I Love Tomatoes!

We are now in full flow with plant propagation and hoping that by the time the plants are ready to go out the weather will have warmed up. Normally we don’t get many frosts here by the sea, but this winter, since Christmas we have had frost practically every night. Sometimes just light, but even this morning at 8.30am there is still a hard rime of frost around. Still, the clear days are glorious and we’ve been able to get lots done outside.
We are trying to give the garden in the front of the house a facelift. We would really like to do a major job, changing the layout and drive but that isn’t possible at the moment. So we’ve compromised, and are going for a more structured, minimalist look within the boundaries that already exist. We have grassed over a flowerbed, which has never been successful and added some more Box hedging. A few large terracotta pots, full of colour, will add interest throughout the summer months.
Recently, at a talk I gave to a local Garden Club, several people were very worried about the defoliation of Escallonia hedging. This is potentially very serious as Escallonia is a front line protection against salt laden winds on the coast. It seems to be caused by an airborne fungus, with the added problem of the spores splashing back in a similar fashion to black spot in Roses. I was feeling quite smug at the time, as I hadn’t noticed any signs on our own hedging. Well, all that has changed. When I walked round the following day I could see the signs, in some places just a few black spots but in others quite serious defoliation. One huge old hedge affected, is sheltering our tunnels, both in a visual way but mainly from the wind that can roar straight down the drive. I’m hoping that if we cut it right back, clear away all the debris and mulch heavily to stop splash back, we may be able to restore it to its former glory.
The polytunnels are taking up most of my time. They have been neglected for a while and the winds over the winter have left them a bit sad and damaged. Peter has repaired the ends and now we can at least we can keep out the stray hens. We have a wedding booked for the end of May and I’m growing sweet peas in the tunnel for bouquets. I have planted them in rows about a foot in from the edge, with canes to support them. They are heavily mulched with garden compost. As an experiment I have planted strawberries along the edge of the bed. As sweet peas are legumes and therefore nitrogen fixers, my theory is that they will help feed the strawberries. The sweet peas shouldn’t shade them as they grow straight up and strawberries were originally from woodland stock so love lots of humus and mulch. I haven’t lost much if it doesn’t work, as these strawberry plants have been in pots outside the tunnel looking for a home for months and would have been thrown away anyway.
Last week I had lunch with a lovely friend, Maggie. She is a passionate and generous gardener. After cooking me a delicious lunch she brought out her boxes of seeds. We share a love of tomatoes and she has gathered from around the world lots of varieties that I hadn’t grown before. We spent the afternoon dividing packets of seeds and I came away with 22 varieties to add to the 30 I already have. So I am sowing and pricking out tomatoes. Very carefully labeling them and worrying where I am going to put them all. I love tomatoes!!