Maryland Eastern Shore region to be specific. What are the best step by step gardening guides to starting a garden? Also in listening to the Public Radio NPR garden guru it seems like prepping the soil with mulches and weed killing methodologies is critical and it sounds like a fair amount of toil.
I’m assuming you can’t just till up some soil in a sunny spot and stake out some baby tomato plants , or can you? One side of my yard is open to the neighborhood so I assume I need some kind or wire fence protection.?
All your questions will be answered in this book. (Link is to the second edition, which I’ve done no more than thumb through – I’ve been relying on my copy of the first edition for more than 20 years.)
I’ve used a post hole digger to take a 6 inch deep plug of soil out of grass, dropped in a tomato plant and soil to fill the hole. I’ve stuck a cage around the tomato and kept the grass trimmed to less than a foot tall. The tomato plant had no trouble growing huge and producing fruit. I’ve done this many different varieties. The tomatoes grown this way did no worse or better than the ones in my traditional garden beds.
Plant multiple varieties and alternate them so no matter the weather and pests some will do great. Just don’t plant tomatoes before it gets warm out. Some other doper said they would try the grass method last year, but I don’t know if they did. They had a shortage of time so I suggested they drop them in like this. I know it works with minimal attention, but you do have to provide that minimal attention.