How to Grow Tomatoes in Your Garden

Gardening is so much fun, and my favorite vegetable to grow is tomatoes. Today, I am sharing my tips on how to grow tomatoes in your garden.

It’s not a secret that fresh tomatoes are delicious. What might be a secret, however, is how easy it is to grow your own tomatoes at home. Whether you’re a first-time gardener or an experienced pro, I’ve got some tips for you. Let’s get gardening!

There is nothing better than a homegrown tomato. You can’t get that great taste when you buy a tomato at the grocery store.

These cherry tomatoes on the cutting board are the same ones pictured below on the vines in my garden. I love it when the tomatoes are ripe and I can pick them from my garden. Of course, many tomatoes didn’t make it to the cutting board. That’s because, besides “farm to table,” we have “farm to mouth” at our house.

 Learning to grow tomatoes makes sense. I have been doing it for years, and tomatoes are one of the easiest vegetables to grow.

And they taste amazing. 

The tomatoes in the photo below are San Marzano, the best for homemade marinara sauce. I can’t wait for them to ripen! (I will tell you that I have four more San Marzano plants in my raised vegetable beds!)

What Do You Need to Grow Your Own Tomatoes?

Tomatoes need full sun and warm, rich, well-drained soil. They grow well in the ground, raised beds, pots, and even hanging upside down. I have grown tomatoes in pots, in the ground, and raised tomato beds. All three worked great.

You should plant your tomatoes in the summer. The timing varies by the planting zone you live in, but almost everyone still has time to plant their tomatoes this summer! Just plant them in the next few weeks.

It’s a bit late to plant seeds directly in the ground, since you likely don’t have time for them to germinate, so start with medium- to large-sized tomato plants. You can buy them now at every nursery and hardware store.

Which tomatoes should you buy? That depends on which tomatoes you like to eat. I always plant a variety, but I always get some hearty tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, Roma tomatoes, and some fun and exotic tomatoes.

If you love tomatoes and plan to plant many, choose different varieties with staggered fruiting dates. This will allow you to enjoy tomatoes all summer and not at once! 

When planting a tomato plant,, you need to ensure you have tomato supports. These supports are called tomato cages, and they come in plastic, metal, and wood. I recently made my own wood tomato cages, and you can find the complete DIY here. Last year, I acquired some beautiful metal tomato cages, which are pictured here.

And the metal arches are perfect for plants and tying the raised beds together.

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How to Plant Tomatoes

Dig a deep hole twice the size of the root ball, place the plant below soil level, and cover it with healthy soil. I usually use the best vegetable soil at my local nursery, which combines peat moss, mushroom compost, and a small amount of sand.

You are supposed to place your plants 4′ apart in rows of 5-6 feet apart. But I have to be honest. I never follow this rule.  I have 4′ x 8′ beds, and I plant eight to twelve tomato plants in each bed.  You can do the math. So far, my plants have been just fine.

You should water your tomato plants thoroughly after planting, then about 2 times a week. In dry spells, water them more often. Drip or soaker hoses are best, and you can see I put them in my vegetable beds in the photo below.

How to Grow Plentiful and Healthy Tomatoes

It is really important to use fertilizer!

I have used Epsom salt and crushed eggshells. But I think the best is Sea Magic Dry Soluble Seaweed Extract Fertilizer. Get the smallest size you can because mine makes 66 Gallons. And it still needs to be diluted more. I am convinced my Seaweed Extract Fertilizer is going to last a lifetime. 

Why does the  Sea Magic Dry Soluble Seaweed Extract Fertilizer work? Adding seaweed to your current fertilizing program may be the most important thing you have ever done for your home garden and houseplants. The seaweed in Sea Magic, Ascophyllum nodosum, is harvested from the cold, clear waters of the North Atlantic and quickly dried using a special process designed to preserve its natural qualities.

The directions are: Dissolve the contents of the package in a 1-gallon jug of warm water. This is your liquid concentrate. Store in a cool place. Add three tsp. of liquid concentrate to each quart or liter of water to use on plants in your garden. Or 1/2 cup of a standard 2-gallon watering can. Apply every 2-3 weeks.

I bought a One-Gallon Lawn, Garden, and Multi-Purpose Sprayer with foam and adjustable nozzles to spread fertilizer on all my plants and vegetables. It’s so easy! I like that you can fertilize the roots rather than the entire plant.

Crushed eggshells can be a beneficial addition to the soil around tomato plants, providing a slow-release source of calcium, balancing soil pH, improving soil drainage and aeration, and acting as an organic fertilizer. Just rinse the eggshells, chop them in a blender or food processor, and sprinkle them in the hole before you plant.

Mulching is good for tomato plants. I haven’t mulched my gardens yet because I plant my plants so close together.

Be sure to pick your tomatoes when they are ripe. Otherwise, they will fall into the dirt and be unusable.

What Kind of Tomatoes Should You Grow?

My favorite varieties of tomatoes are Roma, Cherry,  Early Girl, Brandywine, Black Cherry, Beefsteak, Sungold, and San Marzano. San Marzano tomatoes make the best tomato sauce. I planted four plants of San Marzano plants this year!

Right now is the best time to buy your tomato plants. In Southern California, Tomatomania is happening everywhere, and it is likely happening in your town, too. Tomatomania is when many nurseries and growers offer weekend tomato plant sales.

Don’t wait because you can find heirloom and rare tomatoes for sale this month!

Don’t think you have to grow these same varietals. Check out the tomatoes at your local nursery or hardware store and plan out your tomato garden.

I love it when the tomato plants are hearty and grow tall. Our tomato cages are 58″ tall, but many tomato varieties grow taller than that! To make these wood tomato cages, click here.

You might want to try my Best Ever Marinara Sauce if you grow many tomatoes. If you think homegrown tomatoes are good, you should try this recipe for the sauce.

How to Protect Your Tomato Plants

This year, I finally did something I should have done a long time ago. I protected my tomato plants with screened cages, and it has made all the difference.

Every year, I start with strong, healthy plants and high hopes, only to watch them get nibbled by pests or damaged just as they begin to thrive. Between squirrels, birds, and the occasional curious critter, it always felt like I was competing for my own tomatoes.

So this year, I decided to try something new and added screened cages around each plant.

The cages are simple but incredibly effective. They allow sunlight, air, and water to reach the plants while creating a protective barrier that keeps pests out. I love that I can still easily access the plants for watering, pruning, and harvesting, but I no longer worry about what might be getting to them overnight.

What surprised me most is how much healthier the plants look already. The leaves are fuller, the stems feel stronger, and I am finally seeing steady, uninterrupted growth. It feels like the plants can focus on growing instead of constantly recovering from damage.

I am optimistic this will be my best tomato season yet. Sometimes the smallest changes make the biggest impact, and this simple addition has completely changed how I care for my garden.

What Should You Buy to Grow Your Own Tomatoes?

I think I included everything you might need to plant a vegetable garden. Enjoy! This is a fun hobby, and you will get so much joy from your vegetables.

For more tips about growing tomatoes, head to my blog post How to Grow the Best Tomato Plants Ever.

All my Favorite Gardening Must Haves!

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