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| Paul Nardone, left, grows 254 tomato plants in his Massapequa garden, while Guy Macchia, right, makes do with a 5-inch-wide "strip of dirt." |
Does (plot) size really matter?
Paul Nardone of Massapequa is growing 254 tomato plants in 7 beds totaling about 850 square feet. He grows enough fruit to keep all his neighbors and friends in tomatoes throughout the season. And every week, he sends care packages containing Big Boys, Porterhouse Beefsteaks, Roma plums and cherry tomatoes to relatives in New Jersey, the Bronx, Mahopac, Brooklyn and Oceanside via U.P.S. He even sent a case to a certain garden columnist, who shall remain nameless. "My garden is a sea of red with all the tomatoes that I have to pick every day," he says.
Where there's a will, there's a tomato
Meanwhile, all Guy Macchia has is a "strip of dirt" separating his Middle Island condo unit from the one next door. His garden is 18 feet long but only 5 inches wide. No matter, according to Macchia, who makes do very nicely but not without some innovation. "I have to angle the plants because I can't plant them straight down" he says, explaining that a fence dissects his five-inch-wide plot.
Since there's no room for tomato cages, Macchia fashions stakes from wood sticks inserted in cement-filled buckets, above. He sets each contraption up against a plant and fastens them together. He also ties some plants directly to the fence.
I've never encountered such inventiveness in a vegetable garden! My hat's off to him for his sheer determination and creativity.
No doubt, Nardone, whose garden is pictured below, will have a bigger output. But who will grow the bigger tomato? Your guess is as good as any. I'll report developments as they ripen.
