Tomatoes – My first crop

Tomatoes were the first edible plants I grew, which I’m sure is true of many gardeners. I’ve grown them from seed for more than 20 years now and February wouldn’t feel the same without the excitement of starting the tomatoes.

Losing my dad as a teenager meant I lost all of his gardening knowledge, built up over so many generations. I still feel sad for all the gardening chats we would have had, as us gardeners do like to talk about our hobby.

By the time I got into my mid-twenties, the gardening bug had got a hold of me. I knew so little and was desperate to learn more.

My job took me into people’s houses and one of my weekly calls introduced me to a newly retired gentleman. Not only was he a very keen vegetable grower, but his father had been a professional gardener. As if this wasn’t good enough he also reminded me of my dad. We had lovely gardening chats every week and I learned so much from him.

In the mid 1990’s ‘Sungold’ tomatoes arrived on the scene and they were expensive. My new gardening friend and I bought them and compared notes. We both raved about the sweet flavour of this new variety. As the end of the season approached he asked, “You have saved some seeds haven’t you?” I said “No”. It hadn’t even occurred to me to do this. Free plants, how incredible.

Luckily had a few tomatoes left. I squeezed the seeds out of one, onto a piece of kitchen paper and left them on the side to dry. As I came back into the room my usually very well behaved Siamese cat had just finished eating them! I couldn’t believe it! Any of you that live with a cat will know how fussy they are. Can you imagine the look on their face if you put tomato seeds, or frankly any seeds into their bowl.

Luckily my new gardening friend saved me some.

Years of growing tomatoes outside

Up until moving here in the summer of 2013, I always grew my tomatoes outside.

Just four plants against a south facing wall. It was quite a challenge to get them to ripen and we were always left with many green tomatoes.

They didn’t go to waste though, as we made scrumptious green tomato chutney. But what I dreamt of, was growing enough tomatoes to make tomato soup.

Finally we get a greenhouse

The first spring after moving here, we bought our first greenhouse and set about filling it!

I grew a few too many plants, so the spare ones were popped into a grow-bag. We found a little corner for them in amongst the building materials. We had already started our garden transformation.

I always find it difficult to throw spare plants away, and try my best to give them away.

Filling a space with tomatoes

We have a 160ft long south facing boundary here, and we set about building a wall. In the spring of 2015 the stretch that was to have the fruit trees planted on it was completed. These couldn’t be planted until the winter, so rather than waste the space we planted tomatoes there

Bigger greenhouse – more tomatoes

By 2016 we had already outgrown our standard sized greenhouse, and so upgraded to a super dooper large one.

Tomato varieties

I grow 5 varieties each year. Three staples that I now can’t live without, and two new ones.

You can guess one of the annual staples, ‘Sungold’, even after all of these years it’s still one of my favourites. As the name suggests it’s golden yellow when ripe. It’s a super sweet cherry tomato, and usually the first to ripen. The only down side is the really thin skin. A bonus when eating, but if you’re not quick to pick the ripe fruit, they split on the vine.

Next up is ‘Brandywine’ a large beefsteak sized fruit. It’s an heirloom cultivar of the species. It has really unusual potato-like leaves and the tomatoes are pinky red with ridges on. It really isn’t a particularly attractive fruit, but it’s full of flavour unlike a lot of large tomatoes. Inside it’s dense and fleshy, and makes an exceptionally creamy soup and sauce.

The last of the three staples is ‘Rosella’. A strange coloured cherry tomato, a dark slightly smoky looking pink. It has amazing summer fruit flavours and although very sweet, it’s also tart, unusual and delicious.

My sisters father-in law, is what I call a proper gardener. I’m not sure what age I’ll have to get to before I think of myself in this way!

He’s always very complimentary about my garden, which I take as praise indeed!

Sadly his eye sight is failing and he found he could no longer see to sow his tomato seeds. So he asked me if I would grow them for him, I said I’d be only too pleased to do so.

That first year he got more than he bargained for, as there was a delay getting them to him. Giant tomato plants delivery, coming through!

Tomato Heaven

We are now able to eat fresh tomatoes from June to October, make my longed for soup, and much more besides.

Cooking dozens of batches of tomato sauce that we freeze in portions. Some larger potions for pasta and sweet & sour sauce. Also some smaller ones for pizza toppings and salsa.