My tomato plant looked horrendous. It wasn't the plant's fault though. It's been sitting in the worst possible position and getting no sun. With the constant rain, the nasty green caterpillars and snails, my lack of enthusiasm for gardening in sub zero conditions (ok not really but it feels that way sometimes), I decided it was the more humane thing to do...
So I bid farewell to the very sad looking tomato plant. I recognised that apart from the constant pests (mostly because I don't like using pesticides), the plant also seemed to be suffering from blight. I noticed this earlier on and removed and pruned back a lot of the affected stems, but to no avail. Perhaps the next time I plant tomatoes I'll spray them with baking soda, apparently this helps to change the pH, making it more difficult for the blight to survive and spread. Have any of you had any success with this? I'm quite sure that warmer weather would help prevent this as well.
Sometimes, you just have to admit that it was a bad idea and learn from it.
I took the opportunity to put some new things in the planter as you saw in the first image as it looked really bare once the tomato had been extricated (the next image).
At least the Rosemary is still growing nicely. The strawberries are still putting out runners although they were heavily overshadowed by the tomato, they might like this better now. The Blueberry is struggling a bit but has some fresh leaves, so it's actually looking better than it did a few months ago when it was in full sun (even though they apparently like full sun 馃檮).
I used to be really good at growing tomatoes but this was an accidental planting, so it's not really like I lost a huge amount. I managed to get one tomato off it that eventually turned a slight shade of red orange, but that was only because I took it off the vine early and left it in a sunnier spot. It probably won't taste that amazing, but it's going to go into spaghetti sauce anyway, so I am still going to call that a win!
Now it's time to start planting for the spring when there's better sun, perhaps I'll be luckier this time. Just shows that when you don't plan, you're bound to fail (mostly).
Considering that this tomato took almost three weeks to reach this colour, I'm patting myself on the back in terms of patience. It's not a bad looking tomato and it's a fair size at 8cm across. Perhaps I should try cherry tomatoes next time.
Oh well, a rather sad gardening update, but progress is progress, no matter how small.
饾懛饾挀饾拹饾挅饾拝饾拲饾挌 饾懆饾懓 饾拠饾挀饾拞饾拞. 饾懆饾拲饾拲 饾拪饾拵饾拏饾拡饾拞饾挃 饾拏饾拸饾拝 饾挊饾挀饾拪饾挄饾拪饾拸饾拡 饾拏饾挀饾拞 饾拵饾挌 饾拹饾挊饾拸.