Three little green tomatoes .

Hmm, Monty Don blamed the people looking after his tomatoes for black tomatoes because they overwatered them (I think) while he was on holiday. Maybe he should have said ‘thank you for bothering’ instead of blaming them publicly on TV. My green-fingered neighbour had loads of beautiful red tomatoes this year.

I do think that our seasons have become topsy-turvy .
I have several rhododendrons.
All of them bloomed in May except my Cunninghans white -now in flower .
The others have set their buds for May .
I wonder if the weather affects tomatoes.
But I admit that I'm a failure at growing them .

It is strange. Here in Bucks I have had so many tomatoes this year, we are still eating them. As long as they are watered and fed it is very easy. The outdoor onesI staked once, fed them twice and had trusses of plum tomatoes. It was a long hot growing period which they like. Bottom end rot usually is caused by erratic watering. Little and often wins the day. I have had bad years but on,y when there has been little sun.

My veg this year have been a huge disappointment. I've been doing this hobby for abt 12 years and it's always hit and miss - but this year was the worst ever. The birds dug up half my onion sets (the rest were fine) and the carrots were all bent and twisted. The strawbs got botrytis, the bush tomatoes (three plants) produced almost nothing and the "proper" ones got blossom-end rot. The baby cukes were okay but stopped producing very early on, and I've had almost no runner beans. Why? No idea. Oh, even the courettes were miserable.

Toms, courgettes and the cuke are all in huge pots (as usual) and well watered and fed. I despair.

I enjoy listening to Monty Don wax lyrical about gardens ,but my relatives hate him .
He complained the council about their unsightly polytunnels .
They are farmers and market gardeners and it's their bread and butter.
Perhaps-at the risk of being called a daft Londoner I should ask them !

Get in.touch with Monty Don at Gardeners World.

I was given 4 different tomato plants early summer. I bought a growbag stuck them in and have had loads of lovely tomatoes. I watered them frequently and used tomato feed.

I still have lots of green ones which I don’t suppose will ripen now so I have put some in brown paper bag with an apple and they soon ripen.

We’ve had a great year for tomatoes, in and out of the greenhouse. There were two self sown plants that did exceptionally well, I only pulled them up tiday.

This year I bought two hanging baskets, ready planned with tumbling cherry tomatoes.

I sat them on my patio table in the sun, watered and fed them.

They produced loads!
There's still some on them now that I ought to bring indoors.

Growing vegetables is something I now leave to the professionals, but I respect and admire the allotment-holders I know.
Thanks for the inspiration Perhaps I'll have a go at some tomatoes next year

It sounds easy growing tomatoes but it isn't really.
Many many years ago my ex and I had a greenhouse and had good crops of tomatoes. However they didn't always ripen an we were usually left with a load of green tomatoes. Green tomato chutney anyone/
Haven't grown anything for many years but this year my mini olive tree produced one tiny olive. If the ''tree'' survives the winter maybe next year I will get two.!

We've just had one plant on our balcony this year which a friend gave me in May. I had it in a tomato pot sitting in a bowl of water and have had a really good crop. We've still got a couple of decent sized tomatoes coming on the plant so will have one every couple of days I suppose.
I never have understood why some years are good and others bad, but usually use growbags and the pot has worked much better.

I only grew one plant this year because tomatoes take up a lot of space in my greenhouse and are labour and water intensive but I love the smell and taste of home grown.
I have a few ripening in a paper bag in a kitchen drawer!

Errata -managed not manged !