The Driveway Garden

Press the skin firmly before you cut a winter squash, and if it still yields at all, leave it on the plant a little longer.

A head that has loosened into separate florets is still good eating, so pick it and use it rather than waiting for a perfect dome.

Full-sized green tomatoes keep ripening after they are picked, so a cold snap does not have to mean losing the last truss.

Size is not the measure when you grew it yourself, because a modest kabocha still makes a good meal for two.

A squash whose stem snaps off has an open wound and rots long before the rest, so cut it with pruners and leave the stem attached.

A pot holds only so much water and the roots can't reach past it, so potted tomatoes need checking far more often than ones in the ground.

Food tubs are already food-safe plastic, so a rinsed ice cream bucket is a container you can trust with vegetables you plan to eat.

Soil piled up against a woody shrub's stem keeps the bark wet, so the soil line belongs where the nursery pot had it.