Homestead mailing list

["Lisa K.V. Perry" <lisakvperry AT gmail.com>]

On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 12:01 PM, Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com> wrote:

> While doing the garden tour this morning I mentally revisited my
> ongoing experiment with tomatoes and the question of whether it is
> better to move them each year to where they have not grown for several
> years or whether to keep planting them in the same places. Tomatoes
> being the most popular home garden plant and being such a strong part
> of our diets, there has been over the decades much controversy on this
> subject. "Tomatoes love to grow where tomatoes have grown." "You must
> rotate tomatoes each year to stop disease."


Earlier this morning I walked around our garden; I looked at the two new
former raised bed areas (two feet wider minus rotting wood sides), the two
existing raised beds (one filled w/ broccoli & onions), and the garden space
tilled last year trying to decide the same thing: where to put the tomatoes?
I've settled on one of the former raised beds that last contained
overwintering kale that died the winter of '05/'06.

I checked out our 10-day forecast, the coldest evening within that span is
projected to be 41 degrees. Our last frost date is typically Mother's Day,
though in 2004 we had a killing frost May 24 that hurt local blueberries but
not ours, we were slightly warmer in our micro-climate and had berries that
year when most did not.

I'm trying to contain myself but I'm ready to put tomatoes and peppers in
the garden. I wish I had been better prepared and planted broccoli a few
weeks ago. Next to consider is pole beans with the same dilemma, where to
put them?

Lisa