It is such a huge pleasure to experience the benefits of organic and whole food eating when the bounty comes from my own garden! Since our garden is still young and on the small side, we supplement what we need by buying fresh from our markets and local stands. I no longer purchase meat as I dropped all meat from my diet two years ago and have recently dropped way back in the amount of dairy I purchase and personally consume. My family still gets a good amount of dairy in their diet, but eat much less meat as they’ve developed a fondness for the fresher, more natural foods that are now abundant in our kitchen. As a teacher, I get a nice long summertime break and this is absolutely the best time to indulge in healthy seasonal foods from the backyard garden.

Whole foods are foods which contain no harmful additives which you will find in processed foods. Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined, or processed and refined as little as possible. Foods which are considered to be whole foods do not contain added ingredients and are as natural as possible. They are absolutely the best source of nutrition and give us maximum nutritional value.

In my garden, I grow three different varieties of tomatoes, three varieties of peppers, zucchini, cucumber, pumpkin and strawberry. I also have a few herbs like rosemary and basil, and then there are our citrus trees – lemon, grapefruit and orange – yum!

If you are new to whole food health, I have a few of my favorite sites I’d like to share with you for information and ideas.

Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits is one of my all time favorite sites in general. He shares honest, and inspiring ideas about living well, healthy and minimally. Here is a link to one of his posts on diet and lifestyle.

I adore the Sprouted Kitchen, not only for it’s organic, health-minded recipes and ideas, but for it’s amazingly beautiful photography. This is a great resource and a visual delight!

The Whole Food Nutrition Kitchen and The Best Vegan Guide are two more very worthwhile blogs I subscribe to and visit often.

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While tomatoes come in many different shapes, sizes and colors there are actually only two varieties of tomatoes. One is the Determinates and the other is the Indeterminates. Determinate tomatoes grow on vines that stop growing at a certain point. These tomato plants are small and compact vines that produce fruits early in the growing season. Determinates tomatoes plants can be grown in containers or even in small spaces.

The best way to grow Determinates is to space them out about 1 to 2 feet apart. The tomato rows need to have a distance of 4 feet between them. With determinate tomato gardening if you wish to plant any other vegetables near the tomatoes, then you will need to keep some additional space around those tomato rows.

Indeterminates tomatoes on the other hand continue growing. They need support in the form of cages or trellises. The distance that you should keep between the cages is about 3 feet. Once the Indeterminate tomatoes have caught on to the trellis or their cage, you will need to train them to climb the supporting frame. Sometimes it will be necessary to tie the vines to the frame stakes so that the whole tomato plant does not fall over due to its own weight.

You can start your tomato gardening with seeds or starter plants brought from nurseries. The best new tomato plants are those without any yellow speckling on their leaves. The other thing to check is to make sure that your plant roots are not coming out of the containers bottom. The root’s growth can tell if your plant will grow successfully or if it will be stressed out and produce a poor harvest. For the best growth to be made, a good vegetable gardening tip is to see that your soil is a rich, sandy loam type of soil.

The best time to start tomato gardening is when all of the other trees in your garden are fully in leaf. By this time the season will be warm and your acclimatized tomato plants will receive about 8 hours or more of life giving sunlight. The roots of the tomatoes should be fully embedded within their soil bed. This lets the tomato receive all the nutrients that it can from the soil.

With tomato gardening you need to keep an eye on the weather. Hot sunny days might be great for you, but they mean that your tomato plants will need regular watering at least once a week. Other than this you can sit back and relax. Once your tomatoes are fully ripe, just pluck them off the vines and enjoy your fresh tomatoes.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ebooks-articles/tomato-gardening-56060.html

About the Author:
We live in Maui and grow our own fresh organic food.
Publisher of The Gardeners Handbook http://www.ultimategardeningtipsrevealed.net
Links with Aloha Hawaii Ecards http://www.alohaecards.com