Surprise tomatoes

Several months ago my wife bought some flower plants at the church fete. 

Imagine my surprise when some tomato plants appeared in the same pot! They are starting to become real tomatoes!

Home grown tomatoes

Most years I grow some tomatoes at home. I am sure that buying them from a supermarket is cheaper and less hassle. 

However, I like the smell and the taste always seems better if you grow them yourself.

I wish mine looked like these seen at the nearby village of Lode.

Patio

Every summer I grow tomatoes. It is probably far easier and cheaper just to buy them in the supermarket, but I like the smell and fun. We have plants growing in pots too. Sadly, until these last few days we have not had the weather to enjoy them.

Green tomatoes - NOT amateur radio

This year, we have had a good crop of tomatoes. I have now dug them up and those that don't turn red will come for green tomato chutney.

See https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/green-tomato-chutney .

Homegrown tomatoes - NOT amateur radio

For some reason, tomatoes grown yourself always taste better! 

With the tomato bags, feed etc, I am sure they cost more than at the local supermarket, but they smell and taste great. These are some of the first this year.

Tomatoes - NOT amateur radio

My home grown tomatoes were successful this year and I shall definitely grow more next year.  The position was in the sun, but sheltered. 

The same place will be used next year.

We have dark cold nights until then!

Home grown tomatoes - NOT amateur radio

This year we had 2 tomato bags and these are the tomatoes that were left at the end. I love the smell. Those that stay green will probably be used for chutney. Overall, we probably had at least as many again.  

We also grew runner beans for the first time this year as they have attractive flowers on the way.

First Tomato - NOT amateur radio

 

A few days ago we harvested our first tomato. We hope this is the first of many.

Tomatoes - NOT amateur radio

Earlier in the summer a friend gave us two tomato plants that we put in a trough in the sun. Apart from watering we have done nothing to them. We had already collected quite a few ripe tomatoes and given some away, but we had a lot more when we got back from our holiday. Perhaps we would have had even more had we done the right things! Anyway, for the effort put in (zero) we did pretty well.

Tomatoes - NOT amateur radio

We are definitely not experts in growing tomatoes!

The smaller ones on the right were red ripe today, so these were picked. The larger ones on the left are still green. This picture was taken more than a week ago before they had ripened.

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato

Tomatoes - NOT amateur radio

To be honest, I am no plant expert. Yesterday our son Tim came to see us. He took back to London the tomatoes our granddaughter grew. We expected these to turn red, but they stayed green. Maybe this is a variety that is meant to stay green? This is our son with my wife Lis outside our home.