We all know that we have to make trade-offs in our vegetable gardens. There is only so much square footage so we can’t plant everything we’d like to plant. So we pick our favorites and if we’re lucky and have extra room, we get to add something new that we can’t resist.
This is certainly true for tomatoes. I’ve learned that I really only have room for 6 tomato plants, if I’m going to fit all of my other veggies in. My tomatoes alone take up 2 8×4 vegetable boxes.
But I have an opportunity to live vicariously – through my mother-in-law’s garden! Last week I bought her Forni-Brown starts and planted her vegetable garden in the 10 boxes that we gifted her a few years ago.
Maryam loves her tomatoes and always wants 9 plants in 3 of her 10 boxes – and only large tomato varieties. So I consulted with the Forni-Brown team and selected the tomatoes that were sweetest, most beautiful and highly productive. She is in for a treat this year!
For her garden I selected: 1) Brandywine, 2) Cherokee, 3) Mamie Brown, 4) Marvel, 5) Giant Syria, 6) Goliath, 7) Gold Medal, 8) Early Girl and 9) Copper River.
It occurred to me that I get to grow these tomatoes too, even though they will be in her garden, so I get to have my 6 varieties plus her 9, for a total of 15 tomato varieties. Now, that’s living vicariously!
