Tag Archives: Tomatoes

The fruits of our labour

Posted on by
2

We can’t believe that it’s July next week, how time flies (pic above: self-seeded poppy down the garden yesterday). It was just the other week we were thinking if there was going to be a frost or not so we could put those leggy tomato plants out. Gardening is all about patience and just getting on with it, the waiting game so to speak but we’re not very good at that. And talking of tomatoes we’ve got our first trusses of fruit developing on some of the plants we grew from seed (below). That weekly feed of comfrey liquid must be helping as well as sideshooting and a daily water.

The chilli pepper we were given the other week has now got fruits (below) and we were told by the patron of said plant that she started it off very early in January. We’ll be bringing the pot in this winter and see if we can keep it going next year. Peppers and chillies are perennials so we’re told, as it says here “...all peppers – that is sweet peppers and chilli peppers – are perennials, capable of living for several years. Peppers come from the tropics where there is no winter period.” The things you learn eh?It’s funny what with our “sow the seed willy nilly and forget we even sown them” method we still get suprised when something pops up like in the case of the oregano seedlings below. Yes it is in a pot with a plant label with “Oregano” written on it as clear as day but we’re still suprised. Perhaps we should have a colour coded spreadsheet with a map of the garden so we know when we sowed something and where. We reckon that would take the fun out of it though. Happy growing and may that spot of rain we had earlier today further boost up your garden’s growth!

We wanted summer and we got it

Posted on by
Reply

Blimmin eck! How hot was it today? These two poppies which we’re sure we grew from seed a couple of years ago are blooming again. We gave them a good watering this morning as at its peak it hit nearly 29 degrees C today here in SE23.

We’ve got two trusses of flowers on our tomatoes (above), the gardening calendar is cracking on this year and it’s nearly summer solstice. There’s now warnings or a time marker which says “You have just reached the end of spring” or anything, time marches on as Jungle Wonz once sang.

Also we’ve been nipping out any sideshoots on our tomatoes and read in the Vertical Veg email newsletter about using the sideshoots on tomato plants as you would cuttings and we have one which looks like it may have taken root, well it hasn’t gone droopy yet (above).

And something else we love here as well are suprises. Here’s some oregano we don’t remember sowing growing underneath a rosemary bush (above). Now that’s a bit of a bonus as we do love oregano here! We bought a marjoram plant a few years ago as an oregano alternative which is doing great but it’s not the same. 30 degrees C tomorrow you reckon?

We’re pushing the (seed) envelope again

Posted on by
Reply

The shoots are coming through from one of the chitted seed spuds we planted in a big pot in a Monty Don style. We’ll stick an old jam jar on the top as soon as we’ve covered it with some more soil as you never know it’s still frost season and it has been cold in the mornings here.

Talk about being keen, we’ve even stuck a tomato plant outside (talk about a gardening sin of sins) after a quick harden off (keeping it outside during the day and bringing it back in at night) over the last few days so it could get used to the weather outdoors rather than the warmth of the kitchen windowsill.

We covered it with a small plastic cloche that we found in the street years ago and then covered that with another larger plastic cloche. We’ve been influenced by the great Bob Flowerdew there as we reckon that’s the sort of thing he may do. Looks a bit mad but why not as they say. It may be too much for the poor plant but we’ll take either one or all of the protection off when we get a warm day. It’s all about giving it a go and getting one step ahead.

And they’re off!

Posted on by
Reply

Spring may be springing or maybe not but we’ve got in and sowed some seeds in the propagator on the windowsill. We’ve done some miner’s lettuce, giant sunflowers some tomatoes and some chillies along with some rows sowed outside (we’re pushing our luck but having a try anyway, what we got to lose?)

Years ago we bought some wild garlic bulblets on ebay and they’ve popped up yet again down the shady area behind the pond and are kept safe under the watchful eye of a plastic dalek. And the second lot of the giant garlic we bought is starting to peep through the inch or two of the leaf mulch in the raised bed. We don’t know if it’s the plastic protection on the top that has helped or the the fact that one of the Weeds cats spends a lot of time sleeping on top of it! Who knows but something is working!)

And here’s some spring inspired dubs to get those plants on their way.

Rotting and Tomatoes

Posted on by
Reply

The sun has been beating down this week and working its magic on the tomatoes as they’re starting to ripen quick. We’re still feeding the plants once a week (even though we are fast running out of liquid feed as the comfrey plants are hardly growing this year) and giving them a good water in the morning. They’re a different shape than what we’re used to but they are great taste wise. We assume they’re the Costoluto Fiorentino variety grown from seed picked up from the seed swap at Glengall Wharf Garden earlier this year. The San Marzano we also obtained there are coming on great too.

And our daily turning of the compost heap and cutting up of the waste as small as possible (not all the time as there’s whole onions and a mouldy orange in there) is starting to pay off. We reckon it’s a combination of those factors plus the open compost bin and the heat as well. This stuff should be able to be used in no time as soon as it all rots down. Sunshine keep doing your job but can we have some rain please?

Sunshine, sunshine do your job

Posted on by
Reply

The strange vegetable bed at the bottom of the garden is looking healthy. We’ve red cabbages and tomatoes and a red hot poker but God knows what that’s doing there. The bed usually suffers with a lack of water but we added some organic material from the compost heap at the start of the season, feed the plants there weekly and make sure we get the watering can on it daily. Over the next few nights we may even give it a water in the evening.

Earlier this year we went to that great seed swap at Glengall Wharf Garden in Peckham and got several different varieties of tomatoes. We’re hoping that the toms above are the beefsteak Costoluto Fiorentino from the seed swap and the tomatoes in the raised beds halfway down the garden are the classic plum San Marzano as they look a bit like them.

We really should be more organised with some sort of colour coded notebook and plant labels but sadly we’re not. Let’s see what they turn out like at harvest time.

There’s more on the way!

Posted on by
2

A big thanks to our good gardening mate Gerry Hectic for sending us pictures of the story so far in his garden. Loving the runner beans in the pot with a trolley from Aldi at the bottom so it can be moved around to catch the maximum of sunlight. Our other good friend Phil Harmony in Berlin used to also use that idea on his balcony for his veg growing. As The Merton Parkas used to sing “You need wheels”.

The peas and tomatoes look great too! Just water them daily and add a weekly feed, all will hopefully be grand! More pics of your progress in a few weeks please Gerry!

They’re on their way!

Posted on by
Reply

Now some of the flowers have dropped off the tomato plants we’ve been giving them and other fruiting plants a weekly feed of comfrey liquid. We’re also been giving the tomatoes some support with canes and garden wire as in a few week’s time some of the fruit will get heavy.

We’ve been using the home-made feed sparingly as we haven’t been getting that many comfrey leaves to make the liquid out of. We usually try and pass the feed on as it’s brilliant stuff but up until now have just about enough for ourselves. Fingers crossed we get a splurge of comfrey leaf growth soon.

The zucchini/courgette we planted in a in a pot is starting to flower now too and the climbing beans plants we got from Shannon’s are setting fruit on one of the three runner bean cane tripods we put in. As for the other two tripods, one went for a burton through underwater and the other one has been overun with blackfly. It’s strange as there’re only a couple of feet apart from each other.

So keep on with the watering through this dry spell and get some plant feed to your vegetables to get the best out of the plants cropping wise.

And while we’re on beanpoles here something brilliant bean support-wise from a few years ago from Vic Godard from The Subway Sect’s Dad’s garden. It’s a 16 caner with a nice tying system at the top and it really looks the part!

Are we there yet?

Posted on by
Reply

We’ve been away for a few days to sunny Sudbury where the only stress was making sure a couple of cats, the garden birds and the guest ducks were fed and cat treats administered. It was nice to get away for a break after the last couple of years of the on and off madness of lockdown.

When we returned, the garden at home had certainly grown even after 5 days. The spuds we put in early (in February under cover here) were looking well happy and flowering like anything and so was the courgette seedling we put in a big pot (above). One tip, don’t even consider consuming the fruits that may appear on the potato plant after flowering as you’ll certainly keel over. This is how one website put it “…if you are feeling adventurous, you could try tasting a ripe berry, but don’t swallow it unless your health insurance is paid up.” We always knock them off if we see them growing just to be on the safe side.

Now it’s back to that age old “When do we pull the spuds up?” conundrum. It’s all confusing, as far as we can remember these were Golden Wonder maincrop potatoes which you supposed harvest in August/September, but we put them in earlier than they should have been so that’ll make a difference won’t it? If you want to find out more, there’s a good article about the various potato types explained on the Gardener’s World website here.

We usually wait until the flowers and foliage have well died down before we go in with a fork (remembering what Joe Maiden used to say about going in a few times so nothing is left in the ground. “Volunteer” potatoes can muck up an OCD laid out vegetable bed the year after if not) but there’s nothing stopping the impatient digging around in the compost earlier seeing if there’s anything small to harvest. If you’ve got raised beds filled with general purpose compost it shouldn’t take much effort get in there with a trowel and be like a careful archaeologist. If there’s nothing of a decent size just cover them back up and let them get on with it. We’ve read online some people enjoy spuds when they’re marble sized, each to their own we say.

Another thing we actually got around to doing was “side shooting” our tomato plants. This is simply taking out the side shoots that appear between the leaf joint (making sure they’re not the fruit bearing trusses that grow from the stem not on the junction between leaf and stem). The whole idea of doing this, is the plant will put all of its energy into making the fruit rather than into making leaves. If you have a butchers at this video below though the great Bob Flowerdew suggests growing Tomatoes on a couple of main stems. We love the bit that starts at 2.25 “I thought you were a good gardener?”

But the big question here isn’t if he’s a good gardener or not, it’s is he a reggae lover or a Kraftwerk fan or both, we need to know! If anybody knows please tell us.

There’s a tomato in my kitchen (window) what am I gonna do?

Posted on by
Reply

Big shout to our gardening friend Gerry Hectic who’s stripped his outdoor tomato plants and brought the fruits in on the kitchen windowsill. We love the jar idea!

We’ve got some on ours too and chucked a couple away this morning as they looked like they were going brownish and we didn’t want them to muck up the other tomatoes.

Also cheers to another gardening/music friend, from across the pond this time Justin Patrick Moore who has acquired some Austrian winter pea seeds. We’ve never heard of them before and they sound good.

We’ve read “The greens taste like sweet sugar snap peas, but have the texture of lettuce” and they’re are also grown as a “Cover Crop” that’s one not for harvest but to cover the soil over the winter months to stop erosion and in the case of this plant to add nitrogen to the soil. May be a good idea to grow some either to eat or improve you garden! More on them here. Cheers to Gerry and Justin for the pics and info.