Vegetable Gardening (16 page)

An ethnic pizza garden

The garden in Figure 3-5 uses the pizza garden theme from kids' gardens, where each "slice" is a potential topping on a pizza. In my case, each "slice" of this 20-foot-diameter pizza is composed of specialty varieties of different ethnic vegetables. Ethnic cooking is booming as people discover cuisines from around the world. Many of the special varieties and ingredients in ethnic cooking aren't readily available in grocery stores, but you can grow them at home.

The mulched pathways (each 3 feet wide) allow for 3 beds to be in each slice. The four cuisines are Asian, Italian, Mexican, and French/Continental. Not all the vegetables you need for cooking are represented in this garden, but it has some key ingredients that you can't do without, such as chili pepper for Mexican cooking, basil for Italian dishes, and pac choi for Asian cuisines.

Part II

In this part . . .

Each chapter in this part looks at the most popular groups of or individual vegetables. I show you lots of varieties you can experiment with and the best ways to grow them successfully to harvest. I even talk about other edibles, such as berries and herbs, that are easy and beautiful to grow in your yard or garden.

Chapter 4: Tomatoes: The King of Veggies

In This Chapter

Choosing the right variety for your garden

Growing your tomatoes to perfection

As I mention in Chapter 2, tomatoes are hands down the most popular vegetable grown in the garden. After you've picked and tasted a juicy, vine-ripened fresh tomato, you'll understand why. You can't compare the bland supermarket tennis balls that most people make do with to the taste and texture explosion of the homegrown tomato. The best news is that tomatoes are even easy to grow! Just give them a good start and a little attention during the growing season, and you'll be rewarded with more delicious ripe fruits than you can eat.

Tomatoes are no longer limited to the round red fruits we're accustomed to seeing. Through breeding and the rediscovery of heirloom varieties, tomatoes now come in almost every color of the rainbow, from black to white, and in a variety of sizes, from as tiny as a blueberry to as large as a grapefruit. Modern breeding practices have created tomato varieties that are well adapted to heat, cold, and even containers. Great taste, disease resistance, and ease of growing make tomatoes the most rewarding to grow of all the vegetables.

Even though we all call the tomato a vegetable, botanically it's considered a fruit. Any edible plant part that develops from the ovary of the plant (found behind the flower) after fertilization is considered a fruit, so tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers, and eggplant are considered fruits; lettuce, carrots, onions, and spinach are technically considered vegetables. Of course, this discussion is a moot point, because most folks categorize fruits and vegetables by their uses, not by their botany. (Case in point: A Supreme Court ruling in 1893 declared the tomato a vegetable.) So be it.

Checking Out Tomato Varieties

Before deciding which tomato variety to grow, you first need to consider the growth habits of the different plants. Plants can grow into huge monsters or tiny pot plants. So first decide how much room you have to plant tomatoes, and then decide on the right variety for that space. Whether a cherry tomato, paste tomato, or red slicing variety, tomatoes all fall into one of these categories:

Indeterminate:
Indeterminate
tomato plants keep growing and growing and growing. The side branches and shoots continue to grow even after fruit is
set
(in other words, after the flower has been pollinated and the young tomato fruits begin to grow), and they can be stopped only by frost, insects, disease, or an ax. Most main crop tomatoes are of this type.

These tomato varieties do produce a ton of fruit, but the tomatoes tend to mature later in the season than those born by the shorter plant varieties. Varieties such as ‘Better Boy' and ‘Brandywine' are good examples of indeterminate tomato types.

Determinate:
Unlike indeterminate varieties,
determinate
varieties tend to stop growing once the shoots set fruit. Varieties vary in the degree that they're determinate, but these plants generally tend to be shorter and produce less fruit. However, they do mature fruit earlier than indeterminates. Varieties such as ‘Solar Fire' and ‘Oregon Spring' are good examples of determinate types.

Dwarf:
These stronger determinate plants tend to reach only a few feet tall, produce all of their fruit at once, and then stop producing for the season. These plants are excellent as patio or container plants, producing cherry tomato-sized fruits. The ‘Patio' and ‘Tiny Tim' varieties are examples of dwarf tomatoes.

Dwarf-indeterminate:
The best of both worlds, these plants stay dwarf, only reaching about 3 to 4 feet tall, but continue to produce full-sized tomatoes all season long. They grow well when planted in containers or in the garden. Some dwarf-indeterminate varieties include ‘Bush Big Boy' and ‘Husky Gold'.

In Figure 4-1, you can see the differences between determinate, indeterminate, and dwarf plants.

When in doubt about a variety's quality, look for the All-America Selections (AAS) winner label in the variety's description. This group evaluates new varieties yearly by conducting trials all across the country for outstanding growth and flavor. A variety with this label will likely perform well in your garden.