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“Rufus, what do you have in your mouth? Oh, no…Rufus, give…” I could hear my husband’s voice booming across the property. What could that dog possibly have in his mouth this time? Please don’t tell me he found another garden snake or a field mouse. As I approached the north side of our vegetable garden, I saw it was much worse than I could have ever imagined. Rufus had committed the ultimate crime. He was eating the first ripe tomato of the summer.
Rufus is our five year old German shorthaired pointer who is gifted with a sense of smell that is beyond comprehension. In the spring he will go to our strawberry patch and sniff out ripe berries, snorting like a pig routing for truffles. He is so fast at finding and consuming the best fruits that I have to put him in his dog house when I want to pick berries or there will be none left for us. He does the same with sweet corn. He stands up on his hind legs in front of a corn stalk, wraps his front paws around the ear of corn (he knows only to pick the mature ones), pulls the ear off the stalk, walks to the grassy part of the yard with the ear of corn in his mouth, lays down, stands the corn straight up between his paws, shucks it and joyously nibbles the sweet juicy kernels off the cob. (We are careful to watch him and only let him savor his victory a bit because while corn is fine for dogs to eat in small quantities; the cob is not “dog friendly” and if ingested can cause severe damage to a dog’s intestinal tract and even result in the dog’s death. So, never let your dog eat a corn cob. And, of course, talk to your vet before introducing any new foods, such as corn, tomatoes and/or strawberries, into your dog’s diet.)
Well, back to the tomatoes. If you grow tomatoes, and according to the National Gardening Association 85% of all home gardeners do, you know that the first ripe tomato of the season is a real prize and not to be shared with anyone, even your most loved family pet or, for that matter, family member!
We generally put out about 50-60 tomato plants a year in our garden. That’s plenty for us to eat fresh, make into sauce, freeze, can and share with our friends and local food pantry.
There is no comparison between the taste of a home grown tomato vs. one that you purchase in a store. If you want to grow tomatoes in your home garden, don’t set out the plants too early in the planting season. Tomatoes prefer daytime temperatures of at least 70 degrees and evening temperatures above 55 degrees to thrive. Even a light frost can harm them. We plant our tomatoes on Memorial Day weekend.
Want to grow a tomato plant on your patio? Here’s how:
• Go to a local garden shop or nursery and select a tomato plant that is specifically for patio or container growing. Look for one that is disease resistant. While heirloom tomatoes are wonderful, they are prone to diseases more than the newer varieties that have been bred for disease resistance.
Choose a plant that has healthy green leaves, a stocky stem and resist getting one that already has fruit on it. Also inspect the plant for any brown or yellow spots or white fly and avoid those plants.
Tomatoes come in two types, determinate and indeterminate.
Determinate, sometimes called “bush tomatoes”, can grow up to 3 or 4 feet high. They usually produce a single large crop of tomatoes in a short period of time. Indeterminate varieties will keep producing until frost along the tomato vine which is “indeterminate” in length. Determinate varieties are ideal for containers but they have a short harvest season so you may want to purchase an indeterminate variety which will bear fruit longer, such as the “Super Sweet 100”. Better yet, have one of each.
• Choose a pot that is at least 20 inches wide and at least 20 inches deep. Make sure the pot has good drainage. I prefer light weight plastic pots for this rather than clay ones which tend to dry out too quickly.
• Fill the pot with soil mix up to 3 inches below the top of the pot. Use a good, lightweight potting soil mix which has some peat, perlite and slow release plant food in it.
• Water the tomato in its nursery pot, let it sit for 10 minutes and then gently take the tomato plant out of the pot. Don’t pull on the plant. If it is not coming out of the pot with a gentle tug on the bottom of the pot, use garden or kitchen scissors to cut the sides of the pot free. Use your fingers to gently free the roots of the plant a bit if it is “pot bound”.
• Dig a hole in the center of the soil in your pot. Make it twice the diameter of the root ball and deep enough to allow you to plant 80% of the tomato plant below the soil surface. Burying this much of the plant below the surface of the soil may seem odd, but roots will form along the entire length of the planted stem and give you a nice sturdy plant.
• If you have chosen an indeterminate tomato plant, it will definitely need a stake or cage. And I would suggest staking a determinate one as well since the weight of the fruit may pull down on the plant and eventually cause the plant to break. Position the stake or cage near or around the hole before you place the tomato plant in it.
• Place the plant in the hole and backfill with the soil mix. Pat the soil gently—don’t compact it.
• Water at the base of the plant. If the soil settles during this initial watering, add more soil mix to within 3 inches of the top of the container.
• Cover the base of the soil with a 2 inch layer of organic mulch to keep the soil moist.
• Place the container in a sunny spot on your patio—it will need 6-8 hours of sunlight per day to thrive.
• Water daily or as needed. If you use a clay pot you may need to water it twice a day on hotter days.
• Once every two weeks, after a watering, fertilize the plant with low nitrogen, slow acting fertilizer. A high nitrogen fertilizer will give you lots of lush green leaves but compromise the growth of the fruit. It’s best to buy a special fertilizer made to be used for tomatoes.
• As the plant begins to mature, tiny shoots will begin to appear in the “v” angle between the stem and the branches. Pinch those off. They are “suckers”, do not produce fruit and will actually take away nutrients and energy away from the plant as it matures.
• If you are staking or caging the tomato, use cloth ties to loosely attach it to the stake or cage as the plant grows.
• For the best flavor, harvest the tomatoes only minutes before you plan on eating or cooking with them. If you have to pick them ahead of time, just put them in a bowl on your kitchen counter and use them within a day or two. Do not store tomatoes in the refrigerator. It spoils their fresh flavor.
If you don’t eat all of your tomato harvest while you’re picking it, try this fun recipe which combines cherry or grape tomatoes and salmon baked in a plain brown paper lunch bag-- talk about a quick and easy cleanup!
©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/victoria-wesseler/301-tomatoes/
Patio Produce: Tomatoes
“Rufus, what do you have in your mouth? Oh, no…Rufus, give…” I could hear my husband’s voice booming across the property. What could that dog possibly have in his mouth this time? Please don’t tell me he found another garden snake or a field mouse. As I approached the north side of our vegetable garden, I saw it was much worse than I could have ever imagined. Rufus had committed the ultimate crime. He was eating the first ripe tomato of the summer.
Rufus is our five year old German shorthaired pointer who is gifted with a sense of smell that is beyond comprehension. In the spring he will go to our strawberry patch and sniff out ripe berries, snorting like a pig routing for truffles. He is so fast at finding and consuming the best fruits that I have to put him in his dog house when I want to pick berries or there will be none left for us. He does the same with sweet corn. He stands up on his hind legs in front of a corn stalk, wraps his front paws around the ear of corn (he knows only to pick the mature ones), pulls the ear off the stalk, walks to the grassy part of the yard with the ear of corn in his mouth, lays down, stands the corn straight up between his paws, shucks it and joyously nibbles the sweet juicy kernels off the cob. (We are careful to watch him and only let him savor his victory a bit because while corn is fine for dogs to eat in small quantities; the cob is not “dog friendly” and if ingested can cause severe damage to a dog’s intestinal tract and even result in the dog’s death. So, never let your dog eat a corn cob. And, of course, talk to your vet before introducing any new foods, such as corn, tomatoes and/or strawberries, into your dog’s diet.)
Well, back to the tomatoes. If you grow tomatoes, and according to the National Gardening Association 85% of all home gardeners do, you know that the first ripe tomato of the season is a real prize and not to be shared with anyone, even your most loved family pet or, for that matter, family member!
We generally put out about 50-60 tomato plants a year in our garden. That’s plenty for us to eat fresh, make into sauce, freeze, can and share with our friends and local food pantry.
There is no comparison between the taste of a home grown tomato vs. one that you purchase in a store. If you want to grow tomatoes in your home garden, don’t set out the plants too early in the planting season. Tomatoes prefer daytime temperatures of at least 70 degrees and evening temperatures above 55 degrees to thrive. Even a light frost can harm them. We plant our tomatoes on Memorial Day weekend.
Want to grow a tomato plant on your patio? Here’s how:
• Go to a local garden shop or nursery and select a tomato plant that is specifically for patio or container growing. Look for one that is disease resistant. While heirloom tomatoes are wonderful, they are prone to diseases more than the newer varieties that have been bred for disease resistance.
Choose a plant that has healthy green leaves, a stocky stem and resist getting one that already has fruit on it. Also inspect the plant for any brown or yellow spots or white fly and avoid those plants.
Tomatoes come in two types, determinate and indeterminate.
Determinate, sometimes called “bush tomatoes”, can grow up to 3 or 4 feet high. They usually produce a single large crop of tomatoes in a short period of time. Indeterminate varieties will keep producing until frost along the tomato vine which is “indeterminate” in length. Determinate varieties are ideal for containers but they have a short harvest season so you may want to purchase an indeterminate variety which will bear fruit longer, such as the “Super Sweet 100”. Better yet, have one of each.
• Choose a pot that is at least 20 inches wide and at least 20 inches deep. Make sure the pot has good drainage. I prefer light weight plastic pots for this rather than clay ones which tend to dry out too quickly.
• Fill the pot with soil mix up to 3 inches below the top of the pot. Use a good, lightweight potting soil mix which has some peat, perlite and slow release plant food in it.
• Water the tomato in its nursery pot, let it sit for 10 minutes and then gently take the tomato plant out of the pot. Don’t pull on the plant. If it is not coming out of the pot with a gentle tug on the bottom of the pot, use garden or kitchen scissors to cut the sides of the pot free. Use your fingers to gently free the roots of the plant a bit if it is “pot bound”.
• Dig a hole in the center of the soil in your pot. Make it twice the diameter of the root ball and deep enough to allow you to plant 80% of the tomato plant below the soil surface. Burying this much of the plant below the surface of the soil may seem odd, but roots will form along the entire length of the planted stem and give you a nice sturdy plant.
• If you have chosen an indeterminate tomato plant, it will definitely need a stake or cage. And I would suggest staking a determinate one as well since the weight of the fruit may pull down on the plant and eventually cause the plant to break. Position the stake or cage near or around the hole before you place the tomato plant in it.
• Place the plant in the hole and backfill with the soil mix. Pat the soil gently—don’t compact it.
• Water at the base of the plant. If the soil settles during this initial watering, add more soil mix to within 3 inches of the top of the container.
• Cover the base of the soil with a 2 inch layer of organic mulch to keep the soil moist.
• Place the container in a sunny spot on your patio—it will need 6-8 hours of sunlight per day to thrive.
• Water daily or as needed. If you use a clay pot you may need to water it twice a day on hotter days.
• Once every two weeks, after a watering, fertilize the plant with low nitrogen, slow acting fertilizer. A high nitrogen fertilizer will give you lots of lush green leaves but compromise the growth of the fruit. It’s best to buy a special fertilizer made to be used for tomatoes.
• As the plant begins to mature, tiny shoots will begin to appear in the “v” angle between the stem and the branches. Pinch those off. They are “suckers”, do not produce fruit and will actually take away nutrients and energy away from the plant as it matures.
• If you are staking or caging the tomato, use cloth ties to loosely attach it to the stake or cage as the plant grows.
• For the best flavor, harvest the tomatoes only minutes before you plan on eating or cooking with them. If you have to pick them ahead of time, just put them in a bowl on your kitchen counter and use them within a day or two. Do not store tomatoes in the refrigerator. It spoils their fresh flavor.
If you don’t eat all of your tomato harvest while you’re picking it, try this fun recipe which combines cherry or grape tomatoes and salmon baked in a plain brown paper lunch bag-- talk about a quick and easy cleanup!
Salmon Provencal in a Paper Bag
Made with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, olive oil, cherry or grape tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, salmon fillet
Made with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, olive oil, cherry or grape tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, salmon fillet
Serves/Makes: 1
- 1 teaspoon best quality extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, cut in half
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
- 1 salmon fillet, 3/4-inch thick
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Take one small brown paper lunch bag (10 1/2 inch by 5 1/4 inch by 3 1/4 inch) and rub it all over with olive oil or spray it on both sides with olive oil cooking spray. (Be sure to only use a plain brown lunch bag. Don't use one that is dyed or has wax and/or other foreign substances on it.)
In a small mixing bowl combine the olive oil, tomatoes, garlic, and 1 tablespoon of the basil, reserving the second tablespoon for garnish.
Place the salmon, skin side down, in the bag and top with the tomato mixture. Fold bag tightly and staple the bag shut. Place the bag on a foil lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes.
Remove from oven. Carefully cut the top of the bag open with kitchen scissors. Watch out for steam as you do this part!
Put back in oven and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the salmon is done to your liking.
Remove the packet from the cookie sheet and place on a serving dish. Sprinkle with the reserved basil and season to taste with the salt and pepper.
Victoria's Notes: The term "Provencal" is used to describe dishes that are prepared in the style of Provence, a region in southeastern France. The hallmark ingredients of these dishes are generally tomatoes, garlic and olive oil.
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©2026 CDKitchen, Inc. No reproduction or distribution of any portion of this article is allowed without express permission from CDKitchen, Inc.
To share this article with others, you may link to this page:
https://www.cdkitchen.com/cooking-experts/victoria-wesseler/301-tomatoes/