Too many tomatoes ... already?

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

When I wrote about no-dig gardening last year, I noticed that one question kept coming up again and again from the many readers who e-mailed me: ‘Is it really that easy?’

As a sometime gardener with a hectic lifestyle, I decided to find out. Certainly if I could do it, anyone could. Along with my two kids, 7 and 11, I assembled a vegetable patch in my backyard in about, oh, 10 minutes. It really was that easy. But would it produce? A fairly good crop of vegetables ensued, considering I never did anything other than water it occasionally (the low water element is for real). But before I could reapply straw, hay and compost for spring crops, these rogue tomato plants took over like wildflowers.

I’m not sure where the volunteers came from – I presume my compost – but I do know that I have never not planted such a hearty group of tomatoes. I will be trying to re-create this low-key, low-water, accidental way of gardening — which I attribute to the amazing no-dig soil that has decomposed beautifully since the fall — next year.

-- Lisa Boone