The Great Rolling Acres Tomato Disaster (and a Small Twiglet Update)
Posted: Saturday, 16 August 2008 |
Dear Reader, should you ever be tempted to succumb to the blandishments of 'free' seeds with a gardening magazine, I advise you most urgently to think once, think twice and then...DON'T!
Or at least don't plant the whole bally lot. Like Someone did. Nor should you prick your seedlings out so that they lie at the foot of a dwarf wall (lack of sunshine), nor feed recklessly, nor go away for three weeks leaving the watering to a kind friend without requesting regular window-opening.
Because, if you do all of the above, some manner of Tomato Disaster will be the end result...not to mention the mould on walls, windows, sills, floor...
This here is the lank dank jungle of allovertheplace tomato plants (did I mention they are a bushing variety? Well they are so...Gardener's Delight!)
and that orange box is the tomato food and these here are watering cans
and this here...
...is all the falling-down bits
oh and this here seems to be...A TOMATO! I want a prize, I want a prize, I found one, I found one
a veritable pyramid of juicy fruits
oops sorry fpu I didn't mean to knock one off, just wanted a wee furryhug
the future crop...isn't nature wonderful?
as me and m'Marmalade Chum were finding ourselves a bit lost in the Sunroom of Eternity, fpu decided to get in there with the machete and tame the jungle
now we can all go in and sit down again without use of map&compass
its almost too much for one purrson to eat
So, we'll not be doing that again will we fpu? *hard stare*
Twiglet Update
On to happier things. Here are Island Threads' fine Twiglets in full leaf in their fishbox and ready to move on
the first planting hole lined with soggy Stornoway Gazette
a twiglet resplendant in its new home
one day this will be a hedge protecting 6-foot fennel from vicious southerlies...purrhaps that's being a bit optimistic...but you never know.
Or at least don't plant the whole bally lot. Like Someone did. Nor should you prick your seedlings out so that they lie at the foot of a dwarf wall (lack of sunshine), nor feed recklessly, nor go away for three weeks leaving the watering to a kind friend without requesting regular window-opening.
Because, if you do all of the above, some manner of Tomato Disaster will be the end result...not to mention the mould on walls, windows, sills, floor...
This here is the lank dank jungle of allovertheplace tomato plants (did I mention they are a bushing variety? Well they are so...Gardener's Delight!)
and that orange box is the tomato food and these here are watering cans
and this here...
...is all the falling-down bits
oh and this here seems to be...A TOMATO! I want a prize, I want a prize, I found one, I found one
a veritable pyramid of juicy fruits
oops sorry fpu I didn't mean to knock one off, just wanted a wee furryhug
the future crop...isn't nature wonderful?
as me and m'Marmalade Chum were finding ourselves a bit lost in the Sunroom of Eternity, fpu decided to get in there with the machete and tame the jungle
now we can all go in and sit down again without use of map&compass
its almost too much for one purrson to eat
So, we'll not be doing that again will we fpu? *hard stare*
Twiglet Update
On to happier things. Here are Island Threads' fine Twiglets in full leaf in their fishbox and ready to move on
the first planting hole lined with soggy Stornoway Gazette
a twiglet resplendant in its new home
one day this will be a hedge protecting 6-foot fennel from vicious southerlies...purrhaps that's being a bit optimistic...but you never know.
Comments
I don't suppose your fpu needs any hints on using up surplus tomatoes, then ;-) What a jungle! How appropriate for a striped predator. Your sleek self could get lost in there. Twiglets: what are these plants (I know it was mentioned earlier but I have forgotten)? And how very clever to make them feel at home by planting them in the Stornoway Gazette! They should be shooting up to hedge size any time now with that kind of nourishment.
Jill from EK
Seeds: yes, the temptation of planting the whole blooming packet can be overwhelming. Anyway, the tomato harvest was pretty good, after all? What kind of taste did it have? aroma? earthy with a soupcon of benzine mixed with second grade truffles? Tell us!
mjc from IN,USA
Stornoway Gazette a home-from-home on Orkney? NOble effort, anyway, I think EffCee should offer some kind of encouragement to the fpu instead of thinly-veiled catnips.
Barney from Swithiod geography again
Oooh the Sunroom of Uncertainty, needed a good clean out. Is a tomato a fruit, or a vegetable? The same question could be also asked of EffCee, but not by me, of course, I wouldn't stoop that low, would I? I notice that mjc from NM USA, is no more. He is now from IN USA. Does that make mjc in with the IN-Crowd????
Tws from The Jingely-Jangely Jungle
FC is not a veggie: she never was in Maggie's cabinet. No, TWS, I don't intend to be crowded (whether in or out).
mjc from IN, USA
well - I bought surplus tomato plants from the Biology dept - at a £ a time - ka ching! - and also got some chilli n some lychees. I had to buy large pots, ka ching! and some potting compost - ka ching! then I needed many more saucers to go with large pots - ching! then I needed food for the plants - ching. so far I have 5 tomatoes! loads green ones, several dud tomato plants and a rotten chilli that all the flowers have fallen off.... but the lychees are nearly ready - but how do I know when to eat them?
scallowawife from a jungle of tomato plants
I was given three tomato plants by a friendly neighbour who had done much the same as fpu - I put them in the sunny bathroom, and they grew like Topsy, culminating in one resplendent yellow flower ... unfortunately after that, all three came down with brown spots on the leaves and had to be mulched ... :-( Don't tomato plants smell ... well ... distinctive ... not totally dissimilar from cat-wee really (sorry FC, just telling the truth!) ...
soaplady from no tomatoes then ...
I'm a cat mjc. Cats has more sense than to eat nassssty veggiessss and fruitsessss. We hatessss 'em so we does.
Flying Cat from she says they taste fine
IT calls the twiglets New Zealand Broadleaf Jill, but we keep meaning to consult the Tree Wife to see if we can get the posh name. If someone would give up digging, slashing and snipping half of Rolling Acres for mpu to take to the dump - sorry Civic Amenity Site - sorry Recycling Centre, she might have more time for serious taxonomy.
Flying Cat from on the road again
Your tomato pyramid might have won a prize in the Shapinsay Show.
Barebraes from Shapinsay
hello folks n-having problems with internet-changing operator looking at this from work----news later xxxxx's to all
carol from on nighty duty
Well FC I only keep the best of the vegs for next years seed (historical) and you can say next year healthy crop. I only plant Grosse Lisse, a proven Tomato and I am sure to you are able to keep seed for the next season, after taking a tour of rolling acrse. Regads
roy from Sofala.Oz
I love the word 'blandishments'. We aren't allowed them in Lewis without planning permission.
calum from band q brue
Didn't someone write a story about a Miss Blandishment? Did she not come from Lewis? If you're not allowed them, it might help explain the dearth of pulchritudinous burrds...or any burrds...
Flying Cat from tomatoes a bit bland-ish
It was called No Tomatoes for Miss Blandishment. And I most certainly hope, Calum, that you have no such thing in Lewis. Particularly on a Sunday.
Jill from EK
that verbiage looks as riotous as the back border to our garden. Socks has been having a rare time lurking and dashing through the undergrowth. Staff ankles are just not safe. Me, I'm staying indoors, it's way too soggy. Jill did you enjoy the thunderstorm this afternoon (19th)?
mia from in charge
FC, I thought your technologically advanced self would be able to use this wondrous interweb to discern the name of mpu's twiglets. My cursory searches indicate that if it is indeed a New Zealand Broadleaf then it will be a Griselinia of some description, though picture-wise I keep turning up variegated varieties rather than the plain sort you seem to have. Thanks to "Interactive Flora of NW Europe" I may even hazard that it could be a Griselinia littoralis. Of course I may well be wrong being but a physicist and not a botanist. Bringing to bear the full extent of my physics training, and working solely from my own modest reserves of knowledge I think I can say, without a shadow of a doubt and 100% confidently that it is a... shrub. Perhaps you could arrange them in two shrubberies with a two-level effect and a nice little path running down the middle?
bb1 from Croydonia
Griselinia littoralis. Lovely name for a plant or a lap dancer, eh?
Tiredfather from SebastopolPotWorks
i've a great crop of tomatoes this year_man with magic fingertips gave me a dozen organic plants -one variety is called "noir de crimea"" its almost black and its just delicous--also pepper plants and aubergines are all ready at the same time!! right back to the grindstone-they've all got the runs and need complete change(bed linen included) it takes about two hours just to do one round but i enjoy it!!!!
carol from still on nights
Mia, sensible kitty to stay indoors in this soggy weather we're having. The thunderstorm wasn't too bad here but the black sky was visible, also the bouncing rain. Another grim one today, eh? (Wednesday)
Jill from EK
Hi Tiredfather, good to hear you have woken up again. You are proof that there is meat (or should that be fish?) behind the doctrine of resurrection. What have you been up to? Still stranded in California, are you? # The name you quoted, by the way, is that of a famous Australian coral reef (anyone says different, Tiredfather, ignore the intervention).
mjc from IN, USA
A wet Wednesday in August. It just isn't fair. The grass squelches as soon as you look at it. Stepping on it is not to be contemplated. I don't think female staff enjoyed her journey home last night. Aquaplaning from High Blantyre all the way through to Motherwell and having to dodge idiot drivers did nothing for her temper or nerves!
mia from it's raining again
I'm a bit worried that all carol's veggies seem to have the runs. Is this a common condition for vegetables? And bed linen? Surely this is over cosseting our little plant friends!
Flying Cat from lap dancing shrubbery
Bb1, we once had a griselinia littoralis but it died. (Also, had it lived, would have been evergreen) This has something of the look of a poplar but with rather large leaves. (And is deciduous) I think we need the Tree Wife...
Flying Cat from mangled by midgies
oh my what a jungle good to see it bearing some fruit, I do not know the proper name for New Zealand broadleaf, I received a cutting and was told that name the person who gave it me was originally given a cutting and the name so doesn't know proper name, FC warn your fpu not to put the cuttings too near the fennel or the fennel will be growing up throught the NZbl, it is a shrub but can grow like a small tree, I'll take a photo of my still growing 'cuttings!' bb1 thanks for the real name will have to look it up,
island threads from lewis
FC, do fpu and mpu realise that they may shortly be in contravention of new EU Directives unless they cease referring to their habitat as 'Rolling Acres' ...? I realise that 'Rolling Hectares' does not have quite the same ring to it, but we don;t really have much choice in these things, do we ... :-)
soaplady from just trying to be helpful ...
Oh dear. We'll just have to change it then.
Flying Cat from Heaving Hectares
I think they're already in breach of the Trade Descriptions Act anyway, Soaplady, as I find it hard to believe that Anorak Towers actually has a tower of any kind...
Jill from EK
Oh ye of little faith (or none...)!
Flying Cat from where's Fred when you need him?
Having been a recipient of the fpu's generous donation of bushing tomato plants, I have managed to get them to grow to over 6 feet tall, but without a blessed flower or fruit to show. Been feeding the wrong stuff I think, tons of foliage, nae flooers. have also grown all my tatties in a bag this year, to dave on digging, haven't checked them yet.
Jeelie Piece from Tomato-less Towers
Wonderful crop of tomato plants you have there--like Flying Cat I also have a few tomato plants and I hates them too, but luckily the neighbors enjoy them...
thelovelyOutlander from dreaming of Highlands and Islands...
I hope size doesn't matter. The tomatoes - all three dozen of them - are ripening, but not getting any bigger. The tiniest so far would sit nicely on a 5p piece...
Flying Cat from admiring mia's riotous verbiage!
Jeelie, I suggest you dig the soil under the gifted tomato plants to a depth of six-seven feet. When the plants get to slightly below ground level, cover with clay and STOMP. There may be easier ways to deal with those flowerless plants, but I fear they may well be state secrets. Send pics of the tomato plants graveyarding.
mjc from IN, USA
as i said all my plants are producing lovely,lovely veggies,what a glut(musn't grumble) the "runs "i mentioned were patients not the plants fc--behave yourself!!glad to be back online;folks
carol from enjoying a day off
The diary entries of an averagely intelligent feline and his Marmalade Chum.
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