Addictive, seductive and highly rewarding. How can I stop myself from going back for more …..
And you thought you’d landed on a site about tomatoes. If you’re now worrying about the lover bit in my title and thinking you might’ve taken a wrong online turning, worry not. I’m very much about tomatoes!
Those words describe how I’ve feel about the process of growing my own tomato plants from seed. Indeed so carried away was I, that when the last recommended sowing date arrived I breathed a secret sigh of relief. My sowing activities would now have to be curtailed.
However my plants have yet to reward me with a flower. So as us women know to do – if you don’t get given them – just go and buy them!
So this weekend I went shopping for flowers. Tomato flowers. I only bought a couple (with plant attached!) but it’s enough. I’ve brought them home in the hope of showing my plants what being a tomato is all about.
The plant is a Cream Sausage and came home with a companion, Darby Stripe.
Don’t they look great?
Lots of foliage, thick sturdy stems and good height.
They were bought from tomato growers who know their stuff. The National Vegetable Society.
In particular from the Hampshire branch of the National Vegetable Society at their plant fair held at West Wellow village hall.
(I always get a bit nervous going into village halls, I think it’s memories of being nervous about making a clear jump over the Brownie Toadstool.)
But West Wellow could not have been a more welcoming.
The gardening vogue of the past few years has been all about bringing the indoors out and treating your garden as an extension of your living space. West Wellow reversed all that. The outdoors had most definitely been brought in. The hall was filled with greenery. Tables laden with glossy and luscious plants and centre trestle, the tomato plants. A table top forest.
As well as robust plants, grown in heated greenhouses and ready to take their first steps to outdoor living, I got lots of generous and insightful advice.
I must start writing these (Garden) Pearls of wisdom down but the conversations are always so enjoyable and the advice flows so fast that if I stop to get out pen and notebook I’m afraid of getting left behind.
However one tip I did commit to memory, which I will now think of as Wellow Wisdom, is that when you pinch off your side shoots, if you put them in a glass of water they will sprout roots and from this you can have a new plant.
How magic is that!
So if you are thinking about growing your own tomatoes but haven’t got round to it then look out for plant sales. May is a good month, they’re often held on allotments, village halls or garden fetes. If you are as lucky as I was, you will get beautifully started plants and spadefulls of good advice.
Oh and the cost – £1 per plant. At that price, a gift everyone should give themselves!
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