Tomato time!

I was a little lazy, or restrictive if you will, with my tomatoes this year. I was hoping for a little less work, a little less must-harvest-all-the-veg anxiety, and a slightly more attractive greenhouse. But as is usually the case (I am learning) with gardening, things didn't really turn out that way...

This year's toms (2 of each) were:

Delicious Super Sweet cherry tomatoes. Will definitely grow again
next year, but next time 4 instead of 2 plants.

Somewhat unattractive Maskotka large cherry tomato plant. The tomatoes
are very tasty, particularly for their size, but I didn't know that they were
bush tomatoes - I could have grown them in front of other, taller plants.

I haven't actually tasted these yet, but I am very surprised that they turned out
identical to the fruits from which I saved the seeds - my favourite shop bought
plum tomatoes - I'm getting used to seeds being a bit of a lottery. Could have
had another plant or two, space-wise.

Work-wise I guess I saved a bit of work in the spring, sowing, repotting, mollycoddling, moving plants in and out, etc. But after that, I have still had to water and fertilize the entire greenhouse so it wouldn't really have made that much difference. Perhaps pinching out the side shoots etc, but how long does that take? So. Verdict? Six plants is too few. Perhaps 8-10 is about right... I guess I'll find out next year.

Harvest-wise, I am actually harvesting almost all the tomatoes before they split, rot, drop this year. If I do have more plants next year, it will be to store them. Here are some foodie photos of a few tomato harvests:

Super Sweet - and they really are!

Maskotka - whopper cherries.

Fabulously juicy, red red fruits. You can see the difference in size
between the Maskotka - bottom right hand corner, and the Super
Sweet - just above it to the left.

So that just leaves the pretty.

I was really hoping for a pretty, neat and tidy greenhouse this year, with lots of flowers and no dirty tools, pots, fertilizers.

I imagined myself sitting there with friends, sipping on a glass of chilled champagne, admiring the tidy greenhouse, the pretty flowers, the flourishing, healthy plants...

Haaaaaa ha ha ha haaaaaa...

Well I guess I did get a lot of flowers (I sowed marigolds around the edge of the border as I was told they were good bug-preventers), and they GREW like crazy. But I wouldn't say it was pretty this year.

My tool shed is just that bit too far from the greenhouse, and I'm just a bit too lazy.

Perhaps I should just accept the fact that (without a lot of effort and discipline) a working greenhouse can't look like they do in the magazines...?

Happy harvesting!
:)