 1 Tbsp cilantro, minced
• 2 tsp lime juice
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper

How to harvest, and when to harvest, will vary for different crops:

How to harvest tomatoes

Tomatoes can usually be harvested by carefully snapping them off the plant- stabilizing the branch in one hand and gently pulling on the tomato with the other. In many cases the tomatoes will easily separate from the vine, although some varieties have sturdier stems than others. If you feel any resistance, or just want to be cautious, opt for fine-tipped pruning shears to cut the tomato free. If you use shears, it’s a good idea to sanitize them with rubbing alcohol when moving from plant to plant to prevent disease spread.

To decide when to harvest your tomatoes, there are some trade-offs between flavor and productivity to think about:

Tomatoes can be harvested when they are fully ripe. A tomato is fully ripe when it has reached the full-grown size and deepest possible color expected for the variety. To recall what size and color your tomatoes should be, use Planter to keep track of which tomato varieties grow where in your garden:

Many people believe that leaving tomatoes to fully ripen on the plant gives them the best flavor. But leaving tomatoes on the plant to ripen can have some drawbacks. First, the plant may produce less tomatoes overall as it continues to put some of its energy into the ripening fruit. Second, tomatoes left on the plant longer have a higher chance of being attacked by bugs or birds, or falling off and rotting. Or, sometimes you just need to get tomatoes off the plant as frost approaches.

As soon as tomatoes just barely start to change color from green to yellow, pink, or red*, they will be able to continue ripening off the plant. This is called the ‘breaker stage’ of ripeness. After harvesting, leave the tomatoes on the counter in a paper bag to ripen fully (do not put them in the fridge!) You can be the judge of whether tomatoes ripened this way have a noticeable flavor difference compared to those ripened on the plant!

*Green tomato varieties are an exception- you’ll need to gently squeeze the tomato to tell if it’s ripe. Ripe tomatoes should give slightly when squeezed; if it’s rock hard it’s not ripe yet.

How to harvest squash

How and when to harvest squash depends on whether you are dealing with summer squash, such as zucchini or pattypan, or winter squash, such as butternut or acorn squash. Summer squash can be gently twisted off the plant, but with this technique there is some risk of damaging the squash or the plant. To avoid this, it’s recommended to carefully cut the squash off with a knife, leaving about 1” of the stem on the squash.

Summer squash should be harvested as soon as the fruits reach the expected size for their variety. Once your summer squash plants start producing be sure to check the plant every few days for fruits that are ready to be harvested. Frequent harvesting will encourage the plant to keep on producing, and will help ensure the squash get picked before they become too large, tough, and seedy.

Winter squash should be harvested once the squash has reached full size and the skin has toughened up. Test this by gently pressing a fingernail into the skin - it should not puncture easily. When harvesting winter squash keep a 2” stem attached to the squash- keeping a bit of stem attached will help the squash last in storage.

How to harvest lettuce

There are two main approaches to harvesting lettuce. With lettuce varieties that produce a head, such as romaine or Boston, usually the entire plant is harvested once a sizable, firm head has formed. To harvest a lettuce head, gently tilt the plant to the side so the stem is visible and cut it underneath the leaves.

The other harvesting technique that can be used for lettuce is called ‘cut-and-come-again’, where only some leaves are removed from the plant at a time, leaving most of the plant intact to keep growing. Cut-and-come-again harvesting is typically used with “loose leaf” lettuce varieties. Cut-and-come-again harvesting can be done by cutting or plucking the lower (oldest) leaves off as close as possible to the stem, leaving the upper (newer) leaves intact. It’s also possible to slice leaves off by cutting across the top few inches of the plant. While slicing crosswise is faster than removing individual leaves, it can be easy to sever the growing stem- stunting or killing the plant.

With either technique, be on the lookout for bolting which can cause your lettuce plants to turn unappetizingly bitter.

How to harvest peas and beans

When harvesting peas and beans, be careful not to yank on the plants as the stems can easily snap. Secure the plant in one hand and pull off pods with the other, ideally keeping a small piece of stem on the pod.

The trick with beans and peas is knowing when they are ready to be picked. There can be a fine line between not-ready-yet and too-far-gone, depending on the type of peas and beans you grow:

• For garden peas, the peas should be fully mature but still sweet. Snap peas should be harvested when the pods are tender and the peas inside are round and sweet. Snow peas are harvested when the pods are full-size but still flat.
• Snap beans should be harvested when the pods are full-size and the beans inside are not too mature and round. Shelling beans can be harvested when the beans inside have reached maturity but are still soft.
• If you are growing a drying-type pea or bean, things are a little bit easier- harvest when the pods are fully dry.

Harvest time is an exciting time in the garden; it’s the culmination of all the time and care you put into your plants. Following good harvest practices ensures you’ll get the best results for your efforts- veggies picked at their prime, and plants that keep on producing!

Why trellis tomatoes?

Trellising tomato plants helps to:

• Keep the foliage up off the ground which, along with pruning, helps prevent soil-borne diseases
• Increase airflow around the plant, which also helps reduce the spread of disease
• Maximize garden space, as the plants can be grown closer together than if they were allowed to grow wild
• Provide extra support for plants that are heavily fruit-laden, so they don’t flop over or end up with broken branches

While you can let your tomato plants grow au naturel, for many tomato varieties trellising is important for healthy plants and abundant harvests.

Do my tomatoes need to be trellised?

Most tomato plants, other than specialized dwarf and micro varieties, benefit from some added support. Trellising techniques for tomato plants are slightly different depending on whether the variety is determinate or indeterminate:

• Determinate tomato varieties have a bushing growth habit. They grow to a fixed height then stop, and they produce their entire fruit yield in one go. Determinate tomatoes can grow well without trellising, but giving them some support can be beneficial.
• Indeterminate tomato varieties have a vining growth habit and will keep on growing until they are killed off by frost, or another cause. Indeterminate tomatoes produce fruit continuously rather than all at once. Indeterminate tomatoes generally need more intensive trellising to fulfill their full fruiting potential.

Check whether the tomato varieties you grow are determinate or indeterminate, to help decide how to trellis them.

Tomato trellising options

There are many different ways to provide support for your tomato plants. Some of the most common are:

Tomato cages while technically not a trellis, tomato cages are probably the most well-known tomato support structures. Basic tomato cages found at big-box stores can sometimes be a bit flimsy and might not provide much support for plants that are heavily laden with fruit. Shorter cages also won’t work well for indeterminate tomatoes that want to climb- they’ll need an extra-tall cage. Cages can still be a good option, especially if you look for ones that are sturdily built (or, build your own!)

Florida weave (or basket weave) trellising involves setting up tall, sturdy posts at either end of the tomato bed (and at regular intervals between the tomato plants if your bed is long), then using twine to enclose the plants along both sides. The twine is looped around each of the posts and pulled tight to ensure the plants won’t flop to either side. This technique is mostly used for determinate tomatoes that will only grow so high, but it can be used for indeterminate tomatoes by constructing a tall trellis and cutting off the top of the growing stem once the plants reach the height of the trellis.

String (overhead) trellising is a technique where individual tomato plants are wrapped around a piece of twine as they grow, with the twine being suspended from a tall support structure above. This method is generally used for indeterminate tomatoes that will keep on growing vertically. If the plants do reach the top of the trellis they can then be ‘lowered and leaned’ by adding some slack to the strings and moving them over to the side gradually, so the plants can keep on growing by leaning more and more to the side.

There are many variations on these techniques as well as some truly creative DIY trellis builds! So long as your tomato plants are lifted up off the ground and supported, feel free to try different options and use materials that are most readily available for you. Just be sure the structure is strong enough to withstand windy weather…and the weight of all those delicious ripening tomatoes getting ready to be harvested!