I have chosen 10 varieties of tomato and am going to sow 5 seeds of
each.
So 50 plants!
Which is, of course, too many. But I am looking on this as an initiation ritual. The one every tomato grower gets to go through. I have read all the advice. Which is: ‘Don’t be too greedy or too ambitious’. And I am ignoring it. So watch out for a future post that starts ‘It’s important not to be too greedy or too ambitious……
However for now I am the self styled Mother Earth/Anjelina Jolie of
tomatoes !
And of course the reason for this is that secretly I don’t believe I’m
actually going to suceed in raising plants that will in time produce
real live tomatoes. From where I am right now a glut seems like a
problem I would love to call my own! And if a glut means I have to
release the Spaniard within and host the inaugural Surrey Tomatina then so be it !
So Day One dawns at Tomato Towers. The sun has come out which whilst of no relevance yet to my seeds gives me hope that like the swallows, summer will remember to return this year.
Sat on my kitchen worktop I have a propagator, John Innes seed compost, Vermiculite, 7.5 cm pots, peat pellets , grow pots and of
course 10 packets of seeds.
In the course of sowing these will be joined by roasting tins, plastic
measuring jugs, a small white china bowl, my best (pink) tweezerman
tweezers , marker pen, scissors, sticky labels, water spritzer and
a spoon.
This amount of equipment/clutter is cancelling out any sense of
tranquillity that going back to the soil might be expected to bring.
Instead I feel like a stressed out Generation Game guest who has 5
minutes left and is as twirled out as Anthea.
When I have had a restorative cup of tea I will detail how I got on.
Does seed sowing tie you in knots or once you know what you’re doing does it become a relaxing ritual ?
