Why Martha Stewart Gardens With A Crowbar (And How It Benefits Tomato Plants)

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Martha Stewart is not only an expert in entertaining guests and making delicious food, but she also has a green thumb and is full of useful tips. Some of these require using unorthodox things to help with landscaping, like how she uses the same pantry staple as a weed killer that she used to remove rust from her gardening tools (hint: baking soda). So it was no shock to us here at Food Republic when we learned that one of Stewart's favorite tools for tomato plants is a crowbar (per YouTube).

Stewart recommends using crowbars to dig holes for stakes and tamp down the soil around the tomatoes. One of the biggest pain points for planting tomatoes is making sure you have a stake deep enough in the ground that can support the weight of the vertically growing plant.

To achieve this, Stewart takes a crowbar and digs a deep hole in the ground, and places a tall dried bamboo stalk in the hole. Be sure to use a dried bamboo stalk, as bamboo is extremely invasive with roots that can damage others nearby and be expensive to remove. After the stake is in the hole, she uses the crowbar to tamp down the soil around the stake, so it has a strong foundation.

Stewart recommends planting tomato plants near each stake and at least 24 inches apart. Considering this, it might be worth it to get a crowbar like the Olympia Tools 24-inch Wrecking Bar from Amazon and use it to measure the distance between plants as well. She then recommends tying a string between each stake and wrapping the string around the stalk of each of the planted tomatoes.

Although Martha Stewart's tip for beginner gardeners is to plant lettuce, tomatoes can be easy to grow if you know what to do. Tomato seedlings tend to be extremely sensitive, so it's important not to plant them too early in the year. You also shouldn't grow tomatoes until temperatures in your area consistently hit 50 degrees Fahrenheit and above; any earlier, and you risk stunting the plant's growth.

Another tip is to make sure you're feeding your tomato plants nutrients, especially after they start producing fruit. Plant food containing boron, copper, iron, manganese, zinc, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur is going to replenish everything lost while the fruit has grown.

Harvesting your fruit too late will also lead to plant damage. When tomatoes are left on the vine too long, they split and spoil. Spoiled tomatoes attract insects and other unwanted critters that will chew through your other plants. To avoid this, be sure to pick your tomatoes right when they are ripe or even a few days before, so they can ripen in your home.