I had such grand plans of taking regular pictures of my patch as it grew but alas, December rolled around (as many call it here, the 'silly season'), and it was all I could do to keep up with the watering.
This is my raised bed this week:
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Starting out I meant to try Serious Pruning with only 2-3 stems neatly staked. However, see above re: Christmas/getting away from me. When I got my breath in Jan I decided to remove the lower leaves, terminate any stems escaping the bed and call it a day.
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I just can't bear to remove any nicely loaded trusses. After all, the poor plant has gone to so much trouble to get them that far
The plants in the bed are all looking healthy, although the second batch took AGES to get going (transplant shock?) and the green zebra in the front left has only really started growing properly in the last month - hard to see in the pic but it's less than a quarter of the size of the other plants.
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The two leftover seedlings were shoved into the chookyard and seem to be doing ok. The soil is good there but there's not as much sun. The little wooden squares have stopped the chickens from scratching at the roots and they don't seem at all interested in the fruit. I thought both of these were green zebras but one is obviously mislabeled and I suspect a Cherokee Purple.
I do have one sickly plant which is my Mortgage Lifter:
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No idea what is wrong with it but it was sickly from the beginning, appeared to recover for a while before planting out, and then possibly didn't care for my smallish pot full of garden soil mixed with crap potting mix. Fussy little thing
There's a pink fruit on there now so hopefully will get a few ripe tomatoes before it goes to god. If we like the taste, I think a tomato this size might be better in the raised bed for next year.
Cole Robbie - you were right, those cages are useless. Falling over before I even had any ripe fruit.
(Ginger, that is the second lovely message you have sent me urging me to connect with Geoffrey and I am ashamed to admit I haven't done it! Forgive me. He posts on an Australian gardening forum I also visit and I have seen the evidence of his very early tomatoes. I def. need to learn from him
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