Around the Yard

Things to do this week:

* Plant early tomatoes. It’s possible to plant early ripening varieties of tomatoes in February, wherever late frosts are unlikely. ‘Early Girl’--a tomato of intermediate size with surprisingly good taste--is one early variety easily found at nurseries.

Pick a spot that gets reflected heat and plenty of sun. Remember to plant deep, burying much of the stem, since roots will sprout all along tomato stems. Provide some sturdy support because ‘Early Girl’ becomes a 6- to 8-foot-tall bush and will bear into midsummer, with the first fruit ripening in May, maybe even in April.

* Plan to sow. If you want to grow summer vegetables or flowers from seed, order from catalogs soon because March is the best month to sow seed. The new mail-order seed catalogs, which have just come out, offer plenty of variety. If you’re not on a mailing list, here are four of the biggest and most useful sources:

W. Atlee Burpee & Co., Warminster, PA 18974, (800) 888-1447,

https://www.burpee.com.

Geo. W. Park Seed, 1 Parkton Ave., Greenwood, SC 29647-0001, (800) 845-3369, https://www.parkseed.com.

The Cook’s Garden, P.O. Box 535, Londonderry, VT 05148, (800) 457-9703, https://www.cooksgarden.com.

Shepherd’s Garden Seeds, 30 Irene St., Torrington, CT 06790-6658. (860) 482-3638, https://www.shepherdseed.com.