Tomatoes

Self seeding, 

In bloom zig zag

Zig zag wattle

The lone winter rose

Hangin with all his mates

The lone winter rose

Hangin with all his mates

Arum lilly and monestrea

Cauliflowers

Comin along nicely

Zig zag in flower (already?)

I'm sure they're early, but this guy is always early.

Beautiful

Caterpillar pests

These little c***s are eating all the Pom poms from the zig zag wattle, seriously guys, f*** off!

Cauliflower

These guys have been attacked by everything in the last couple of months, caterpillar, white flys, some yuck grey bugs, but they keep on fighting, keep up the good work caulis!

Winter Tomatoes?

So, I've left this, not so little anymore, guy stay over winter, he popped up where I was, unsuccessfully, trying to grow onions.

He's staying low to the ground, maybe for extra warmth.

There's are half a dozen flowers on him, could I be in for some winter tomatoes?

Out with the old and in with the newcleus

No time to get sentimental about the tomatoes, sure they're all gone now and I may not eat another tomato until Christmas time, but you've gotta move on, the only this you get from looking back is a sore neck....which would go nicely with my sore back that I've got from all the digging and planting I've been up to.

This heat at the moment is great for getting my seedlings up and away.

I grew them all from seed in my mini greenhouse, and now they're out in the big bad world, good luck little guys!

(Snow peas, spinach, edamame, beetroot and cauliflowers). I also planted fennel, but I don't reckon it will grow so no photos.

The life and times of this years tomatoes....to music!

David Bowie x Heirloom Tomato

https://www.facebook.com/mark.lavery.3720/posts/10153807034721154

The wrap up

So we had quite a few varieties this year, tomatoes im talkin about, each to their varying degrees of successfulness

Siberian - 5/10 , peaked early but lacked taste.

Purple Cherokee - 6.5/10, took ages, and no yield, but taste was great.

Roma - 7/10, high yield, great taste, made a lot of sauce from these guys.

Green Zebra - 7/10, high yield, good taste, hard to tell when ripe though, being green and all.

Estonian Ox Heart - 7.5/10, decent yield, great taste, unique shape and colour

Cherry - 8.5/10, so many of these little buggers, and so tastey!

Little Sweeties - 9/10, hundreds and hundreds of mini tomatoes, never been so good, so sweet and so tastey, what a tomato!

I don't think I'll try the Siberians again, just not enough flavour, too much like a super market tomato, and taste is what it's all about! 

I've got a big bowl full of tomatoes and a freezer full of sauce, so my tomato days ain't over just yet.

aaaaand were done

Final tomato harvest...😥

Tomato season over

So we've had a pretty good run, as you can see there are still a few Sweeties hangin in there, but these tomatoes are done. I've ripped most out, and now it's time to strip whatever's left and make way for the autumn/winter crops.

Probably one of the best tomato seasons I've had, 60 plants in total, 8 varieties, litres of sauce in the freezer and hundreds of tomatoes on toast....boy it's been a wild ride!

Pumpkins

So I only got 2 pumpkins this year, pretty lame, but will be enough to whip up some soup some time this week.

Not sure what the variety is, might have to google it, might just be an 'Australian Grey' but they are quite wrinkly. Who knows!?

Pumpkins

Not sure exactly what variety this is, so can't really say when it's ready, but it looks good!

Sweeties on toast.

Eating time

This is what it's all for!!

The bush is back

Now I've copped a lot of criticism about the way I grow tomatoes, I've been guilty of not trimming the suckers off enough, not keeping things in order.  I tried this year to make it better, I removed every sucker I could find, but then I went away for a couple of weeks and came back to a tomato forest.....BUT! I've since worked out that it does have advantages. I seem to have just as much yield as previous years, the difference is that all the tomatoes are hidden in the bush, so pesky animals (and even peskier old ladies who live in my block with an appetite for home grown tomatoes) can't see them, it's not until you have a close look that you notice hundreds of green tomatoes, nicely ripening up (in the shade  of the bush no less!).

It might not look as "cultivated", but I'm very impressed, no more harvesting green tomatoes in case someone steals them!

Little sweeties

The worlds smallest and sweetest tomatoe, they're tiny! I'd say about 1/10th the size of a standard cherry tomatoe.

Have heaps on the vines, just need s bit of ripening:)

First Ox Heart of the season

I havent tried these ones before, the seeds were secreted in from Europe (oooohhh, woooow, Europe), but they love it down under, probably my best performing variety, they seem to grow quite tall and thin, with little sucker maintenance required, these will definitely be back next year. More of a pinkish colour, and very tasty, nicer than the siberians...:)

Tomato toast time

Time to start eating these little beauts.

Green zebra and Siberian red tomatoes, yum!!

Happy new year pumpkins!

So the holidays are over and the garden has survived the heat and the wind, and after a little searching I've found a couple of nice heirloom pumpkins hiding in the vines...not sure what sort they are as I had a mixed bag of heirloom seeds, they look good though! :)