Juliet Tomatoes & Basil from the garden
Having a tomato garden in my side yard is one of the simple pleasures that makes summer feel like summer.
Here are a few tips that helped me grow my crop again this year:
- Pick a spot that gets plenty of sun
- Get a “bird fence”, which is a plastic mesh to cover the area with wood stakes at corners and the middle, then staple the fence to the stakes
- Turn over the soil before planting, and mix in a couple bags of “garden soil”
- Using a little Miracle Grow, it helps at the start
- Hope for rain
I planted four “Juliet” tomato plants that I picked up at Meadows Farm and they started producing in July and hopefully will produce tomatoes until October. It is hot here in Vienna Virginia but we get a good amount of rain and the plants always grow to fill up the enclosure… actually beyond the protection of the mesh fence.
Planting some sweet basil is another good idea that helps you make a simple salad almost at a moment’s notice. A little olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper… yum!
Although I had to seal up a spot under the fence where a tomato-loving chipmunk spent a week sneaking in to knock down my tomatoes, they grew easily and provided a nightly vegetable.
