Ways to Go Green - 10 Tomato Growing Tips

I can't wait until summer is here to have ice cold tomatoes on my sandwiches or cut tomatoes with a little salt. Doesn't that just sound delicious? My mouth is watering just thinking about this. I have been reading a lot about gardening and improving my skills. Tomatoes seem to be the most popular plant every gardener wants learn how to grow and grow with abundance. I have listed here 10 tomato growing tips to help you have the juiciest, most delicious tomatoes this year. I am trying all of them, since I would like to actually eat something out of my garden this year. 

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Ways to go Green In the Garden

10 Tomato Growing Tips

1. Choose a spot with lots of sunshine. Tomatoes require at least 6-8 hours of sunlight in order to ripen to a nice red color. Make sure the spot you want to plant is filled with sunshine.
2. Bury the stems. When transplanting your tomatoes bury stems up to the first leaf. This will give your tomatoes a healthy start. These will turn into more roots and help produce more tomatoes.
3. Water deeply but not often. It is a good idea to water your tomato plants once or twice a week for a long period of time rather than frequently for a few minutes each day. This will produce a hearty root system and great juicy tomatoes.
4. Pinch off the suckers. The suckers grow at the base of the leaf and try to grow another tomato branch. While this may seem like a good idea, these suck nutrients from the stems that actually are producing plant. Whenever you see the first leaves appearing just snap them off at the base to prevent these suckers from reducing your harvest.
5. Use stakes or tomato cages. I use tomato cages purchased at the store. While this may be a little of an investment at first, these will last you many many years. As the tomato plant grows allow the branches to drape over the edges. The last thing you want is your tomatoes on the ground. They will rot before you can harvest them.
6. Add compost Halfway through the season add more compost around the base of the tomato plant. Or make a compost tea and water your plants. This will provide more nutrients to the roots and a longer growing season.
7. Pick ripe. I find that ripe is when the tomato is starting to turn red. When you start to see the first stages of the tomato turning a little pink it is time to harvest. Simply give the tomato a little twist and it should pop right off the vine. Allow it to ripen in a dark warm area for a couple of days. These will be ready to eat or can.
8. Seedlings spaced 2 feet apart. When planting, place at least two feet apart to allow the plant to grow and not over take the next plant. If you go with the round cages, each cage should be at least 1 foot apart.
9. How many plants do I need? A good rule of thumb to follow is to grow at least three to five plants per person in your home.  
10. Bug prevention. Lastly you want to protect your plant. See my post from yesterday for a few gardening ways to go green insecticides you can use on your plants.

Here are a few ways to go green for growing awesome tomatoes. If you do all these steps, you should have a bountiful tomato harvest this year. 

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I check my garden everyday to make sure it is doing well or if it needs water or are there any bugs eating my hard work. I want to eat this food, not let the bugs have it. Last year I had a caterpillar nearly eat an entire tomato plant in a couple of days. I found him an moved him to the front yard. He was very fat and happy by the time I found him, so this made him easy to find. I hope the egg shells will discourage them from intruding this year. I should be able to conquer these little pests!

Do you have any great tomato tips you would like to share? Are you growing a garden? If you have a garden post, leave a comment below. I would love to read what you have written.

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Ways to Go Green

Have you ever tried to grow your own garden? If the thought of growing an entire garden with a lot of plants is overwhelming to you, start a container garden with a few herbs. Gardening is a little tricky, unless you know what you are doing. Ours was a complete fail last year, so I have done a lot of research I would love to share with you. This week I will be writing about green ways to take care of your garden.

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Ways to go Green In the Garden

One of the easiest ways to go green is trying not to produce more waste by purchasing a product to use once and then just throw it away. In order to combat the bugs in our garden this year we have incorporated a few organic pest control methods we make ourselves. These are super easy and do not take much time. By making your own pesticides you are reducing your waste and not putting unnecessary chemicals into the environment.

• Eggshells can be added to your garden. First let them dry completely and rinse them out. Then use a blender or food processer to crush them. Adding crushed eggshells in the bottom of the planting hole will prevent blossom rot for plants such as tomatoes and peppers. Blossom rot is caused by a calcium deficiency in the soil. The eggshells will break down and provide calcium for your soil.

• Crushed eggshells can also be used to deter slugs, snails, and cutworms from eating your garden. These pests do not like to crawl over anything sharp. Sprinkle these around the edge of your garden to prevent these nasty pest from getting in and also around your plants. 

• Here is a recipe for an organic pesticide spray that is super easy easy to make. The use of garlic in this spray deters deer and rabbits from your garden. While the soap will work on the soft bodied pest by drying them out. Boil 2-3 head of garlic in about 1 quart of water. Add 1-2 tablespoons of soap such as a castile soap. Let the mixture stand overnight and drain into a spray bottle.

We have been saving our eggshells and crushing them and using them around the perimeter of our garden as well as around each of the plants. I will report on how well this way to to green is working as my garden progresses through the season. I will start spraying them with the green insecticide soon, since they are growing so quickly.

Do you have any other ways to go green you use in your garden? I would love to hear what others do. I need all the help I can get. 

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Ways to Go Green

We had a wonderful weekend this weekend. On Saturday I had a girls night out and had a fabulous time at the Glass Cactus dancing with my friends. Thanks everyone for a great evening!

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Ways to Go Green

In an effort to eat the things we love, this summer we are growing a garden. So far this weekend we have planted tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini and bell peppers. Soon we are going to transplant our Jalapenos. We tried growing a garden last year, but this was a complete fail. We learned a lot and trying something new. This year we are trying the lasagna method. I can't wait to report on how well this goes. If successful I am working on a post to show you exactly how we did it without a tiller. Being from Texas we love salsa, so we are trying to grow a salsa garden to make fresh salsa this summer. Hopefully all the veggies will come in at the same time for us to make fresh salsa. I am so excited about growing a garden this year I can't wait to harvest the fresh vegetables. If they don't keel over with our Texas heat.

The weather here in Texas has reached summer temperatures already. It has reached into 90's this weekend. Since it is very hot outside, we were able to enjoy our pool this weekend. We have been heating our pool all week with our solar panels located on the roof. We are so excited we are able to utilize our solar panels in our efforts to go green. These were on the house when we purchased it. This was a major selling feature for us when purchased our home. It is April and we are swimming in our pool!

In the next few weeks I will be writing about 20 small little steps you can do to go green leading up to my Earth Day giveaway. I will write a review about a cleaning kit with several different types of green cleaners included in the kit and one kit will be given away to my fabulous readers on Earth Day April 22. So check back soon for when this giveaway is going live or like Pounds4Pennies Facebook page, so you know the moment this giveaway goes live. You don't want to miss this.

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Are you doing anything to make this world we live in a better place? What are some of your ways to go green?