The greenhouse can do many wonderful things, particularly at this time of year, but one of the things it cannot do is make up for me having bought tomato plants too early. I know this lesson. I learned it many years ago, or at least I should have. Tomatoes grow fast, and as they do so they love light, warmth, water, food and space. They do not love frost, to put it mildly. Sow seeds too early and you will not be able to put your tomatoes outside or even into an unheated greenhouse because of the risk of frost, and then all of those needs will go unmet. And tomatoes won’t sit around waiting for the light they want, they will stretch themselves limply up against any widow, turning yellow and wan, and then be no good at all for actually planting out when the time comes.
So, I was in the garden centre a little while ago and I saw some tomato plants, and it was a sunny day, and I just popped them into my basket. At this moment I was thinking of the end of the season, when the tomato plants always run out of time. How much better if I start off with these little plants now, and then give them a much longer season in which to flower, fruit and bring those fruits to ripeness. My mind was on the end goal, which is big, chunky beefsteak tomatoes dripping with juice ion sunny August days, roleplaying as Mediterranean tomatoes.
My mind was not on the start of the season.
Three tiny little tomato plants, so harmless, I’ll just bring them out each day and in each evening, I thought. The weather has been kind – a little too kind, it lulls us into thinking life is always like this, and it is not….But anyway, so it went for a little while, the little pots happily rested on the kitchen table each night and then were popped out onto the garden table in the morning. No problem.
But as I say, tomato plants grow, and it soon became clear that they had outstayed their welcome in their tiny garden centre pots. I potted them on into something slightly larger, and they looked suddenly beefy and strong. I was doing a good job, this wasn’t a problem.
And then the weather warmed more, and they started to grow and grow, and then one needed a stick and…well now I have a problem. I have three big, greenhouse sized plants and I am still humping them in and out of the house each day. Something has to give.
The only option really is to take my chances on the greenhouse. Mine is not heated, and in April – sunny or not – the chances of there still being a frost to come are really pretty high. The greenhouse will protect against a light frost but anything harder than that will wipe out my three lovely plants, and all of my progress.
There is not a great deal to be done without a greenhouse heater which I do not have, nor the electricity supply to run it (If you have a heater, you have the advantage. If not…). But if you are planting things out a little earlier than you should, you can tip things in your favour with a sheet of horticultural fleece, the fine, almost see-through fabric that lets in light but just keeps plants very slightly snugger than they would be without it. Instead of my nightly trek in and out I will do a nightly drape and then cross my fingers and hope the greenhouse gets me and the tomatoes through this tricky bit.