homesteading

I buried a fish head under each of my tomato plants just to feed them for free: the next morning, what had been dug up along the row wasn’t only the soil

by
I buried a fish head under each of my tomato plants just to feed them for free: the next morning, what had been dug up alo...

A gardener’s brilliant fertilizer hack backfired spectacularly when wildlife caught the scent of buried fish heads. Learn why this centuries-old technique works so well—and what you need to do to keep hungry animals from destroying your tomato bed.

My father always saved the suckers he snapped off his tomato plants in July: I laughed for years before understanding why he was right

by
My father always saved the suckers he snapped off his tomato plants in July: I laughed for years before understanding why ...

Every July, a gardener saves the shoots he pinches from tomato plants, filling a coffee can with what looks like trash. Decades later, his child discovers these “suckers” are actually free clones—each one a fully rooted plant waiting to happen, timed perfectly to rescue the fall harvest when summer-planted tomatoes fade.