Tomato tips

There are lots of great tomatoes out there. Experiment and find what you like, but here are four very different varieties I plant every year:
Sweet Baby Girl
Stupice
Champion
Black Brandy wine

How to plant a tomato:
I don't mess with seeds. The growing season is too short. I'd rather pay $5 a plant and let someone else fuss with up bringing. This year I planted my tomatoes May 3. That's well before the average last frost date, but I protect them using walls-o-water. These inexpensive plastic sleeves act like a sweater for your tomatoes, which after all come from the tropics and aren't used to our cold nights. The water in the sleeves warms in the sun then keeps the plant warm all night. It also protects from wind. I recommend them even after the frost, and keep them on until mid June when the plants become too big.

The first seedlings

These oak leaf lettuce seeds were planted 4/27/08 and sprouted 5/3/2008. Tiny seeds need to be watered daily to germinate, and should be kept moist until their infant roots reach down into the soil. Even one missed day of watering can mean a failed crop.

Squirrel-proof planting

Every spring I have the same problem. The squirrels watch me as I plant my first seeds, then sneak into my garden once I'm gone to see if I buried anything tasty. I've looked around for a solution that would be cheap, easy, and effective and settled on wire mesh. I used a 4x4 foot section of 1cm wire mesh, laying it over a newly planted area for a few days until the squirrels forget. They are generally only interested in freshly disturbed earth. The mesh has another use once planting is done. I throw it over a wheelbarrow and use it as a screen to remove large bits from finished compost, leaving only the fine, dark humus.