How I Ended Up With 98 Tomato Plants

First, you need to know my background. Growing up my family had a garden. My Papaw Young lived in the country and had a large garden with his best friend, Glen Tinsley. The garden was large enough to feed all their families, friends and neighbors. Most weekends were spent with my Memaw and Papaw Young. I was their first grandchild and could do no wrong. They snagged me whenever they could which meant I was raised in the garden. It was all I knew. One of my first memories in the garden was sitting in the middle of their strawberry patch eating warm, sweet strawberries right from the vine- that was probably 1974. I even remember falling asleep in the garden once or twice and Memaw swooping me up under her arm and carrying me to the front porch. If we weren’t in the garden, we were in the kitchen canning or on the porch hulling peas or breaking beans.

Memaw got sick in 1989 and the garden slowly came to a halt. And life happened. I got a full time job and the garden life became a thing of the past. I still grew a few tomatoes over the years- that’s what southern women are suppose to do.

Today, I find myself with a little more time on my hands. In my 50s, I find myself reflecting on the things that bring me joy and vowing to do more of them. Sometimes the hardest part of doing what you love is determining what you love. I find the things I love to do are things that brought me happiness and wonderful memories as a child. My Memaw taught me how to cook and she loved feeding everyone. I love to cook and I love to have people over and cook for them. So it was only natural I would eventually find my way back to the garden.

When I had breast cancer in 2019, I found it important to take a long look at my food and what I was putting in my body. This led me to farmers’ markets and growing my own herbs and making a few tinctures. It wasn’t until 2023 that I went full out with 2 small raised garden beds in the middle of my small city yard. I began canning tomatoes which sparked a canning run of tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, roasted marina sauce, green beans, zesty bread and butter pickles, dill pickles, pinto beans, northern beans, corn, salsa… you get the picture. My canning run had a very positive impact on my weekly grocery bill. Full disclosure, I did not grow all the things I canned in my small raised beds, but they were all from local farmers. And I can’t even describe to you the joy I feel every time I pop a top of a jar of crushed tomatoes and smell the absolute vine ripened goodness before me. I also began preserving my bounty of herbs which I can’t believe it took me this long to do. When I tell you my dried oregano, thyme and frozen basil tastes like fresh, I really, really mean it. Not anything like the dried stuff you buy at the supermarket.

So this year I wanted to expand my beds. I am still on the raised bed learning curve. The beds I had last year were two 3X5 beds. Lesson #1: even number widths are better. 2 feet is a good width for 1 row, 4 feet is good for 2 rows. Not a solid rule, as you can plant things amongst your rows as you see fit, but for me I have decided to merge my two beds together to make it 6X5, still probably not the perfect size, but merging them was better than redoing the entire thing and it gives me more planting space.

My seedlings did not do well last year. I have a porch on the south side of my home so I do not have good indoor natural light. So this year I bought some fairly inexpensive grow lights from Amazon. I zip tied them to a wire rack and essentially made a growing rack. When I tell you the grow lights have been a game changer…my goodness. So this is where my joy overshadowed my logical thinking. There were so many tomato choices. And I remember my Papaw growing different types, so of course, I wanted to try so many because I can’t really remember my favorites.

In trying to educate myself, I have learned there are determinate and indeterminate tomato plants. Determinates are more “bushy” and have a determined height they grow to. Indeterminates are more like a vine and can be trellised.

I have also learned there are different ways to “support” tomato plants. There are tomato cages, which are my least favorite, there are trellises, there is a string method…the list goes on and on and there are lots of videos online to demonstrate.

So, back to the seeds. The first pack I grabbed were Early Girls. Hence their name, they are the first to produce. I also grabbed a pack of Brandy Wine, Better Boys, and Celebration. My favorites last year were cherry tomatoes, so I grabbed three varieties of those, Large Cherry, Super Sweet Cherry and Sweeties.

I already had many containers on hand to start the seeds, but obviously not enough, so I ordered a few more. Still a lot of joy…still short on logic.

Because of my joy… I also planted my seeds around Valentine’s Day. Which is pretty early for seed starting. Which meant yesterday, February 25, I already had to up pot them (move them from the small seed starting tray to a larger pot). And this was when I paused to count them…98 happy, healthy and strong tomato plants. Disclaimer- I also have other seedlings, basil, oregano, chives, cayenne pepper, thyme, dill… you get the picture.

So logically, I need more raised beds? Of course, I do. Instead of making them, I ordered a couple of 4X8 beds with excellent reviews and a decent price for the size. Did I mention I have also determined my original beds may not have been deep enough, so I am building them up making the depth 2 feet? Bottom line- I am going to need a pile of dirt in my near future.

As for my husband, Jay, I think I amuse him. He just laughs and asks me what I need. Although he did put his foot down when he saw a mason jar filled with water and banana peels on the counter. He said, “I love you, but whatever that is, I am not eating it.” And I just smiled and told him it was fertilizer for the tomatoes. I have hinted that some rock around the raised beds would look really nice and Saturday he asked me when we were going to get the rock. When I tell you he is my biggest cheerleader, I am understating that fact.

I have learned many things in my 54 years. I am learning to do more of what I love and I have also added digging in the dirt to my list. And if you see me at the farmer’s market this year in my overalls, selling tomato plants for $1, just smile and waive. I am still learning and full of joy.

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