"There is nothing better than picking up sun-warmed tomatoes and smelling them, feeling them and scrutinizing their shiny skins for imperfections, dreaming of ways to serve them.
— José Andrés
Have you ever walked into a garden and smelled the fragrance of tomato plants on a summer day? It is a magical sensory experience with the sunshine, the warmth and the smell of mature tomato plants.
August is the time when tomatoes are abundant and delicious. I get great satisfaction going into my garden and picking the ones that have just become ripe. While you can always buy tomatoes at a farmstand, home gardeners can easily grow their own, even in containers on a patio.
Growing tomatoes from seeds can be a long process. Some gardeners plant their seeds during the winter and carefully nurture them indoors until late May when they hope there will be no more frost. Others prefer the convenience of buying seedlings from a garden center. I like to plant seedlings outdoors in late April, knowing that if there is a frost I can protect the tender plants with row cover. By Memorial Day, the danger from frost is over and the seedlings start to produce yellow flowers.
Tomatoes Grow Fast in June
When June arrives my tomato plants look vigorous and get bigger by the day, with thicker stems and more leaves. At this point the yellow flowers start turning into small green tomatoes. The heat of July speeds their growth and the green fruit begins to turn orange or red, depending on the type. August, however, is the month we all anticipate when the tomatoes fully mature and develop the delicious taste that we love.
Every year, I search for different varieties of tomatoes to grow. But nothing beats the varieties that reliably produce the fruit I enjoy the most. Big Boy, Better Boy and Celebrity all grow well for me and have a flavor I love. In recent years, I have also grown Mountain Pride and Mountain Merit, which are bred especially for the Western North Carolina climate.
Cherry tomatoes are their own category. These small tomatoes, packed with flavor, grow easily and ripen as early as July. Some of my favorites are Sungold, Sun Sugar, Fantastico, Sweet Million and Super Sweet 100. Sweet is an accurate description for these candy-like orbs!
Different Types of Tomatoes
There are more than 10,000 varieties of tomatoes throughout the world, each with different colors, sizes and flavors. Garden centers and catalogs are filled with a vast array of choices. There are determinate tomato plants, which grow smaller, and indeterminate plants, which grow much larger. Consider the space you have when choosing the type of tomatoes to grow. If you grow tomatoes in containers, for example, determinate plants are the ones to choose.
What matters most in your choice is how you like the taste. That's my criterion for any vegetable I grow. Next, consider how large the plant will get and if you have enough space. Finally, consider how you will serve your tomatoes. Most of the time I like them raw, combined with fresh basil that I grow. Tomatoes are one of the great joys of summer!
This article also appears in The Laurel of Asheville. Follow @TheObservantGardener on Instagram to see new garden photos daily!