What I’m Doing
As part of my food growing internship, I am focusing on organic and permaculture methods of food growing. I aim to create beautiful and productive food growing spaces that benefit the environment and wildlife around them.
Selling our produce
Currently, I am selling two types of tomato, a bush variety and a cordon. The cordon is ‘Tigerella’ a lovely medium sized tomato in red and yellow stripes, and the bush is one that I grew with seeds I took from a tomato my dad had. Since I don’t know the name of this variety and my father’s name is Tom, I have nicknamed these ‘Big Daddy Toms.’ What I do know is that they are a relatively large and prolific heritage variety in dark red and greenish-purple stripes and they are very, very tasty.
Later in the season, I will also be selling pots of purple and green basil, ‘Aristotle’ bush basil, salad trays, amaranthus (love lies bleeding)and various other herbs including parsley and chives. You can find these plant sales both outside The Pines Garden Tearoom and at the back of the garden in the food growing area.
Outdoor tomato care
Both the Tigerella and the Big Daddy Toms are suitable for growing outdoors and have been fully hardened. The tigerella tomatoes are cordon, which means they will need some kind of support and the side shoots will require regular pinching out. The Big Daddy Toms being bush variety, however, means they can be left more or less to their own devices, and all you’ll need to do is water and harvest them.
When watering tomatoes try to avoid getting the stems and leaves wet as plants hate this. When planting out aim to plant up to the first set of leaves; the buried stem will form new roots and make your tomato grow stronger. Try planting with marigolds, basil, borage or nasturtium. These flowers will not only attract pollinators but also ward off some pests!
