Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I haven’t done any gardening yet. Hopefully, this coming week it will stop raining long enough for me to at least do a cleanup in my garden beds. 

One thing I do grow every year is tomato plants which have always been successful for me. I saw an ad online that the Highland Lions Club is once again holding their Tomato Plant sale. I saw these plants last year when some friends bought them, and they were enormous and looked more like a shrub to me. And were loaded with tomatoes. At $18.00 a plant they aren’t cheap but appear to be the perfect solution for anyone growing on a deck or patio and likes to cook with plenty of tomatoes. 

You may not have heard that there is already a severe shortage of fresh tomatoes in food markets alongside surging prices. It’s being driven by a combination of very harsh freezing weather in Florida and crop destroying weather and pests (thrips, fruit flies, spotted-wing drosophila) in Mexico which currently supplies two thirds of US tomato imports and added on are much higher transportation costs, tariffs and a good supply of reasonably priced tomatoes and other produce reaching our store shelves is looking fairly miserable this summer. 

The average retail cost for fresh tomatoes have reached roughly $2.26 per pound-an eight-year high and the On the Vine variety are $4.39 a pound at Walmart. This will somewhat change what I grow in my garden this season. The good news is you can always go to Monteleone Gardens in Eldred and get his wonderful hydroponically grown produce. Or go to one of the big box stores and buy some plants for the basic seasonal produce-peppers, tomatoes (Cherry or Early Girl are more disease resistant) lettuce, green onions, cucumbers, zucchini, green bush beans (no trellis needed) and Swiss chard.  My friends always grow jalapeno peppers which are easy to grow but I don’t eat them, so I don’t waste my garden space to grow them. 

Years before I had a garden space, I grew produce in four large window boxes and the yield was phenomenal. So, buying the high yield easy care tomato plants from the Lions Club is a good move even if they are a little expensive. This year’s plant variety will be slicing tomatoes. You can order your plants by contacting any Town of Highland Lion Club member or email Townofhighlandlionsclub@gmail.com with your name, contact information and address and how many plants you want to reserve. The pick-up will be on Saturday, May 30^th at 3416 State Route 97 in Barryville (next to the Emporium), and the pickup hours will be from 9-12pm. All proceeds from the Tomato Plant Sale go to fund the local community projects sponsored by the Town of Highland Lions Club.