Winter tomatoes

I was able to source some seeds for winter-growing tomatoes.  I planted them back in January and have now planted the seedlings out.  Some are in this bed in the greenhouse, which I part-filled using the no-dig layering method.  Others I have planted in the vegetable garden.  I am skeptical about the future of the outside ones, given the frosts we have here in the valley.  

No-dig garden.

Layer one:  several layers of overlapped newspaper.

Wet each layer well as it is added.

Layer Two:  straw

Layer Three: animal manure.

Layers Four, Five, Six (as many as you want): repeat of previous layers.

Each seedling is planted in compost, nestled in the top straw layer and watered in well with seaweed extract.

The smell

When I went in to water in the Fat Fruit Greenhouse yesterday, my nose was assailed by an unmistakable smell...

ripe melon!

It was so ripe, it had begun to split.

Inside it was juicy, sweet and full of flavour.

 Unfortunately, it was a bit on the small size.  There is a lesson to be learned for the gardener here.  There were two melon plants in a large pot. Although well watered, they were not often fed.  Pollinators had trouble finding the flowers inside the greenhouse.






So next time I will:

• Have one plant to a pot
• Feed weekly with fish emulsion and seaweed extract (alternate weeks)
• Get to work with a small paint brush to pollinate the flowers.

Pictures say it all

I do have to add, these were crisp and sweet as they looked.

I could also say, 

these are only two of a parade from the greenhouse.

And, I suppose it goes without saying;

Capsicums adore growing

in a greenhouse.

Do I need a greenhouse in Summer?

With all the lovely warm weather the whole vegetable garden 

has grown amazingly and is lush and fruitful.

So why bother with a greenhouse?

Well, because the fruit in the greenhouse is

BIGGER...

and PERFECT

They have no blemishes...

 and no bugs have found them.

Fat Fruit - biggest and best!

I am pleased to announce the arrival

of the first tomato of the season

- Grosse Lisse

delivered safely by the Fat Fruit Greenhouse.

Sister for Capsicum and Chilli.

The facts are:

• Two tomatoes were picked.
• The larger one on the left was from the Fat Fruit Greenhouse the other out of the garden.
• Both plants were grafted Grosse Lisse planted at the same time.
• The Greenhouse delivered the larger fruit and the plant has lots more good sized fruit on it already.
• The plant in the garden, although coming a dead heat in the race for first fruit, provided a smaller specimen AND has no other fruit set.

So the Green house wins...

AGAIN!

Delicious, sweet little Broad Ripple Tomatoes.

More capsicums on the way.

These seeds germinated in two days!

More than just 'green'!

You would expect to see green in a GREEN-house...

this photo is taken from the outside.  

That's a watermelon vine plotting an escape...

...and the GREEN leaves of the cantaloupe which is threatening a take-over.

But there are other colours too.  

Like the MAUVE of the eggplant/aubergine flower...

 

... the YELLOW of the ripening Broad Ripple tomatoes.

 The BLACK Pearl Chilli is living up to its name.

 ...and the excitement of ORANGE 

on a ripening Grosse Lisse tomato.  

The first for the season.

And my favourite...RED!  

(This one has already been eaten...sweet!)

But not to worry, the WHITE and GREEN in these photos 

give promise of more to come.

 

Fat fruit in the Fat Fruit!

 I went away for three weeks and left the greenhouse and garden in the hands of someone who is definitely not a gardener.  She managed to keep everything alive.  Some of the plants in the greenhouse were not so green or so lush on my return.  However, check these babies out!

One capsicum is blushing...

and there are more on the way...

...and the tomatoes growing and beginning to ripen.

To have tomatoes this mature at this time of the year 

in my climate is very unusual.

As for the capsicums...they usually take until 

well into January to even set fruit. 

So to have them ripening already 

is nothing short of amazing.

I love my

Fat Fruit Greenhouse!