Tuesday, May 17, 2011

The Great Tomato Caper - Part 2

So I have been waiting for the Second Pumpkin-of-Hope to ripen before I could get on with The Great Tomato Caper. Part 1 is here.  Long story short; am planting self-seeded tomatoes as my main crop of tomatoes, and doing it months earlier than I usually would. (Wacky and radical me, sometimes I can barely stand it).
Second Pumpkin of Hope has ripened - Princess Zuzu is still not amused
Called Pumpkin of Hope because after garden annihilated by weather in late Jan, pumpkin sprang up on its own and produced two pumpkins
I moved the self-seeded tomatoes from their various locations, stuck them in the end of one of the veggie beds, and left them to see who survived (everybody).
Getting somewhat crowded
My tomato bed is actually two beds.  In the left one I cleared out the tatty remains of the pumpkin and dug it over.  In the right one I dug in the green manure that was growing there, with a few handfuls of leaves.  It'll be interesting to see the difference between the bed with the extra 'nutrition' and the one that just got replanted.
Why yes, the swimming pool is bright green again
Then I planted out my overcrowded tomatoes and mulched (yes it keeps the soil temperature low, but its so dry/windy at the moment that I chose mulch to try and keep in some moisture - also hides weeds)
Now to see if they survive the winter
So that's the tomatoes sorted out.  Tick.

:)

2 people love me:

KTMelbourne said...

(Hi, mid-term reader via EB, thanks for the blog, aka little reassuring shining light of insanity) I'm amazed by this tomatoes over Winter business - I just pulled my self-seeded tomatoes, assuming that the late tomatoes wouldn't ripen (we're in Melbourne) and the plants wouldn't survive. Now you're going to have to update on this anon! Please.

Caitlyn Nicholas said...

LOL, thanks KT!!  Promise to update it, whether it succeeds or fails.   Climate wise I'm about 30kms north of Sydney, and we get about one frost a year - which is why I'm hoping this will work.  We tend to lose our tomato plants to wilt around November each year, so if they do make it through winter I'm hoping I can get the season going earlier and get more than our paltry 5kgs of fruit we got this year.