"They must have started them earlier," The Belgian replied. Small consolation, that.
There's something about growing tomatoes that sets the heart of every gardener- and every small-town Southern non-gardener- aflutter. You stick them in the ground, water them, and they give you stuff to eat.
Even in England, they pine for "fresh 'maters:"
June has, at last, produced some warm and dry weather - which is welcome news for all gardeners, but especially those with tomato crops to ripen. Anyone can try growing the plant at home - a window sill is enough to get started - but even the most practised expert needs the sun to shine. When it does, the results can be quite wonderful. Home-grown tomatoes are nothing like the tough, flavourless product found in supermarket chiller cabinets. Eating those often feels like munching on a slice of sour plastic; even the most expensive commercial varieties, sold on the vine, are more about appearance than taste. Fresh from the garden, or grow-bag, tomatoes are a different plant altogether, full of juice and flavour - if things go right. Success depends on more than luck with the weather, though tomatoes are a sub-tropical plant, needing eight hours of sun a day to ripen. A washout summer like last year's spells disaster. This is the time to plant seedlings outdoors, for those organised enough to have grown them, or to have bought plants from elsewhere. They need water, loamy soil and a tall stake to support the plants. The big enemy, apart from cold days, is tomato blight: and there seem to be as many ways to fight it as there are gardeners. The other dilemma is which variety to choose - fat, small, red, yellow, hybrid or heritage. For what it is worth, the Guardian's home-growing series recommended Sungold. The first fruit should be ready by late July. If the sun keeps shining, that is.
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