Annual tomato brag 2016

Well, luckily, I set myself up last year, so that this year, my bragging about tomatoes wouldn't take so long.

Refer to last year's post for the template, then insert this year's data, as follows:

DATA 2016

tomatoes

small

edible

not growing very many

kept calm and carried on

very small tomato sandwiches

Annual tomato brag

Every year I do this. I grow tomatoes, I show off. Since it's an annual posting, why don't I just make up a form? Then each year, I can post the appropriate data, and we can all get on with it. So, please read the post, and fill in the appropriate data from the table below. In future posts, I'll only need to post the data.

VEGETABLE APPRECIATION BLOG POST

Hey, guys, I grew some [vegetable]. Don't they look [quality]? One of them is even [better quality]. I had some trouble with [pest type], but I just [remedy type]. I can't wait to make some [dish using vegetable].

DATA 2015

tomatoes

juicy

ripe already

caterpillars

sprayed with pyrethrum

bruschetta

That's funny...

... I don't remember planting tomatoes this year. This one plant popped up again from last year. And while we were away in Perth, our lovely house minder watered them and kept them happy!

The 2013 tomato harvest

Some of this year's tomato harvest. The box at the bottom were all harvested today!

My lunch is tomato, basil and pasta salad tomorrow.

Cos it turns out I'm awesome at growing basil too. This year, anyway.

Annual tomato boast post

Stand by - I have to tell you how well I'm growing tomatoes this year, in spite of being terribly busy, and not much of a gardener to start with.

This year I'm growing three varieties - Tigerellas that popped up from last year, Romas that I bought in seedling form from Bunnings, and (um) one other kind. The tigerellas have thinned out a bit in the heat, but there are plenty there. The romas are going mad! And that third variety has yielded some, but nothing's started to ripen yet. So, plenty of nice salads to come.

Another tomato update

Do you remember this year's tomato plant? It popped up just weeks after the tomatoes for last year finished, an eager recruit from one of last year's seeds.

Sadly for that little plant, it decided to start growing BEFORE winter, so it was a long, cold wait for the sun. During that time it got broken in half by a hail storm, and then killed again by a pelican falling on it (really).

However, it weathered all that, made it to spring, and now to summer. And just look at it!

And there are tomatoes too! The plant's positively dripping with them!

I planted some new plants this year too, but this is the most impressive so far.

Tomato Plant update

This heroic tomato plant has been killed twice already, once by a hail storm, and once by a pelican. However, it has recovered and is well on the way to growing big and strong.

How do I break it to this brave little soldier that it's actually just the start of winter now?

I've managed to cage the pelican so it can't harm the little guy any more.

My tomato plant's been attacked by a PELICAN!

A tomato plant popped up in one of my outdoor pots, grown from a seed from last season. I took it into the window box and grew it to a good size, then replanted it in a big pot of its own.

A few days later we had HAIL, and the plant got broken in half. BUT IT SURVIVED! New growth appeared, and it seems that the broken stem was not completely broken. I put a trellis around it to encourage it to grow well.

Everything was going well until this morning when it got attacked by a pelican. I'll let you know if it survives this one!

This year's tomatoes

This year I'm growing Tigerella tomatoes (check the link to see what Diggers Club says about them).

I bought eight healthy seedlings at a school fete in October, and planted them in big pots on Melbourne Cup Day (that's when Melbournite have to plant tomatoes, you know).

They survived us going away, and being watered by our lovely neighbour. They've been watered by the kids a few times (trying to get them into the habit - it's not a hard chore). And now each day I'm picking a few more of these gorgeous stripy tomatoes. Total cost of project, now that I have tall the pots and trellisses - about $4.