Tomato Envy

Because this summer’s weather has conspired to provide conditions that tomatoes hate, from a late, cold spring to crazy stretches of rain, don’t feel bad if your tomatoes didn’t look this good by garlic harvest time. (Mine didn’t either, I took this shot a couple years ago.) The good news is, by now your garlic should be cured and your tomatoes ripening at last. Be sure to practice good tomato hygiene and remove any lower leaves on your vines that are yellowing/spotty. It will improve air circulation, and keep at bay the many tomato diseases that love to spread. Collect the yellowed leaves and don’t dispose of them in the compost; you don’t want to help the soil-borne diseases to spread to next year’s tomatoes.