Here are some valuablehints, tips and tricks we have learned over the years to grow a bumper crop oftomatoes:

1. The When, HowAnd Where Of Planting Tomatoes:

WHEN TO PLANT: Tomatoes are just about the last thing that getplanted in our garden. Tomatoes love warm soil and warm weather. Ifyou plant them too early in your growing season, they can really struggle. It'snot just about preventing frost. Cold, damp spring temperatures can make themmore susceptible to disease, rot and lethargic growth. Here in this partof Ohio, most of our garden goes in around the 15th of May. If its niceand warm out - the tomatoes go in too. But if it's still a little chilly anddamp - we wait until late May to allow the soil to warm up!

HOW TO PLANT: Tomatoes benefitfrom rich, fertile soil. When you plant - make sure to add a few cupsof good compost in the hole along with the plant. And start saving youreggs shells now! Crushed egg shells are an excellent supplement to add to yourplanting hole. They add calcium to the soil as they break down - helpingto prevent the all-too common blossom rot; those black spots on the ends oftomatoes that can decimate a garden. We drop in a few crushed egg shellsper planting hole.

WHERE TO PLANT: Plant yourtomatoes in the sunniest location you can find. It can't be said enough -tomatoes love sun and heat. The more you give them - the better your crop willbe! And remember to rotate where you plant them from year to year - ifyou keep planting those tomatoes in the same spot, they will rob the soil ofall the nutrients needed for great yields and become more prone to disease.

Mulching and Weeds:

We mulch our tomato plants with a 1to 2" thick layer of compost - creating a 6 to 8" compost circlearound each stalk. It helps to regulate soil temperature, keep weeds to aminimum, and soil from eroding during strong rains. Of more importance,it acts as a slow-release fertilizer as it strains through nutrients duringwatering or rainfalls. Mulching also helps keep weeds at bay. Don't let weeds compete for the same nutrients your tomatoesneed. Just a few minutes of daily maintenance pulling small weeds aroundyour plants will keep your garden productive and neat! Make sure as you work in your garden to stay off the ground directly around yourplants - stepping on and around your plan'ts root zone compacts the soil andkeeps them from fully developing.

One last note on mulching. Ifthe season and soil are still a little cool - wait a few weeks for it to warmup before applying the mulch. If the soil is still cool, mulching canactually prolong the soil from heating up.

Pruning andSupporting

Whether you use cages, stakes, or ahybrid system like we do (See Stake a Cage), it's critical to provide great support for yourtomato plants! It keeps them off the ground - away from pests and foottraffic, allowing tomatoes to ripen with good circulation and exposure tosunlight.

As the plants grow during the firstmonth - we like to prune out the bottom 3 to 4" of stems andshoots. Why? It makes plants easier to water, and once again allowsthat all important air and light to circulate through the plants and rows. It also makes it a little more difficult for garden bugs and pests tofind their way onto your plants.

Watering

Watering tomatoes (and for that fact,your entire garden), is as much about when to water, as it is how much. Never water during the heat of the day. Not only do you lose muchof it to evaporation, but you also can easily burn the foliage of the plants. The absolute best time to water is in the early hours between sunrise andmid-morning. Not only is it cooler and easier on the gardener, but yourplants are not stressing from the heat of the day either. Eveningwatering is your next best choice if you can't water in the morning, althoughit can create mildew if the water sits on leaves through the cool nights.

How Much Water? This is a bigone. When the plants are very young and for the first week or so, youmay need to water daily to get them established. After that - wateringevery day is a no-no. Established tomatoes need about 1 inch of water a week. If mother nature can't supply that - then you need to supplement. If you are experiencing a prolonged dry spell – water every two to threedays with about a 1/2″ of water to the plant at a time. This allowsenough water to go deep into the soil and create longer roots. Why notevery day? Plants that get a little water every day never send theirroots deeper to look for moisture and nutrients - and you end up with a weakroot system, leading to a weak plant.

Soil Fertility andFertilizing

Tomatoes need fertile soil to growstrong and healthy. If you follow along with our blog, you know we're notbig fans of man-made fertilizers - so what is the answer when it comes tofertilizing? Well, if you use compost in your planting holes and as a topdressing, work in green manure and cover crops to your soil in the fall orspring, and practice plant rotation - there really is no need for syntheticfertilizers to get a great crop of tomatoes.

If you want to give your plants anall natural boost - you can apply compost tea - a simple solution of watersoaked and steeped in fresh compost. The water absorbs the naturalnutrients from the compost and becomes an "all natural" liquidfertilizer. We apply it to the soil around the base of our plants (notthe leaves - it can burn them) a couple of times early in the growing season toget our plants off to a great start. Well, truth be told, we also do itso our plants can look a little bigger and brighter green than mybrother-in-laws :)

Happy Growing!

- Jim and Mary

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Mary and I do not practice as chemists, scientists or biologists in our spare time - nor is our garden officially certified as "green" or "organic". But we do have senses - and the sense to know that the food we grow organically tastes and looks great, doesn't contain any pesticides or sprays - and grows abundantly.

How? by following one simple rule. Take care of the soil that takes care of you. Oh, and by the way - it also make good "cents"...because it's much cheaper to grow our food organically than buying and applying expensive fertilizers and pesticides.

So through it all...we simply choose to grow organically. And no...we're not weird! Well, our kids might not agree with that last statement - but in all honesty, we're a regular couple who just wants to grow and know where our food comes from - and more importantly - know what's in it, and what's not.

So with that in mind, here are 5 simple and practical tips we use in our gardens and landscape to grow all of the fruits and vegetables we need - without chemicals or pesticides.1. Composting:

Composting is the backbone of any organic garden. In fact, compost comes straight from the word decomposition..the very heart of organic matter breaking down into fertile soil. Plant matter, leaves, food, etc. all eventually break down into the soil to add nutrients. However, once you turn that soil and plant your first garden - you begin to take nutrients back out of the soil. So adding compost is a must to keeping your soil strong and vibrant. By adding compost - you are in essence recharging your soil.Here is how we use it: Every year - we will work a 2 to 3" top-dressing of compost into each of our raised bed rows. Then, at planting time – we will put another cup or so in the average vegetable planting hole, mixing it in with the existing soil. We use it one more time to top dress and mulch our garden plants - doing this once the plants have grown for a few week in the soil. We put a good shovel full or two around each plant's base. This not only provides great weed control and moisture retention - but the compost slowly releases additional nutrients when it rains or we water - providing a natural fertilizer for the plants.There are a million ways to go about making compost - in a bin, a tub, a barrel or a plain old pile in the middle of the garden. But whatever you do - get that pile started! Add all of those kitchen remnants - potato peels, coffee grounds, egg shells and more. You can find out more about composting at our link here : Composting 101. Remember that finished compost should be fine and sweet smelling and cool to the touch. If you are turning the pile and still feeling heat – it's still cooking and not ready to use on or near plants just yet.2. Cover Crops:

Cover crops are really the key to a long-term garden's success – and are easy to plant! Just like the big time farmers on big time farms – our gardens and raised beds get all the same benefits of a well grown cover crop. They add back tons of nutrients including Nitrogen to the soil, keep other weeds from getting established in your beds, and build organic matter back into the earth. They also play a key role in keeping soil erosion to a minimum.So what are they and when can they be planted? Cover crops are a planting of an annual crop like annual rye or clover to your empty garden beds. Early fall is a great time to plant a cover crop in your garden or raised beds. A crop like annual rye will emerge in just a week or two and create a thick, grassy bed that will fix nitrogen levels in the soil and keep the beds from being exposed to the winter elements that can erode precious topsoil. In the spring, you simply dig them under to add organic matter back into your soil. You can even plant a quick spring or mid summer crop and turn it over into the soil before planting your summer garden. This is called a "green manure or cover crop" and can be a great boost to the plants going into the space.It's easy to plant one. No need to till your soil – next, rake out your rows, existing garden, or raised beds – and scatter the seeds as if you were throwing grass seed on your lawn. Rake it over and you're done! It's okay if you still see seeds on top – they will sprout soon enough and you will have a great cover crop growing! We don't use a tiller at all in our raised row beds – just a pitchfork to turn it over, and we are ready to plant. We actually have a complete tutorial dedicated to cover crop benefits that you can check out here : Planting Cover Crops3. Crop Rotation:

If you keep planting the same pepper, tomato or cucumber plants in the same spot, year after year – you won't keep getting the same results. Why? Because plants use certain specific nutrients from the soil - and the soil becomes depleted of those nutrients if the same crops keep going into the same place.In addition – soil borne diseases that are prone to affect a certain type of plant have a better chance to become established with repeat plantings. So, in addition to providing compost and cover crops to recharge your soil - it's important to rotate your crops each year so that they give the soil time to recover from that specific crop.For us - we have 34 raised beds in our garden - and we flip and rotate what we grow so that the same crop will not go in the same space until every fourth year. With just a little planning - it's easy to do.4. Mulching:

Remember that statement about plants using nutrients from the soil? Well guess what - weeds are plants too - and they compete for the same nutrients and water your vegetable plants do. So the less weeds they compete with - the more nutrients in the soil for the vegetable plants. And you can suppress those weeds naturally, without spraying, and keep your garden looking great.How? By mulching. Mulching is a great way to keep out unwanted weeds. We like to mulch around our plants with a healthy dose of finished compost. It not only hold conserves moisture in the soil, but it blocks out weeds, and adds valuable nutrients back to the soil while it decomposes. If you don't have compost on hand yet - then mulch with straw, shredded leaves or grass clippings. They all accomplish the same thing - keeping moisture in while suppressing weeds. We also mulch all of our walking rows with straw and shredded leaves to keep weeds out from there as well. When after a few weeks we get a few weeds popping up here and there...we simply use a weed-eater and cut them down, add a little more straw, and the garden looks great.5. Proper Watering:

No matter how good your soil is - without water - plants struggle. Too little water and plants shrivel up. Too much water and they won't develop the good and deep root structure needed for healthy, mature plants. A good rule of thumb is that a garden plant typically needs to receive about 1 inch of water a week. If mother nature isn't supplying that - then you need to supplement. But that doesn't mean the 1″ of water should come all at once. If you are experiencing a prolonged dry spell – water every two to three days with a slow, soaking 1/2″ of water. This allows enough water to go deep into the soil and build deeper roots – and gives the plants more consistent watering. Why not every day? The plants never send their roots deeper to look for water – and you end up with underdeveloped roots, and a weaker plant. Call it tough love watering to develop stronger plants – but it works.Water early in the day or in the evening to keep evaporation to a minimum. Try to water the ground around the root area and not the foliage – wet leaves can become burned from the sun's rays. When our plants are young - we use a 2 gallon sprayer (see, there is room for a sprayer in an organic garden :) ) – and water directly to the plant's base to conserve water and get right to where it's needed most.There you have it. Our 5 simple, organic tips to a healthy, vibrant and chemical free garden!If you would like to receive our weekly DIY and Gardening Posts every Tuesday – be sure to sign up to follow our blog via email, Twitter or Facebook in the right hand column of the blog.

-Jim and Mary

Compost tea or "black liquid gold" is the all organic "miracle-growing" solution to fertilizing the garden - minus the chemicals and high salt content that commercial fertilizers add to your soil. It works its magic in two ways - feeding your plants through the roots (soil zones around plants) and the leaves (foliar zones). Unlike synthetic fertilizers, it won't build up chemicals and salt levels that can slowly destroy your soil structure. Instead, adding nutrients that build it!

If you follow along with our blog, you know how important compost is in building healthy soil. We add large amounts of compost to all of our planting beds each year, as well as a good shovel full in every single planting hole. Well, that compost, made from our decomposed vegetable scraps, chicken manure, grass clippings, coffee grounds, and more - is teeming with all-natural, plant-boosting nutrients. By converting those nutrients into a liquid form - we can utilize those nutrients as an organic fertilizer to naturally boost plants growth through the growing season.

How we use it:

Compost Tea can be applied about every two weeks to your garden plants once plants and transplants have become established. By established, we simply mean that they have been in the ground 7 to 10 days and are over the initial shock of transplant.

We apply ours with a watering can or a simple garden sprayer - soaking the area around the root base and the leaves of each plant with the solution. The minerals and nutrients are then absorbed through the leaves (foliar absorption) as well as through the root zone - doubling the effect. As with watering, it is best to apply early in the day before the sun is too hot and the tea can burn the leaves of plants.

We repeat the compost tea applications every two weeks until about mid July. Why stop? Too much of a good thing can also be bad. You want plants to develop strong roots and stems - but too much and the plant will spend all of its energy creating thick foliage and not much fruit. We have found that 4 to 6 total applications seem to be the perfect mix for giving plants the boost they need for good higher yields. The best part - its 100% natural, with no fear of having to use any chemicals in your garden.

How we make it: There are many ways to make compost tea - but we have found this method to be easy, effective, and most importantly, simple!

BASIC COMPOST TEA RECIPE:

You will need a 5 Gallon Bucket, stir stick, water, and a few shovel fulls of finished compost.

Start by filling your bucket about 1/3 full of compost. Use compost from the bottom of your pile, where organic matter has decayed the most and is teeming with life.Next - fill the bucket to the within an inch or two of the top with water. It is best to use well water (we use our rain water) because there will be no chlorine or other chemicals. Chlorine can kill off many of the helpful bacteria and organisms that are alive in compost. If you only have access to city water, no worries - simply fill the bucket a few days in advance and let sit outside. The sun and air will work its magic and within a few days, almost all of the chlorine will be gone.

Stir the compost good with a stick or the end of your garden shovel. Over the course of the next 5 to 7 days, stir the bucket a few times each day. This aeration of the water and the stirring of the compost helps to release more nutrients into the water, much like dunking a tea bag releases more tea into your drink.

At the end of 5 to 7 days, simply strain the mixture through a piece of burlap, mesh screen or a strainer, and you are left with the magical liquid gold fertilizer called compost tea! Store in an air tight container to keep the "liquid gold" at it's best nutrient levels.

Bonus Info:

You can find more pictures on how we make it by going to our blog post. You can get a little more fancy in your compost tea making if you desire. It has been shown that adding a simple aquarium pump to the bucket and letting it run to percolate the mixture will increase the potency of the finished mixture, and can be completed in as little as 2 days. Others also add molasses or sugar to the mixture to increase the absorption of the water and organisms.

However, for us, the simple bucket and stirring method has certainly worked wonders for our garden. Besides, the extra few days we let ours steep in the water is worth not having to go through the trouble of setting up a pump, wires, etc. For us, keeping it simple is the key!So how about trying your own liquid gold this year and get those plants growing big and strong! If you would like to receive our DIY & Gardening Tips every Tuesday – be sure to sign up to follow the blog via email in the right hand column, "like" us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Happy Gardening - Jim and Mary