Outdoor Tomatoes

Ever since leaving our last house, I've never really grown good tomatoes outside. 

That house had a suntrap garden, with white brick walls I used to grow them up against. They'd often do better there than in the greenhouse (which was a little shaded).

This year I thought I'd have another go outside here, having failed in the past. I planted two types, one Primabella, is a late blight resistant tomato that I you can save the seed from. The other is Crimson Crush, also blight resistant but an F1 (so no seed saving) and also not the most tasty tomato you will ever eat, but still streets above the supermarket ones. 

Tomatoes Just Starting

It's easily my favourite harvest of the year. I love when the tomatoes start to come in. 

 For the last week or so we've been harvesting a handful every few days.

They're worlds apart from anything you'd buy at the supermarket. The kids go mad for them (there has already been tears as one child cut one in half and didn't end up with the bigger half). 

The tunnel is a mess though and I need to give it a serious pruning back! 

Who else has tomatoes as one of their favourite harvests? Is there anything else that tastes more of summer?

I Managed To Can Some Tomatoes!!

Managed to sneak enough tomatoes away from the kids to preserve some for winter! 

I know it's not huge amounts but I'm going on the little and often approach. This time I used my small pot and did one at a time while I was doing other jobs in and around the kitchen. My big saucepan takes so long to heat up I though this might be better - in fairness when I started I only planned to do one! 

16 Types Of Tomato Planted!!!!

Each year I get carried away with tomato varieties!

And this year is no exception!

Tomato - Sweet Current

At the Hereford Seed Swap earlier in the year a lady I was speaking to recommended I grow a tiny type of tomato. 

It's because we were talking about my grazing children and how they love to pick at fruit around the garden.

First Ripe Tomato

 Each year I'm always desperate to see when I'll get my first ripe tomato. 

This year it's a rather small one and grown outside, but it's a ripe tomato no less!

It was even smaller when I split it into three, but it saved arguments with my little ones! 

Hopefully many more to come now! 

Who else has had their first tomato?

Tomato Plants

My tomato plants are romping away in the greenhouse at the moment. Now is the time I need to start thinking about potting them on and getting them in their final positions.

I'm planning on having at least one bed outside again this year but covered with a mini poly tunnel to start with, next year I'd like to create a couple of beds in the front garden where's there's a bit of a micro climate, I think they'd do well there and if I created a few beds I could rotate some veggies that like it slightly hotter (grow food not lawns and all that).

I have got far too many tomato plants though so when I pricking them out I did pot a few into root trainers with the idea of selling them online later on. I've just added a couple of listings to my Etsy shop which contains two lots of four open pollinated tomato plants.

They are all heritage varieties:

Four varieties of non hybrid tomato:

Amish Paste - From the Amish Community in America, huge plum tomatoes, one slice can cover a piece of bread! Apple sized fruit, dense flesh.

Abraham Lincoln - Large, meaty, flavourful tomatoes, 

Harbinger - An old English variety, produces heavy yields of good flavoured medium size fruit. Tolerates cool weather well so good for outside growing.

Millefleur - Centiflor type tomato. Hundreds of flowers on each truss, produces hundreds of little yellow fruits. 

And the other listing has four other varieties of non hybrid tomatoes:

Abraham Lincoln - Large, meaty, flavourful tomatoes, 

Best Of All - Great Heirloom variety 

Jersey Sunrise - Heavy cropper, very sweet, great all rounder

Legend - Outdoor tomato with good blight resistance, slightly flatter shape than normal, and very few seeds. 

Hopefully this will give someone else the chance to grow some of these interesting varieties of tomatoes!

Tomatoes & Peppers Planted!

I'm later planting my tomatoes and peppers this year. Most year I sow far too early then they either sit there not growing or get too leggy. I decided to just try putting them in a bit later and see if it makes any difference or not.

In truth I would have planted them in the week when I had a bit of time on my own (when the boy naps), but I'd promised the girls they could help and they were so excited about planting two of their favourite veggies. 

So this afternoon we managed to get out there and sow them all, the girls filled the pots whilst I organised what we were going to plant. I love them planting a crop that we harvest over a long time like this, as they have a real sense of pride as the eat them.

Such concentration

My youngest daughter was determined to plant all the sweet peppers, as they're her favourite, where as my eldest was just as happy to plant the tomatoes. I know it won't be long before they're raiding the greenhouse and I'll have to be quick to get a descent amount before they eat them all! 

being careful with the seeds

In the end we've so far planted the following (although we could end up planting more yet as I never know what I'm going to come across or see for sale somewhere!):

Chilli pepper - long pencil cayenne (home saved seed)

Chilli pepper - Pimientos de Padron

Sweet pepper -   Poupila 

Sweet Pepper - Sweet Sunshine F1 (one of the few F1's I'm growing this year) 

Sweet Pepper - Lunch Box Mix

Tomato - Golden Sunrise (home saved seed)

Tomato - Millefleur

Tomato - Harbinger

Tomato - Best of all

Tomato - Jersey Sunrise

Tomato - Legend 

Tomato - Amish Paste

Tomato - Abraham Lincoln 

Tomatillo - Large purple/green  

Showing me how they'll grow!

I can't wait to try some of these in the summer! I'm really excited about trying the small sweet peppers I've picked out, some grow the size of a chilli so I should have no problems ripening them! Looking at the list I might plant a few more chilli pepper yet so I'll raid the seed box tomorrow to grow a few hot ones (although I have a fair few left int he freezer from last year). 

Everyone else got their tomatoes and peppers in yet?

How many varieties are you growing?

A Little Girls Packed Lunch

Now I never want to be "that guy" but I was quite pleased with my little girls lunch yesterday. 

She had a sandwich made with homemade bread (my wife made the sandwich when she made her own but I baked the bread!), a tub of tomatoes from the garden and an apple from my parents farm off a tree I planted over a decade ago. 

Good to know where your food comes from - The flour for the bread was even bought from a mill not far from my in-laws and they try to buy local grains where possible.

Now I'm not saying every meal is like this in this house, but I'd like to do it more and more if I can. 

Different Ways Of Growing Tomatoes

Looking through those old magazines I got lent the other day I came across this article about growing tomatoes in different ways. When looking at this article remember that it was published in 1983 (not sure if I'm breaking copyright but I'm only showing it because it's a great article). 

It details many methods that I think people think are quite new; the grafting of tomatoes, straw bale gardening method and hydroponics. 

Reading some books published lately you could be fooled into thinking that they invented some of these methods, especially the straw bale gardening which I have read a whole book on in the last few months and the guy pretty much claims it as a method he invented, whereas I can see that it was being used much earlier than that. 

What do you think to this old article?

What have you seen lately that has been packaged as something new but is really just an old idea with some new packaging?

Single Truss Tomato Update

The single truss tomato bed has gone mental! 

I haven't kept on top of them as much as I should have but they're growing well, a little too well really. I had a massive hack at them tonight and found all the tomatoes hidden under the leaves.

The plastic is working well though as there isn't a single weed in the whole bed.

I can already see improvements for this method of growing. firstly only grow them two wide per bed, on a 30" bed I think this would be about right. These are about five deep and it just gets a bit tangled. I just got greedy on how many I put in! 

Also I think that rather than just shoving in my left over plants I should grow some specially for this type of growing. I'm thinking that maybe growing determinate type (bush) rather than the indeterminate (cordon type), that way when they get pruned they might not put quite so much energy into trying to regrow. 

Hopefully they're be plenty ripening in the next few weeks.

Anyone else grown in this way?

First Tomato Of The Season!

 The first tomato is ripe in the greenhouse! 

It's a Bolivian Orange Cherry, grown from seed that I got from the Herefordshire seed swap. 

As for how it tastes - I think I better let the girls have this first one! 

Who else has tomatoes ready?

Outside Tomatoes Planted

As I'm not growing quite as much this year I've decided to dispense with growing potatoes, which I can buy locally for next to nothing anyway (although I do admit they're very satisfying to grow). In there place I've decided to stick with the nightshades (solanaceae) though so it doesn't mess up my rotation plan.

I've also trying to be a little smarter with my gardening and trying to reduce labour. I've decided to take a leaf out of Curtis Stones book and plant my plants through weed membrane. The idea being that I won't have to weed the plot & it should retain a lot of it's water as well.

I've tried to use weed membrane like this before but it's never really worked for me because it starts to unweave as soon as you cut the holes for the plants. Reading a few books and blogs apparently burning holes into the fabric is the way to go as it seals the edges. I will also be able to reuse this year after year as well. 

I used an old bean can to burn around for the tomatoes to go into. This is proper recycling as this was the same can I used to measure sheep feed with! 

I'm planting these tomatoes very close together as well. The plan is that I'll have these 50 or so plants in a 10ft by 4ft bed but each plant is only allowed to set one truss of fruit. It then gets pruned so all it's energy goes into that first truss. I get a lower yield per plant but because I can fit so many more in I should still make good use of the bed and each truss would be of good quality and ripen faster. 

The bed is split into two  with larger plants at the back and younger, smaller plants at the front, this should give me two flushes of fruit from this bed. There's also a huge mix of varieties (nine or ten I think) so I can see which ones do well under this system.

Anyone else planting tomatoes outside? Who else has tried a system like this? Hopefully it'll produce a glut I can preserve by canning! 

Windowsill Gardening

The growing season here can be pretty short, we aren't really frost free until the second week in June, although it can be much earlier than that, anything before is a risk. So to extend the season I start most tender plants off in the greenhouse or in the house.

Pepper plants and other seedlings coming along, melons and cucumbers mainly as well as more strawberries.

 This year I've been using the windowsill to their full potential, starting lots of seeds in my heated propagator as well as potting on tomatoes and letting them grow on in the house. I've still got lots growing in the greenhouse but this way I'm hedging my bets encase it freezes hard one night and I don't realise in time. 

Chilli Pepper plants in the living room

 So all my south facing windows are full, there's about nine varieties of chilli peppers, three types of tomatoes (with another 6 types in the greenhouse)  and then some Minnesota melon seedlings, heritage cucumber and a Mexican herb I've forgotten the name of spread all round the house. The only room I've haven't put plants in is my girls bedroom as it has a blackout blind and I'd rather go without tomatoes than that in the summer, as it makes them sleep past sunrise! 

Some leggy Tomatoes, they should be okay but it shows that starting them too early can be a bad thing. Some are just forming their first truss.  

Who else has a house that's filling up with plants desperate to go outside?

Spring Is So Close I Can Almost Smell It!

The weather is changing, with cold mornings and winter sunshine it really warms the soul. 

I worked from home yesterday making a door for a customer, so I took advantage of the sunshine spent a bit of time in the garden, planting some early seeds. 

I know I'm late getting my chillies in but I find it doesn't make huge amounts of difference if you haven't got a grow lamp anyway, sometimes they can get too leggy if you sow them too early. I also got some tomatoes in as well, but I'll sow plenty more of them later.

They're all sat quite happily on our bedroom window sill, germinating slowly.

Does anyone on here graft tomatoes or chillies or buy plants that have been grafted? I'd like to try my hand at it but need to buy the root stock seed to try it (and the grafting clips). 

Disappointing Tomatoes This Year

My garden has suffered this year as my attention has been on other projects (and lots of them). But mostly it's done pretty well as I gave it the right amount of love at the right time. 

Not true in the greenhouse this year unfortunately. 

This years plants 

 They plants have limped along and there is a number of factors that are to blame (most could have been prevented by me).

• The nettles behind the greenhouse have formed a screen blocking out a load of light. This has had a massive impact and reduced their growing by loads. - Next year I will keep on top of them (not literary) 
• I didn't feed them enough, last year I fed the plants every other day, for months. This year I kept forgetting and haven't done it so often. -  I still think my homemade food is good, but I need to apply it more than I have.
• My soil mix was good but I don't think the cheap B&Q compost was up to much this year. Anything planted with it hasn't done as well as last year.  - I need to find and stick to a more expensive brand of compost rather than just going for the cheapest and then being disappointed by the results.
• This summer isn't as sunny as last year. - Not much I can do about that one! 

Last years a month earlier

How has everyone else done with tomatoes? Hope you've had a better harvest than me! 

Automatic Watering Systems

On Wednesday I managed to fit a watering system in my large greenhouse.

Drippers going to tomatoes 

 I've had two drip kits sat in the shed for years, in fact they moved with us from our last house. I brought them from a car boot sale for £5 a box and they come with all the fittings that I need, I just had to buy some clips to hold it in place.

£5 car boot buy

 I decided to fit the first kit in the greenhouse with all the tomatoes, hopefully this will save me lots of time in the summer and they'll be watered far more regularly reducing split tomatoes and blossom end rot. Another advantage is I will feel slightly less guilty about getting our neighbours to look after all my plants and livestock, as it'll be one less job to do when we go on holiday. 

Might need to reduce the pressure

The system waters all these plants and I'll have some trays on the large shelf  (to the left-hand side) to water my chillies as well

I now need to find a good quality electronic timer to control the watering system. I'd like to add other systems on to this for my other greenhouse and an area I'm going to make for propagation.

 Anyone have any recommendations on a good reliable timer that can manage multiple watering systems?

My Tomato Potting Mix

I'm a little late in potting on my tomatoes. They've been in singular pots and growing quite nicely but today my eldest and I decided to pot them up into their final buckets to grow on in the greenhouse.

One large barrow of top soil tipped on an old sheet of plywood

 I no longer grow in just compost, it doesn't hold the moisture and I like to give them a little extra to help them along, that said a lot of what they need is provided in the comfrey food I'll be feeding them every third day whilst they're growing and good old sunlight!

Here's the mix I'm using this year:

Four bags (I added one more) of compost three shovels of wood ash.

Four pots of chicken manure pellets  

The mix coming together

Lots and lots of broken egg shells for added calcium. (these stunk)

Mixed together and looking good

Filling the buckets - these all have holes in the bottom and then an inch of so of stones/broken pots

Plants in the greenhouse looking happy

I'm please I've got this job done, it should have been three weeks ago really but it won;t have affected them too much. I've got two types of plant food brewing at the moment, comfrey and nettle, ready for when they start growing and producing fruit. I still need to pot on my chillies, cucumbers and cucamelons but that will have to wait until next week now. I'm tempted to set up a drip irrigation system I brought for a few pounds at a car boot sale in this greenhouse to ease my evening work load and to make sure they get enough water if I'm not there on an evening.

What does everyone grow their tomatoes in?

Also don't forget about my challenge from yesterday's post- lets see what you look like!

Planting Tomatoes

I had planned to plant my tomatoes and peppers in my little window sill propagator today but the weather has put me off, after spending a morning cutting up firewood in the rain.

I always worry at this time of year that I'm not starting plants early enough, it's a fine balance between planting too early and having to keep big plants out of the frost (my greenhouse is unheated) or planting too late and missing out on early veg. I'm going to plant mine one day this week I think.

So a question to you all - when do you plant your tomato and pepper seeds? Do you try to be super early with lots of moving plants around to miss the cold or do you leave it a little longer and not notice any difference? Or does your climate provide other options?

Roast Tomato Soup

After reading Gills post on using up the tomatoes I thought I'd add our roasted tomato soup to the mix. Every summer we make this soup and it's easily our favourite. 

Fresh tomatoes

 Get as many ripe tomatoes as you can find. cut the big ones into chunks and the rest just scatter in a roasting dish, peel a few cloves of garlic and chop some shallots in half. Pour over some olive oil and add the rosemary, mix it all up and bung in the oven for twenty minutes or so - until they start to brown ever so slightly to give that roasted taste.

Tomatoes, shallots, garlic and rosemary roasted in the oven

 Blend this mixture then add some vegetable stock until you get the consistency you like. We never bother to sieve it but if you like your soup smooth then it's easy done. We like this recipe because it's so easy and fuss free, normally we do a big batch with a couple of roasting trays full of tomatoes and freeze whatever we don't eat

All blended together and not sieved. Great served with fresh bread.

The little one seemed to like it as well!

How does everyone else make they're own tomato soup?