Cucumber in the Greenhouse

My tomatoes are ripening nicely in the greenhouse and also outdoors. In fact I have been busy feeding the plants with organic tomato feed as these plants are rather greedy. I had a nice crop of cucumbers in the greenhouse but it’s coming to the end as some of my plants have really dried out. I haven’t had as much success with peppers as I have in previous years and I am not sure of the reasons why. There is a possibility that I have overfed the plants and encouraged them to grow leaves as opposed to flowers. The peppers are still small and green but this could be due to the fact that this is a different variety from my usual favouriate Tasty Grill Red F1 Hybrid variety.

I have managed to cope with my courgette glut by sharing my crop and also using them extensively in risottos and in roast. My courgettes are truly relishing the wet weather and it is showing. Likewise the lawn is starting to recover from the draught which completely burnt out the green expanse of grass.

I will have to keep an eye on potato blight and tomato diseases if the wet weather continues for too long. The gardening season is not over for me yet as I am preparing my final sowing of beans and lettuces to come.

The Gardeners’s Delight cherry tomatoes have a nice sweet taste and you can see in the picture that they are smaller than the other types of tomatoes that I have grown outdoors and in the greenhouse.

Plate of Garden Tomatoes

The third variety which I am currently growing in the greenhouse is called Tigereta. This is a small to medium size tomato with distinctive stripes as you can see in the top right hand corner of the picture.

I have also harvested some Alicante tomatoes grown outdoors which have just ripened. Unfortunately I had a bit of an accident whilst I was away on holiday with my Roma plum tomatoes plants which were pushed by the wind and are not ripening very well as they collapsed on a bundle on the floor. And as I was trying to pull them back up the branches were breaking under the weight of tomatoes.

Anyway, I am currently harvesting tomatoes of all types on a daily basis so the crop level is not bad. I use them in salads and also tomato to accompany any pasta. If you are having a bit of a tomato and courgette glut then I’ve got the perfect recipe for you!

My simple Marmande tomato & courgette bake recipe:

Grease the insides of a large heat proof dish. Then slice a few marmande tomatoes and courgettes into even slices (so that they cook evenly). Place in a baking tray making sure that you alternate slices of tomatoes on top of slices of courgettes.

If you like garlic you can sprinkle some of top as well as some chopped basil or alternatively you may try some herbes de provence (thyme, rosemary, etc…).
Then drizzle the tomato and courgette slices with olive oil and place in the centre of a preheated oven on medium heat for about 30 minutes. Keep an eye on your bake and then enjoy!

I have seen other recipes which involve adding grated cheese or breadcrumbs on top, so if you feel adventurous it may be worth a try too. If you don’t have any Marmande tomatoes, I guess Alicante or any other average size tomatoes will do.

Tomatoes that have ripened naturally in your garden taste so delicious. And when you’ve managed to grow-your-own successfully then they deserve a treat and there’s no better way than some home cooking.

Another benefit of growing your own tomatoes is that you get a wide choice of varieties of tomatoes to grow from seeds. The choice is much wider than the tomatoes which you can find in supermarkets and the varieties are also adapted for growing in the UK.

How to get started

At this time of year you have a few options: you can either purchase a plug plant from a garden centre or order your plants online. Make sure that the plant is watered sufficiently and do not plant the tomato outdoors until all risk of frost has finished.

Potting tomato plants

Alternatively you could try growing tomatoes from seeds, which is my preferred option. All you need is a pot or tray of fine compost where you will place a few tomato seeds that need to be covered with a little compost. Place the tray on a sunny window sill and keep the soil moist (you may want to cover the tray with a plastic bag to keep the moisture in until the seeds have germinated). Within 2 weeks you should start to see some seedlings emerging from the compost.

Once the seedlings are big enough to handle i.e. once they have at least an additional pair of leaves to their original leaves (called true leaf) you can transplant them in their own individual pots to grow on in a sunny area. Once all risk of frost has passed and the weather is warmer you will be able to plant your tomatoes outside. If like me you have a greenhouse, you can move the plants earlier in the greenhouse and either grow them in big pots or grow bags. Grow bags are handy because they take little space and can be disposed of easily at the end of the season. I simply put 3 plants per grow bag of either tomatoes or peppers.

My favourite tomato varieties

I recommend Gardeners Delight which is easy to grow and ripens quickly. Also another favourite of mine is Tigeretta – a middle sized tomato with little yellow stripes, which is tasty and proved to be very disease resistant when we had the really wet summer two years ago and blight and rot was killing most plants.

I tend to use the Roma variety to make tomato sauce or for cooking. I have also grown Alicante tomatoes which are bigger than the above mentioned varieties and therefore take longer to ripen in my personal experience. I normally prefer to grow cherry tomatoes because they ripen quicker than big tomato varieties and produce vigourous bushes full of fruits. Additionally for cherry tomatoes I recommend Sun gold and Black Cherry (although some people find that the colour is a bit off- putting).

You can get some varieties which are specifically adapted to baskets so they are worth giving a go too. This year I will also try the Marmande variety (my friend has given me a few plants that he grew from seeds) which usually produces big beefsteak tomatoes.

Caring for your tomatoes

You will need to feed your tomato plants as soon as they have flowers. I recommend using an organic tomato feed which you can find easily online or even in DIY shops. This will ensure that you get a bounty of juicy and tasty tomatoes.

Some tomato plants need to have their side shoots removed for plentiful crops; it’s best to follow the instructions on your packet of seeds. As the plants grow, they will also need staking to alleviate the plant from the weight of the fruits and branches. I personally use bamboo canes and some garden twine. Also, I have always been advised by my peers that you should avoid getting the tomato leaves wet as tomato plants don’t like the damp and can get diseases.

Don’t worry if you get it wrong, you should still get some tomatoes as long as you give them a little care every so often. And harvesting couldn’t be more fun!

My top tip: marigolds are a perfect companion plant to tomatoes, i.e. they repel the pests which are likely to damage your tomato plant. I always grow marigold every year and I plant them along the path which is near the tomatoes so it does not only looks good but it’s beneficial to my vegetables too.