This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Julia Dimakos back to the podcast to discuss growing tomatoes. From starting tomatoes from seed to transplanting the seedlings into the garden, Julia shares her tried-and-true tricks to growing them successfully from seed. 

About Julia Dimakos

Julia Dimakos’ 7000 square foot kitchen garden is in Mono, Ontario, on 25 acres on the Niagara Escarpment. Julia has been growing vegetables and writing about gardening for over 13 years. She was twice published in Canadian Organic Grower magazine and became a published author in July 2022 with her first book, Tea Gardening for Beginners.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• How to start tomato seeds and the type of pots to use
  • It's not too late during this first week of May to start as the seedlings are quite tough.
  • You can put many seeds in a container: as they grow, they are easy to separate from the roots.
• The difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes
  • It is important to know what variety you can and want to grow so you know how to support the plant in the garden appropriately.
  • Spoiler alert: indeterminate tomatoes need support in the form of very TALL stakes!
• Julia shares some great tips on fertilizer and watering
  • The importance of watering to avoid blossom end rot on your tomatoes
• Tune in and then go buy some seeds of an unusual variety of tomatoes!

Click here to watch this episode on YouTube!

Where you can find Julia Dimakos:

• Website: www.juliadimakos.com
• Instagram: @juliadimakos
• YouTube: @gardeninggirl 

Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca

Down the Garden Path Podcast

On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. 

In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.