Tom-ay-to. Tom-ar-to in My Gardening Year

We have just had this weekend our first sizeable harvest of tomatoes.

This year we have a sizable crop of some 40 heirloom types.

All shapes sizes and tastes. All growing a little different to each other. Some fruiting prolifically. Some barely produced a single fruit

We've spent months tending to them. From seed little more than paper dust we potted on and moved them into our newly purchased and erected greenhouse. Nature fought us and send us gales that pushed the greenhouse off its base. Tomatoes on their sides with many labels out. We put everything back. And carried on.

Their growth was amazingly fast and furious. We were cought between the winter crops still producing well and the need to remove them and get ready for the summer plants

And then nature really went for it. When the flowers opened it rained. When the rain stopped humid winds ripped around us.

Then the blight and mildew found the garden. And we stayed with our organic principles as much as possible and sprayed our organic sprays

And now we are here. Harvesting. Not the record breaking harvest we'd hoped for. But plenty for our needs.

C