"When Should I Plant My Garden???"

Something must be in the air. I have been asked FOUR times today from different people, "When should I plant my garden?" Wait... I know what it is... SPRING is in the air!

I'm a gardener. Yes, it's true. I confess. I love gardening. To me, there are two types of gardeners. There are ones that love to landscape, and there are others that love to plant vegetables. Well, I love doing both. I love mowing. I love creating different "scapes" in my yard, and trying different plants. And of course, I love to plant "THE GARDEN!"

Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of space. I can usually grow 6 tomato and 8 pepper plants. I've tried a variety of tomatoes... Big Berthas, Better Bush, Whopper, etc. However, the ones that I've had the most success in the Dallas area are Carnival tomatoes. Sometimes those are hard to find... they have another name: Celebrity.

They don't get too huge - 4 inches would be very large. However, they go on and on and on. What would you rather have: A few large tomatoes, or a bunch of mediums that last until October? :-)

So, here is what I recommend. Check the date. I usually use March 15th as a "planting" date. The next thing I do is check Accuweather.com. If they don't predict freezing temps in the next 10 days, then we're good to go. As of now, my going is good! So this weekend is planting season at Casa de Regan.

Now, a few tips. You don't just dig a hole and put the plant in there. I do a few things.

My friends, I'd like to share with you "the few things" that each of you should do each planting season. These directions were passed down from my grandfather to his daughter, my Aunt Loretta. She passed them on to me. And, as some have seen (and tasted!), the results speak for themselves.

Tomatoes 101:

Most of these products can be purchased from your local Feed Store. You can also get the manure at Walmart. And this is for an area that is 5' x 20'.

Products:
20 lbs. Bone Meal
15 lbs. Cotton Seed
10 lbs. Garden Lime
1 Bag of Peat Moss
2 Bags of Manure

Directions:
1. Mix Bone Meal, Cotton Seed, and Lime into Garden. Till in.
2. For each plant, dig a hole about 6" in diameter.
3. Add 3 parts Cow Manure, 6 parts Peat Moss in bucket. Fill bottom of hole.
4. Place plant in hole up to first stem.
5. Remove bottom stem and add more mixture from #3.
5. Put dirt over everything and all the way to the top of the first leaves.
6. Fill with water.
7. If leftover mix, just dump it around the remainder of the soil.
8. Cover with mulch.

Season:
Every other day, go out and remove “suckers.” A sucker is a stem that begins to grow between two stems. These take away nutrients from older stems/vines. Tomatoes require a lot of water and sunlight. Plan to water every 2-3 days. If the soil is dry, your plant is dry. One way to combat this is to add a soaker hose around your plants after you finish planting. Remove yellow leaves and vines. They’re dying. As soon as the tomato starts to turn (ripen), remove. It’s not going to grow any larger and the birds will get it.

So that's it. Happy gardening!