Planting Tomatoes and Basil

When I mentioned to somebody at church that I already had my zucchini and pumpkin seeds in the ground, she was quite shocked at how early I was planting them. I’m afraid to tell her I just put my tomatoes and basil in the ground too and may just forego having that conversation for fear of reprimanding.

About a month ago I picked up a couple tomato plants at the local farmer’s market with the intention of putting them under the fluorescent light in the garage with the rest of our tomato starts. This worked out well until sometime last week when the farmer’s market starts were quite large and forming flowers on them. Fortunately to make room in the garden box they were to be planted in all I had to do was pull out all the radishes that were ripe for the picking and plant the tomatoes in their place. Being unable to devour all of those delectable little Pink Beauties in a salad I made for a small barbecue we had with a couple friends last night, I kept the rest in a bowl of water on the counter. This will prevent them from getting rubbery and inedible.

The thing about planting tomatoes is that they really should be planted deep, however in the case of our garden boxes they only have about ten inches of soil to grow into. What is a person to do? Well, for the larger of the two plants, I pulled off all of the lower stems and planted it sideways to allow for a larger root system which will form where there were stems growing, and put the top third of the plant above the ground bending it straight up before pushing a cage around it. The other one was not so tall so I simply pulled off the lower stems and planted it deep enough to bury two-thirds of the tomato plant. A healthy and vigorous root system on a tomato will prevent many of the problems some gardeners face, such as spindly stems and base which cause the plant to fall over in a light breeze. I also threw in a handful each of crushed oyster shell we just happen to have for the chickens and Epsom salt in the hole before putting the plants in. The extra calcium in the oyster shell helps prevent root rot and the Epsom salt produces sweeter fruit. Our beds are rather nutrient rich since they are mostly compost so I don’t usually fertilize, but if you are uncertain of your soil’s vitality I’d put in a fertilizer specifically formulated for tomatoes or vegetables to prevent any number of diseases tomatoes can get from malnourishment.

Now, we had gotten five different basils from Blue Heron Herbary (http://blueheronherbary.com/) the day before and I only have one dedicated pot for basil, so I looked at the two boxes that will not be housing tomatoes and decided to transplant some of the spinach in the spinach box to the areas that the seeds didn’t take to make room for four of the basils at one end. The spinach was still small and hadn’t developed much of a root system so transplanting each of them was rather simple, just digging my hand shovel into the soil next to the plant and lifting gently was all it took to get them out, and using my hand to scoop a small hole to put them back in where I wanted them. When I had a full side emptied, I took the Cuban, Lettuce Leaf, African Purple and Genovese Basils and planted them equally spaced apart in the box, putting the Cuban on the South side because it is the smallest variety. The Variegated Pesto Perpetuo Basil I put in the pot as it can be brought in during the winter for year round harvesting and will act like any other tropical plant inside the house. The only other perennial basil we got is the Cuban, but I need to research it a little more to find out if it will be okay outside during the winter or if I should attempt to dig it up and bring it in as well. Of course, I may just decide to only keep it as an annual. Now I need them to start growing faster so I can begin using them for cooking!