Spring Fever

I have been gardening for a long time – nearly 50 years. My interested started when my father had to dig up the lawn and plant vegetables during the war. I always dreamed of having my own garden with lots of vegetables and a few chickens scratching away. I was lucky enough to achieve my dream once I was married, but with 4 babies to look after there was not much time to enjoy it. Once the children were at school I needed to go out to work to help pay the mortgage, so still no time for the garden. Now they have all left home and I am retired, but at times feeling my age. I am fortunate to be healthy and refuse to accept there is a pain in my hip this morning!

There is a very good article about tomatoes in the Daily Mail today by Chris Beardshaw. (Page 99 – I don’t know if you can find it online). I will copy a bit of it below.

“For best results, start glasshouse crops now. Tomatoes sold in supermarkets are grown with an emphasis on uniformity, pest and disease resistance and suitability for mechanical picking. The result is a far less flavoursome product than one that is home-grown.
The bulk of supermarket tomatoes originate from abroad and are harvested before the crop is ripe to facilitate shipping. These unripe tomatoes are then exposed to ethylene gas to promote ripening. Although this attempts to mimic the natural ripening process on the vine, the result is a less sweet, starchier fruit with drier flesh.”

He goes on to suggest several different varieties you could choose. Last year I grew a selection of one beefsteak variety, one red and one yellow cherry variety, and one average size tomato. I also grew 2 plants of Sweet Million and they really did have almost a million fruits and were very easy to grow and they went on fruiting for months. But I found them far too small with rather tough skins. The branches of fruit were so heavy they had to have extra support. Have any of you tried Sweet Million? I will not be growing them again.

Well, the sun has come out and I have Spring Fever. I must go out and start to prepare the greenhouse for the seeds which I am just itching to get planted.