Start Your Gardens (With a Tomato)

It's hard to believe that I've been gardening for a year now. What started as a solo tomato plant in a large pot, turned into a homemade garden in an overturned storage shed, and has now become a stealth planting project all over my (landlord's) yard. You know you're obsessed when you're planting a handful of shallots in between your landlord's begonias.

If you've never gardened before, I'd encourage you to give it a shot. It's insanely rewarding to eat something you've grown yourself. Sure, it takes a little patience. And a little work- there is watering involved, sometimes every day. But, in the long run, it's not very difficult. You'll save money on food, too!

The best thing to do is to start with tomatoes. If your recent experience with tomatoes has been the pale orange slices of watery goop that was thoughtlessly added to your burger, you're in for a treat, Buster. Tomatoes, being soft and squishy by nature, aren't designed for travel. So grocery store tomatoes have been bread for toughness, not flavor. They are also picked before fully ripe, again diminishing the flavor. When you grow your own, you can choose varieties designed for maximum flavor, and pick them when ripe!

They're also remarkably easy to grow. Even if you're stuck for space, you can grow tomatoes. All you need is a decent sized pot, some quality organic compost or potting soil, and a seedling. Seedlings can be found at your local garden center, or, even better, at a farmers' market. The University of Georgia has a lot of information, but don't feel like you need to be so scientific about it. Good dirt, careful monitoring, and patience will do the trick.

There are hundreds of varieties to choose from. naturalhub.com, a great resource in general, provides an excellent list of options. Heirloom tomatoes have a wide array of flavor & color, but can be more difficult to grow. Hybrid tomatoes are bred for greater pest resistance and predictability.

My personal favorites are:
San Marzano- an Italian plum tomato, used for sauce.
Sun Gold: An orange cherry tomato. Perfect balance of acid and sugar. They grow very TALL.
Early Girl: An quick growing, medium sized fruit. Good all purpose flavor. Works great in a pot.
Brandywine: A popular heirloom beefsteak tomato. Amazing flavor- tastes how you think a tomato should!

WARNING: Chances are, once you grow one plant, you're going to want to grow more. And more. And more.