Care and Growing Tomatoes in your Garden.

With 1000's of varieties of tomatoes available who doesn't like the red juicy flavours, weather you eat it off the vine, add to a salad or even make sauces for any occasion and they should be in every garden.

Tomatoes...

Whilst these following steps won't see your tomatoes going rough like the 1978 Movie "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" they will cause havoc to your taste buds. What's better than fresh produce grown directly at home!

So lets get Red and Dig In!

1. Where to plant - Tomatoes love sun, and the more the better for these bright and beautiful little fella's. So if you are planting in the garden or in pots on the patio, be sure that they receive at least 6 hours of full sun per day. This is crucial to their health and growing. Once you have located your spot, its time to prep the soil. If you are planting in pots be sure to use a high quality potting mix from your local store, however, if you are planting in garden beds now is the time to spend a little effort and get it ready. Before planting seedlings, mix some organic matter through the soil with a fork, such as compost or even well broken down chicken manure this will ensure the plants will have plenty of...hmmm, delicious nutrients to absorb. We don't want them to go hungry now do we... Additionally, you can add a small amount of quality slow release fertilizer if you like.
2. Planting time, pull out the excavator and dig Deep. Now there is no hard and fast rule to planting tomatoes, though  a good rule of thumb is a nice deep hole and approximately 50cm apart so that they have plenty of room to grow. When planting seedlings remove the bottom few leaves and dig in the stem, this will encourage the plant to grow new roots creating a strong foundation and larger root system so they can be stronger and also absorb all that chicken manure that you have mixed through the soil.
3. Mulch and water - now that we have located the spot, prepped the gardens/pots and planted deep, its time to Mulch and water. Mulch your babies well with a clean quality mulch, not only will this keep a nice consistent moisture for the tomatoes, it will also suppress the weeds. Once they are all mulched, its time to give them a drink. I like to recommend a seaweed tonic initially, as this helps avoid transplant shock and stimulates growth, however water is just fine. A thorough watering will get them underway and before you know it there will be fruit for your labour.
4. The next step is to be creative, even though we have planted deep, and they will develop strong roots and stems, we still need to support the plants. You can spend massive amounts of money on special cages/frames etc but the best way is to use what you have laying around. From chicken wire, stakes or even parts of the rusty old swing set out back. Create frames and trestles from just about anything as long as it can  support your tomatoes to grow on.  This part is fun, think outside the box and come up with something bizarre and interesting, why not old bike wheels?.. so which ever you decide as long as its solid it will work.
5. Care and Maintenance - As you watch them grow, there isn't a lot of care that really is required, however here are a few of my tricks that see them grow. Keep stems and leaves off the ground, cut off and leaves/branches that are close or touching the ground, as this will prevent disease and rot. If there are a large stems hanging down, you can tie them up to your frame. Moisture - tomatoes love consistent moisture, but not wet, depending on your location you may require to water them more often then other areas, however when watering do not water the foliage, water around the base as excess water on the leaves can cause rot and disease. Pruning isn't really necessary, although if I see a new stem coming of the main stem, I like to cut it back, as it will sap energy from the plant, and if I see any unhappy leaves that look like they may have disease or pests be sure to remove them.

Now that you have a tonne of tomatoes growing you can kick back and enjoy the red juicy fruits of your hard work.

Since there are so many Varieties available you can choose the tomatoes you love, however I always suggest to plant a couple of different varieties as they are lovely companions together. Furthermore, why not plant some basil amongst them, so when you pick your fresh red tom's you can pluck some basal at the same time!

Well that's it from me today! So...

GET DIRTY and DIG IN!