Here we are in the middle of the best weekend of all time – Labour Weekend. Saturday was OK weather wise – a bit blowy, but the boffins are telling us the rest of the weekend will be soggy! How is that supposed to make gardening fun?! I’ll choose to ignore the boffins – they’ve been wrong before.
It still isn’t all that warm out there – it certainly doesn’t feel balmy, so I’m not in a hurry to plant out my plants just yet. Which is fine as I have structures to prepare first! So far I have set up my tomato bed to provide the support my tomatoes will need to grow up nice and strong.
I’m still undecided if the tomatoes will be planted out this weekend
I started by using a very heavy sledge hammer to bang in 6 warratah posts, 3 on each side, on the ends and in the middle – making sure the holes were all facing inward. Next I used washing line wire and threaded it through the posts to create two fence like structures. But I wasn’t finished there. Tomatoes can grow very tall and in late summer without support, it a bit of a wind and under the weight of juicy fruit they can bend over and even snap. So I popped in some tall metal rebar posts beside the warratah posts and cable tied them in place to keep them strong. Heavy duty string was then strung across them several times to give the plants something to be tied to, to stop them whipping about in the wind.
This should provide a nice home with all the support required for my tomatoes for the season to come.
My aim is to plant 10 plants down each side and then tying them into the wire as they grow for support. I always aim to have lovely single stem examples but it never happens – a side shoot or two always get away on me! So this method is great for keeping everything restrained and supported.
You can see how I did it here:
I have other structures to create before I can finally plant out my wee seedlings so keep your eye out for the next post and video showing you all about my cucumber trellis. I went out and bought some bolt cutters to get the job done… exciting times.
Come again soon – there is more constructing to be done!
Sarah the Gardener : o)
SARAH THE GARDENER 
Our tomatoes are just finishing. How funny.
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I think if we were able to grow all things all year round we would probably take them all for granted. There is nothing like the anticipation of that first taste of something you haven’t had all winter long. : o)
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We would also wear out the soil if it did not get to take some time off from the same crops.
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Awesome update thank you for sharing have a blessed day
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Thanks Linda. : o)
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I’ve just recently found your blog. I can see just from this post that you are going to be a great gardening guide for me to follow. It’s so good to have a local expert. One question from this novice – is it too late to plant tomato seeds?
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Hi Helen. Thank you for your kind words. Technically you can start tomato seeds from late winter to early summer, although spring is the optimum time. Having said that things do grow a lot quicker now that the weather is warming up (well compared to early spring, because it isn’t all that warm right now.) So yes you can still sow seeds, although I personally wouldn’t leave it too much longer to ensure your plants get the full benefit of the growing season. I hope this helps and you end up with a bumper crop of tomatoes. Cheers Sarah : o)
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