The Tomato Grower's Handbook: Everything you need to know, from seed to harvest and beyond

by Holly Farrell

A fully illustrated, beginner-friendly guide to growing the popular and versatile ingredient, featuring simple recipes.

"Original, comprehensive, exceptionally user-friendly, The Tomato Grower's Handbook fully lives up to the promise of its subtitle." --Midwest Book Review

If you want to grow your own vegetables but feel a bit overwhelmed by it all, you're not alone. The Tomato Grower's Handbook is a simple, informative, and tasty solution from award-winning garden writer Holly Farrell.

Easy to grow and a common cooking ingredient, tomatoes are the most popular plant to grow at home-not to mention how much better homegrown tomatoes taste! This user-friendly guide outlines how to grow them, from easy cherry tomatoes to trickier heirloom varieties, covering different methods of growing according to your space-indoors or outdoors, pot or plot. The book includes ten easy recipes (tomato pasta!) and tips on storing and preserving your produce (tomato jam!).

With this handbook, you'll reach your gardening goals (and some chef goals, too) while embracing and enjoying each step of the journey.

Genres: Nonfiction, Cookbooks

144 pages, Hardcover

First published May 5, 2026

Reviews

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

*This book was received as part of a Goodreads giveaway.*

Overall: 4/5
This is a good book for beginners or those wanted a quick reference guide to growing tomatoes.
Design: 4/5
While I love the general look and feel of the book (the design style, and graphics throughout), some of the font size is too small or too hard to read. Likewise, some of the color pairings (black font on top of a dark red tomato) are hard for readers with older or bad eyes. I do like the size of the book and feel that this is a good hardback book. While I didn’t pay for the book, the suggested retail price on the back seems a bit high, especially for something printed in PRC.
Structure: 4/5
The book was organized well and walked you through the entire lifecycle and stages of tomatoes.
Content: 3.5/5
This book is a good introduction to growing tomatoes. However, because it is relatively short, I felt like some of the sections could have used more depth especially in the growing conditions and planting. As someone who has grown tomatoes for years, I have not found them to be a very low maintenance plant. They can be persnickety.

[Clair Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love it

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this informative book. Thank you. This was a Goodreads giveaway winner.