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| Go greener |
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| With a growing number of gardeners eschewing chemicals in favour of natural alternatives, we can suggest some effective products from our organic gardening selection |
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| Relax and refresh |
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| Good food freshly prepared daily, aromatic coffee, chilled wine and a grassy play area for the children. What more could you need? |
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| Food heaven |
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| Our Farm Shop is heaven for food lovers! Delicious handmade food, top quality groceries, fresh fruit and vegetables and stylish cookware and gifts. |
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| The Discovery Walk |
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| As thousands of daffodils herald the spring, stroll or stride around our Walk while the youngsters enjoy the Nature Trail |
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You say tomato, we say…fantastic!
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| Thursday, 3rd April 2008 |
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IN THE GARDEN WITH PETA MARSHALL
Fancy a slice of love apple? This is the old English name for the humble tomato, given to it in the belief that it was an aphrodisiac. Whether it is or not – and I couldn’t possibly comment – it is certainly a favourite ingredient of mine.
Without it about three quarters of all savoury dishes would be missing a vital – and colourful – ingredient.
So what is it that makes the tomato so essential?
Nutrition: To start with, tomatoes are full of goodness, containing calcium and vitamin C. A study has found that people in Northern Italy who ate seven or more servings of raw tomato per week had up to 60% less chance of developing certain types of cancer compared to individuals who ate two servings or less. There are also indications that tomatoes may play a role in the prevention of heart disease, high cholesterol, and fatty deposits in the arteries. That’s good enough for me!
Taste: Tomatoes are so variable in taste. A fresh tomato pulled off the vine and eaten straight away will be as different to a tin of sun-ripened Italian plum tomatoes as you could ever get. And yet both are distinctive and have a place in our cuisines. A Greek salad without chopped tomato would lack taste and substance, just as would a spaghetti bolognese not containing a decent dollop of plum tomatoes.
‘Connoisseurs’ will tell you if a tomato tastes ‘sweet’, ‘extra sweet’, ‘tart’ ‘acid’, ‘rich’, ‘mild’, ‘delicate’, ‘strong’ and so on. As with wine, you should sample some different types, know their names, and when you find one that suits your palette, go back to it.
Appearance: Depending on the type of meal, tomatoes can give it a warm, wintry appeal, or a bright, zingy freshness. Any sauce with a Provençale tag will be rich in tomato flavour (and usually be reddish in colour); salads tend to be quite ‘green’ without tomatoes (even though radishes and red or yellow so peppers make good salad colour, they are no substitute for taste).
But this is a gardening column, so how do we grow tomatoes? They’re actually relatively easy (as long as you follow a few basic rules).
Sow some seeds this weekend for plants to crop this summer (or wait a few more weeks and buy young plants from the garden centre – but don’t hang around as they have quite a short selling period).
If you’re sowing seed, make sure it is sown thinly into trays or pots filled with a seed-sowing compost. Cover the seed lightly, and keep it moist, but not wet. Place them somewhere where the temperature can be kept at a fairly constant 17°C (65°F).
When the seedlings have formed a pair of true leaves rather than the first little round seed leaves, transplant them (known as ‘pricking them out’) individually into 7cm (3in) pots filled with potting compost. Hold the little seedlings delicately by their leaves, not their stems – for if a leaf is damaged the seedling will usually produce another, but if the stem is damaged it will probably die. Water the seedlings into their new pots, using a watering can with a fine rose end, and keep the pots somewhere warm (greenhouse is ideal, or a bright kitchen windowsill but make sure you turn the plants daily or they will grow lopsided towards the light).
Then, when the plants get to around 20cm (8in) tall, plant them into a growing bag or out in the garden soil.
But be warned: don’t plant them out young tomato plants – whether home-sown or shop-bought – until all danger of frost is over.
There are four golden rules when it comes to getting tomatoes to grow successfully:
1. Never let the plants dry out, as this can cause young, unripe fruits to split open, as well as encourage a disease called blossom end rot.
2. Tie in the plants regularly. A supporting frame is available for plants growing in bags, or simple canes can be used for plants growing in the soil.
Tomato fruits can become very heavy as they swell, so it is important that plants are well supported.
3. ‘Sideshoot’ regularly. Little shoots appear where the leaf stalks join the stem, and if you allow these to grow they’ll divert the plant’s energy from producing the fruits into producing more green stems.
4. Once planted out, feed the plants weekly with a tomato fertiliser – there are lots of brands available. Make sure you use one that is specially formulated for tomatoes, however, as it will be high in potash which promotes flowering and fruit production – just what these plants need.
Finally, there’s the question about whether the tomato is a fruit or a vegetable! I say it’s a vegetable – you don’t keep tomatoes in a fruit bowl, but you do you eat them in savoury dishes with other vegetables. OK, yes, botanically it may be a ‘fruit’, but so are peppers, courgettes, marrows, cucumbers and all the members of the pea and bean family – and they don’t live in fruit bowls either! There, I’ve said my piece! Happy gardening!
This week in your garden
Greenfly and blackfly will be colonising young shoot tips of many plants. Spray now to curb future generations of the pest, but do it at dusk, when pollinating insects have gone to bed!
Summer fruiting raspberry canes must be fastened securely to wires to prevent wind rock.
The quality of the water in your pond is important now, so if you have an ultra violet filter or clarifier, turn it back on after its winter rest, to reduce unwanted green water algae.
Peta Marshall is the plant centre manager at Priory Farm in Nutfield. Website: www.prioryfarm.co.uk
NEXT WEEK: What makes a cottage garden?
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