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Is this the tallest tomato ever grown on the North Shore?

While showing off his colossal crops is half the fun, the other half of the joy for this gardener is feeding his kids and community 🍅
Nick Laba
Nick Laba

“Everything we do is big,” says backyard garden grower Chris Coyne.

After honing his horticultural knowledge taking university classes, reading books and watching countless YouTube videos, he’s been able to get his tomato plants in recent years to reach heights around 10 feet.

“I usually have to get a ladder, but this is ridiculous,” he said, explaining that this year his tomato is towering at 14.5-feet tall.

Coyne describes himself as a modest gardener, but said he definitely shows off his colossal crops in the neighbourhood.

“A lot of people come by and see what we’re up to,” he said. “I definitely think we have the biggest garden on the North Shore.”

Other than tomatoes, Coyne grows sunflowers that grow 10-,12-,14-feet tall, with flower heads two feet in diameter.

“There was a guy from Saskatchewan that told me you couldn’t grow corn in North Van – we proved him wrong,” he said. “I grew the biggest corn you’ve ever seen – these things were monsters.”

But Coyne growing monster vegetables isn’t just about showmanship, it’s about growing food for his family and community, and sharing the knowledge with others.

“We’ve got a young family. I want to provide that food,” he said. “We started doing it when my wife was breastfeeding, so that I could have the best health for our babies.”

Pulling off more than 500 tomatoes from the one plant this year has meant months of tomato lunches for his kids.

“What I tell people is: everyone that goes out and buys a $3 or $4 clump of kale, for $3 in kale seeds I can feed the entire block kale all summer,” Coyne said, adding that he’s donated surplus crops to Westlynn Baptist Church as well as family and friends.

“Garden ego is a real thing,” he said. “But if I could ever just give back to my community, and encourage people to get out there and do it themselves – if I could do anything, that I would like to give back.”

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the tallest tomato plant ever was grown by Nutricultre Ltd in Lancashire, U.K., reaching 65 feet tall in May 2000.

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