Do you grow tomatoes outdoors?

Do you grow tomatoes outdoors?  If so do you have any success?  How?


I grew a couple of varieties last year - Tumbling Toms and Moneymaker (maybe also Gardeners Delight).  They all grew well and put on loads of fruit but being this far north the fruit came on too late to ripen before the end of the season.  I tried to start them off earlier this year but they seem to have have arrived at the same point, i.e. end of July and loads of flowers and small fruit forming. I am growing Tumbling Toms again and four bush tomatoes called Amateur.  (see their picture in the post on Potting on Plants)  We seem to have hit another cool and wet period which has 'stopped them' again, so I don't hold out much hope of getting the fruit ripe before they have to be ripped up.  Down south they are,of course, being picked now!

The photo above shows Tumbling Toms in two window box type troughs standing on bricks on the edge of the patio.  They were hung on the fence but had to be moved when I bought my 'greenhouse'.  The photo on the right is a close up of the fruit and flowers - prolific but, as I said, probably too far behind where they should be at this point in the season.


Please tell me if you have any success with tomatoes outside and, if you do, is the secret in the variety, your planting routines or  what.

Slugs and snails and ..... frogs

When we came back from our break and had the front door open to unpack the car - this chap let himself in.  I suspect he lives pretty near the front door as he often leaves a tiny present on the doorstep.  We have quite a lot of frogs and toads in our garden which is pretty surprising as I don't have any areas which don't get fettled by me at one time or another (no peace for the wicked); also I don't have any water in the garden, unless you count the bird bath!  Nevertheless, as I said, I'm pleased to say our friendly slug eaters live here.  We also see the scat of a hedgehog now and again who visits fairly regularly and must do his bit.  I still suffer pretty badly from slugs and last week I found my first snail!  To add insult to injury it was a huge one with brown and orange striped shell.  I do use organic pellets without which the garden wouldn't stand a chance.  I've reduced the population dramatically from that which I inherited in the football pitch outside the back door when we bought the house three years ago.

Hacking back the jungle

I suspect the test of a totally obsessed gardener is his/her refusal to go away on holiday at least between April and September.  I've just got back from a week away and the garden looks like Miss Havisham's.  I also managed to arrive back complete with gammy foot and drizzly weather so am doubly frustrated staring out at it rather than tackling it.  I did manage a pirouette (a one-footed balancing act)  in a raincoat and gathered the veg which needed picking.  I know the photo looks remarkably like one I did earlier but the observant amongst you will notice the addition of runner beans and four (!) baby beetroots. I roasted the baby beets (cut in half) and discovered I liked beetroot!  It was sweet and delicious.  I've always hated boiled beetroots as they are either totally tasteless or fusty.  So if there's a beetroot hater out there I'd recommend trying growing your own, picking, cleaning, cutting to reasonable size, rolling in a little oil (I also dusted mine with smoked paprika as they were being roasted alongside some haddock steaks) and roasting for about 30 minutes at 200 degrees centigrade.


This leads me to the real purpose of this note - I thought I might add recipes as I go along.  They will be filed as a page rather than a post and can be found by clicking 'Recipes' on the tab at the top of the page.

Fill the gaps in the veggie garden

When I pull up something like today's potatoes it leaves a space in the garden which the local cats like to use as a toilet so I always try to fill it in some way to prevent this.  Sometimes I cover it with plastic mesh, or poke in numerous sticks but recently I've just cottoned on to a more useful method.  I plant something.

I grow trays of cut and come again salad leaves and drop those all over the place (also to cover gaps).  I thought if I transplanted some of the sad looking plants which have been cut a couple of times it wouldn't matter if they thrived or not, they were just there to 'cover' the loose soil.  So I hack out a lump and separate out a few plants and shove them in.

.... and, wouldn't you know it, they thrive on neglect and up they come!  I know you can keep planting radishes and lettuces and stuff to fill gaps but sometimes it isn't a workable space. It would be a problem trying to dig up the next potato plant with decent crops in the way, but I am going to plant some baby gem lettuces in a tray and move them on as the spaces grow and also plant some more radishes.

Chickens next?

As always I am picking things too soon.  I must be the most impatient gardener.  This is today's lunch.... International kidney potatoes (aka Jersey Royals), Defender F1 courgettes, Purple tepee dwarf French beans, Sutton dwarf broad beans.  The pudding is a rhubarb crumble just literally put together in the dish - made from a bag of chopped rhubarb and a bag of crumble from the freezer.  So the only thing not made or grown by me is the chicken!  Actually something's missing - I intend to go out and thin the carrots some more and that will give me fingerlings (baby carrots) for the summer veggie mix.

Three steps for planting up pots

I planted out four bush tomatoes today.  It is probably too late to get anything off them this far North but I started them very late as I bought a bargain three packets of seeds and pots and growing medium kit from B & Q about three weeks ago; I couldn't resist as it was only a pound and I'd never grown bush tomatoes or cucumbers so thought I'd give them a shot to see if I wanted to do them next year.


This potting on led me to think about how I/we do stuff without thinking about it and how anyone new to gardening might be struggling with the basics.... so...


1. To crock or not to crock?  Most books, programmes etc. tell you to put broken pots (crocks) in the bottom of your pot to partially cover the hole to retain the compost and still allow for drainage.  This instruction came from a pre-plastic pot time of large gardens and people having loads of broken pots around.  It is totally unnecessary.  If you think about it, any plant you buy in a pot is not 'crocked'.  Sometimes I do want to partially fill my pot to save on compost (if the plant isn't going to need all the volume) and I break up polystyrene packaging and use that.  It also keeps large pots lighter to lift and insulates a little.  I also have little bags of small stones/large gravel.  They are made by cutting up a pair of tights and knotting the leg, then filling with stones and knotting again - these are great as they are easy to fish out of the roots when the plants is moved on later.  I also cut circles from left over weed suppressing membrane and put that in the bottom of a pot sometimes if I am using a sandy compost and the hole is large - again you can retrieve this for multiple uses.  That said you needn't do any of this; just simply put in the compost in the pot and get on with the job.   Does anyone else use anything weird or wonderful for 'crocking' or, like me, usually don't you bother?


2. Move from pot to pot with no mess and no guessing.  Sometimes when you're moving a potted plant to to its new home, you put the compost in the new pot, tap out the plant and then discover you didn't put enough in or there's too much and you end up fiddling around with the poor exposed plant going in and out of the pot  several times until you get it right and usually making a right mess doing it. Foolproof method is to judge roughly where you think the bottom of your plant will be in your new pot and fill the compost a little above that level. Compress it gently with your fingertips and stand your plant and pot in the new pot.  If you have an empty pot the same size that's even better  as you won't accidentally bash your plant.  Fill up around the sides of the pot pressing into place as you go and when you get to the top of your inner pot gently remove it.  You will now have a perfectly moulded shape of the plant roots you are about to put in.  Tap out your plant gently and lower it into its new home.  Firm in gently.


3.  Always water well after potting.  You should always allow a space at the top of your pot for watering; don't completely fill the pot with compost.  I work on half to a thumb's length depending on the size of the pot. Watering after potting is essential even if your plant was well-watered before moving on (as it should have been) and even if your compost is moist (as it should be).  It will settle the soil particles around the roots and make sure there's no large air pockets and it will give your plant easy access to a drink while it is in its 'shocked' state.  

Free Plants

I have a couple of dozen lovely baby Aquilegias  (Columbines/Granny Bonnets) for anyone who wants to collect them.  I am in Brandlesholme. They were grown from seed which came from Monet's Garden in Giverny, France.  Just email me at burygardeners@googlemail.com.