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Growing tomatoes is a good
project for a beginning gardener. The
easiest way to get started is to buy
young plants from a nursery. Look
for pot-grown tomatoes with healthy
green leaves and no flower bunches.
The plants should be about eight
inches tall. Avoid buying plants with
thin, scraggly, yellow stems. These
plants have been stuck in their pots
for too long.
Find a spot in your yard that gets
an abundance of sunshine but is
sheltered from gusting winds. Before
planting, enrich the soil there with
compost or well-rotted manure.
After the last frost, plant each
tomato in a large hole. Support each
plant with a wire cage or a stake. This
will help flower and fruit production
by keeping tomatoes off the ground
WORD SEARCH
EVERYDAY LIVING WORDS
A Gardening Project
Lesson 5
and away from insects. Be sure to
give your plants a steady supply of
water. Don’t let them dry out.
Check the plant regularly as it
grows. Pinch off the top of a plant
once it has grown four bunches of
yellow flowers. That will allow the
plant to stop growing taller and use
its energy to ripen its fruit instead.
Tomato plants bear delicious,
juicy fruit from early summer to
early fall. The average plant—which
spreads about three feet across and
reaches about four feet in height—
will yield a crop of about four pounds
of tomatoes.
1. What seven-letter noun in the reading
names a store that sells seeds, seedlings,
and garden supplies? ____________________
2. What nine-letter noun in the reading means
“a very great amount or supply of something”? ____________________
n
a
UNIT 2
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