The Nifty Little Tomato Trick

I love tomatoes, I love growing them, and I love eating them.  To me, nothing tastes as good as a homegrown tomato, sliced, sprinkled with a little salt, between two slices of wholemeal bread.  I have my hanging basket of Tumbling Toms, which I do every year.  In my greenhouse I have three different varieties that I've never grown before, that I bought from a car boot sale when we were in Whittington.  I don't know what made me think about it, but I was thinking about suckers, which are the little shoots that come off the plant, between the stem and the leaves.  Opinion is divided but general consensus is that you should pull these off.  As I was reading up on it, I saw that you could grow a new tomato plant from the suckers.  Just stick them in a glass of water for about a week, and it grows roots.  Pot on.  Bingo!  As I was reading this article though, I saw another little trick.  Someone had grown a massive... bush is the best word I can use to describe it.  They'd put a plastic waste paper bin, with holes drilled in the bottom, and near the top, buried into the ground, with the top layer of holes just showing.  A couple of shovels of compost in the bin.  Around it, they planted four tomato plants, in a NSEW position.  Put canes and wire around to contain the plants.  Within a space of a month, it was just one big mass of tomatoes.  You pour the water into the centre 'well' and it waters above and below the soil.  Today Mr G had a crack at a slightly amended version today.

We didn't plant into the ground as our soil isn't that great, plus space is getting less and less in our garden!  We bought a big pot, a smaller pot and three well established tomato plants, as it was a slightly smaller space than if it was being planted directly into the soil.

Large pot filled with compost, and a smaller pot embedded in the middle

Tomato plants planted, spaced apart, and canes and wire added to secure the plants in place

  

Put in a sunny spot, see the water in the inner 'well'

So, that was today's gardening job, most other things having to go on hold for over a week because *someone* forgot to put the green bin out and it is rammed...  I can't wait to see if it works, the one I saw online was pretty impressive.  I'll update in a month.  Let's just hope the weather stays this good!