As Planting Season Kicks Off, Start With Tomato & Basil

Posted by Sara Rosenstock
 
Beautiful photo via Bonnie Plants
 
It’s the time of the year again that you are inundated with reminders that it is time to spend time in your garden. You don’t even need to go to a home improvement store or nursery to be told “You need to plant to be like everyone else”—heck, they even sell plants and mulch at the grocery store and gas station.
 
Some of you may get excited about this reminder to use your green thumb, while others…may get extremely anxious because they kill every plant they’ve ever owned.
 
I’m here to tell you: It. Is. Okay.

 
You may be an “admirer" and simply enjoy smelling cut flowers and vegetables you bought at the store, or brushing your feet in whatever grass-like plant decided to grow in your yard—It. Is. Okay. 
 
However, if you (perhaps, maybe, could possibly) would like to try to plant something this year and try not to kill it I would suggest you start with these two plant “lovers”: Tomato and Basil. These Soil Mates not only work well together in a planter or raised bed, but they make sweet love on the dinner plate too (hope that visual wasn’t too risqué).
 
You can buy a Basil plant from the nursery (or gas station) and get to immediately enjoy the leaves for your dishes. Tomato takes her time coming out to play, but there is nothing better than a fresh-picked, vine-ripened Tomato.
 
I’m here to say: come on, try it, everyone else is doing it.