Tomato Tuesday • First Week of April • 2025

Tomato season is well underway now and it’s one of my favorites times of year in the garden –I get to go outside and see all the new little tomato babies popping up left and right. Right now I’m still waiting to spot my first Cherokee Purple, Indigo Apple, and JD’s Special C-Tex. Below are the five have been actively producing lately.

The Cherry Ladies

My Cherries are always the first to start making tomato babies. If I were to start my tomato garden “late” in the season (i.e. now) I would definitely plant cherries. They establish quickly and produce quickly and in my experience they last longer into the summer too.

Little Bing is one of my favorite tomato plants. She is perfectly content in a pot and produces abundantly. I am always sure to grab one of these if I can.

Little Bing

The other cherry that I love is Sweet Million. This girl will grow very tall and I anchor it to a garden arch to give it the support it needs. In return, I’ll get bunches and bunches of tomatoes from her!

Sweet Million

Globe Girls

Bush Early Girl is working hard already! I love that I can count on her to give me fruit early in the season, but I know she’ll also be the first to get pulled from the bed too since she’s a determinate variety. I do appreciate that she’s easy to sneak into the bed without worrying about it getting to tall to manage. I’ve had some success with her in a large pot too.

Bush Early Girl

Carmello is such a great larger-sized tomato variety. My only problem with Carmello in the past was that the birds loved it (personally, I think birds have great taste in tomatoes though so it’s only an indicator of how tasty it is). Last year I finally started putting the fruit in chiffon bags and that kept them nicely protected for the most part!

Carmello

Pretty Plum

I only have one plum variety in my garden and that spot goes happily to Viva Italia. I love that Viva Italia is one of the least finicky varieties in my garden. It tolerates a little afternoon shade just fine and is one of my last tomatoes to get pulled in the summer. I’d consider her a nice & easy variety.

Viva Italia

On my latest walkabout the garden I did spot a little baby on Indigo Blueberry. I love the color on these guys, and I’ll be sure to grab a photo soon. Happy Gardening Houstonians!