Veggie Garden Questions

Sorry if some of these seem stupid but its my first veggie garden and all the reseach i do seems to be aimed at advanced gardners

How do i know when the tomatoes are ready to pick? Do they turn pink/red before you pick them? Do they grown to a certain size?

My pepper plants arent doing well - although the rest of my garden is doing great - the leaves have lots of holes - can this be causing them to not harvest? What can i do to prevent the bugs (organically)?

Do i need to stake the cucumber plants up or can they lay on the ground and be safe?

How do you know when you can trim off herbs to use? Where do you cut them - from the bottom of stem?

Thanks for any help!

Re: Veggie Garden Questions

Each plant usually comes with a tag that tells you exactly what you need to know (size, length of harvest, how/where to plant). Each year you do a garden, you will get better and better at it. I did broccoli for the first time this year and it went to sh!t since I didn't know to pick it. It was really small.


Tomatoes come in different sizes and varieties so it depends on that. Some are cherry tomato size, some are beef steak. They need to be staked up or tied up somehow.

Peppers are (for me) a later harvest, we won't get any good ones for a few weeks yet. I don't do organic, so I cant help you there.

Cucumbers like to climb. You'll see tentacle like things attaching to anything and everything. I like to keep them off the ground just to get away from the bugs anyway. Be sure they don't cinch their vines around plants that are close by because it can strangle them.

Herbs are like tomatoes, different varieties and different ways to grow. You need to research each plant.

A lot of times I will just google whatever I want to know at that point (like 'when to pick broccoli' or 'is my onion plant ready to harvest'. It takes time, but the answers are readily available. Most of all, I like to just have fun with it. If it doesn't work, I'll try something different next year.