The tomato has a storied past. This article takes a look at the history of the toamato, where it orginally came from, it's travels from the New World, and some of it's experiences with the European, and where the Supreme Court came down on whether it's a fruit or vegetable.

We all miss having our favorite garden produce available in the winter months. While it's possible to grow tomatoes indoors, a winter indoor garden does impose some constraints on what can be grown because of the limited light and space that you have available. Here's a look at some tips to successfully growing an indoor winter garden.

One of the more popular gifts for the indoor gardener recently has been the Aerogrow Aerogarden. It's a self contained system that uses a modified hydroponics system that is simple to set up and is controlled by a simple microcontroller that takes care of the watering and lighting control. They come in a few different sizes these days, so you can find one that fits your budget and kitchen space.

When you're shopping for tomato seeds, did you ever wonder what those cryptic letters by the seed descriptions mean? What does a V or and F mean, and do I care. Are more letters better than fewer? Here we look at the different tomatoe disease resistance codes, and try to point out which ones may be of importance to you and your garden.

There are a mind numbing variety of tomato breeds out there. Which tomato varieties will work the best for your garden? Here's a quick overview of what the different classes of tomatoes are, and a few suggestions for your garden.  And it's not just the old standby varieties.

One favorite place to grow tomatoes is on the backyard patio or deck. Of course, many of these same ideas will work just as well for growing tomatoes on a balcony, at an apartment or a second story balcony at your home.  A little care and a well chosen container will make your patio tomatoes a success.

Patio tomato growing

In our zeal to get those early spring tomatoes out, one of the best things we can do is start our own tomato seedlings at home.  Once we've gotten them to start, we may want to move them to something larger to keep them growing well and to help harden them off.  This article gives some pointers on successfully transplanting tomatoes to peat pots to give them room to grow.

There are a number of ways to support the growth of your tomato plants.  While cages are a popular option, another great way to keep your tomatoes off the ground and looking good is to use a trellis.  Of course with that comes the need to occasionally prune the tomatoes to make the best use of the trellis.

One thing that comes up especially with heirloom tomato plants is the need to save seeds from one year to the next.  Of course with hybrid plants, this won't do much as the seeds aren't true to the parents.  But for many heirloom plants this is a good way to get seeds for rare tomato varieties that are hard to find.  You'll find some instructions to save tomato seeds below.

We want to make sure we do a proper job of fertilizing our tomatoes. Like most things in the garden, you can overdo it. Too much of the wrong types of fertilizer can either burn the plant or end up giving us all sorts of leafy growth but no fruit. Not enough and our tomato yields can suffer. Of course it's best to test the soil first and see what is actually needed. This article gives a quick overview of what's in fertilizers, and what combination can work the best in your tomato garden.

One job in the garden that sometimes seems like a lot of work is pruning and staking the tomatoes. But it's generally accepted that these practices will increase yield more fruit that if the tomato plants are left to sprawl around the garden. Here's a look at the advantages of pruning and staking tomatoes.

At some point we all run into problems with our tomatoes. The key to dealing with them is often taking a proactive stance and making sure we don't encourage the conditions that bring on disease and tomato pests. But if we do get tomato problems, if we aren't careful to diagnose them properly, we may find the solution we prefer is ineffective until we come up with the proper diagnosis. This article goes into more detail on the diagnosis of tomato problems and pests like fungus and spider mites.

Those of us who are blessed enough to have deer near our homes are sometimes not as happy about it when it comes to our vegetable gardens. They can be among the most aggressive of the garden pests there are, and even those of us who aren't organic gardeners are not likely to do away with them, especially if it's not hunting season. Here's an article that gives a few ideas of ways to keep deer from getting to your tomatoes before you do.

Depending on how we are growing our tomatoes, we may find that keeping them properly pruned is a key to maximizing the yield of these tomatoes.  It's often useful when growing them on tomato stakes or supports, along with in cages on on trellises if you want to keep them under control but still yielding the most in total tomatoes for your harvest.

Here's a great idea for something to do with those green tomatoes we all harvest when that first really hard freeze comes along and takes out the last of the tomato plants in the garden. After you've done the fried green tomatoes, you can try pickling the rest. Here's a recipe to try.

One question that comes up in most gardens is when to water the garden.  While the answer will differ when you are watering container grown tomatoes, especially those growing in hanging tomato planters, or upside down in something like the upside down tomato garden, but there are some tips to be had.  Here's an article we found that gives a good overview of when to water your tomatoes.

Here we take another look at the differences between heirloom tomatoes and hybrid tomatoes. There are a number of advantages to each, so it's best to know which one takes provides the best for your particular needs.

The other day I was looking for information on the types of things that can be added to your compost pile.  I ran across this article that highlights over 100 things you can add to a compost pile, and where to find free material to add to a compost pile.  

On that list one of the more popular ones is used coffee grounds, which can often be found for free at coffee shops as well.  The article and video here describe some of the benefits of using coffee grounds on your garden.

When spring is near we all want to get the jump on starting those new tomato plants in the hope that maybe this year we can get some tomatoes out of the garden earlier than normal.  However, all to often we are disappointed by the onset of a late frost or even a killing freeze.  Here are a few ideas on how to keep Jack Frost from stealing those early spring tomatoes away from us.

First, it's good to set aside a few plants just for the purpose of getting those early tomatoes.  Be sure you've chosen a variety that is not only a little more frost tolerant (there is a limit to how much cold any tomato can take before it is zapped by the cold) but just as importantly one that will set fruit in cold weather.  Check your seed catalog description to find the ones best suited for the cold.

Making compost for your garden is one of the best ways to boost your tomato production. There are a variety of way to go about making compost, the simplest just being a pile somewhere near the garden. But there are a variety of tools, ranging from simple compost thermometers to deluxe compost tumblers that can help accelerate the composting process. Here's an article that takes a look at the tradeoffs between compost tumbler and simple compost bins.

One of the easiest things to do to build up your garden is to add compost to it on a regular basis.  While most gardens will have a compost bin in place somewhere, one of the easiest ways to get a large amount of compost is to simply set aside a pile for composting leaves.  The following article gives a few tips on how to easily take advantage of leaf compost to build up the soil in your garden.

There are a variety of hanging planters you can used for your tomato planting.  There are the simple bags that hang a single plant upside down like the Topsy Turvy Tomato Planter, and you can also find stands that hold more than one plant, or even a tomato garden that holds more than one tomato plant and a variety of herbs and/ or flowers as well.  Most of these can be put on a patio or balcony so that almost anyone can use these to house your garden.

It's not uncommon to hear references to heirloom tomatoes.  It's easy to see that they are prized by many gardeners, but for the novice gardener the term may be confusing.  Here's a look at what makes a particular variety an heirloom tomato, and some varieties that you may want to try in your tomato garden, or even on the patio in a hanging tomato planter.

There are many people who live in an apartment or condo who would still like to have a small garden of some sort.  Of course one way to do this is to grow tomatoes indoors in a container or something like the Aerogarden system.  But if you are looking to grow something the size of the traditional tomatoes, then the balcony is likely your best bet.  Here we take a look at some different ways to grow tomatoes on the balcony.

Here's a good article on the benefits of growing tomatoes upside down.  The beauty of this approach is that by using upside down containers, you can grow tomatoes almost anywhere like your balcony as well.  Try it with a couple of plants this year and see how well it works.