Vegetable Gardening Blog

Tomatoes are the reason most people start a vegetable garden. They're also the crop most likely to break your heart in Texas. The heat, the humidity, the diseases — it's a lot. But Texans have been growing incredible tomatoes for generations, and so can you.

Spring in Texas lasts about six weeks — if you're lucky. That narrow window between 'still freezing' and 'already 95°F' is where your best gardening happens. Here's how to make every day count.

It's July in Texas, your tomato plants look like they've given up on life, and you're wondering why you even bother. Good news: plenty of vegetables actually love this heat. You just need to pick the right ones.

Texas spans four USDA hardiness zones and over 800 miles north to south. A planting date that works in Amarillo will get your seedlings killed in San Antonio — and vice versa. Here's how to get your timing right.

Ninety frost-free days sounds like a prison sentence for your garden. It's actually plenty — if you plan like it matters.

Colorado gives you 300 days of sunshine and about 90 of them without frost. Choose your vegetables accordingly.

Gardening above 5,000 feet means dealing with physics that actively work against your tomatoes.

You moved to the Mountain West for the views. Nobody warned you about the June snow.

October in the Northeast garden is bittersweet. The tomatoes are done, the first frost has taken the basil, and there's a chill in the morning air that says the season is over. But it's not — not quite.

Growing tomatoes in the Northeast is an act of optimism. You're betting that the 140-ish frost-free days between late May and mid-October (see our [Northeast planting guide](/blog/when-to-plant-vegetables-in-the-northeast/) for exact dates) are enough to ripen fruit on a tropical plant that would prefer to live in Central America.