The tomato plants are growing and the wind has been blowing, so today I spent some time attaching them to their canes to prevent them from being damaged. Gardeners here use torn strips of fabric to tie their plants, rather than garden string or wires, and it seems to me that this is much better, much gentler, for the plants. They’re free and it is also a good way of recycling old pieces of fabric – the strips we used today are in their third life, having previously been part of a sheet and then a dust sheet.
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Nous avons recyclé des morceaux de tissu pour attacher les tomates.
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This leek has been about to flower for several days. It is nearly as tall as I am and we’re hoping for a spectacular flower and then some seed we can save. / Ce poireau est à la pointe de fleurir depuis quelques jours. Il est presque aussi grand que moi et on attend une fleur impressionante et puis des semences que nous pourrons garder.
7 comments:
It seems that gardeners in France like to tie up their tomatoes and here in the States we like to cage them. What unruly plants to need such discipline! :)
I've tried the staking method before and abandoned it for caging since it saves a lot of work and extremely green hands.
Your tomato plants certainly look healthy and happy.
Michelle: Yes they are unruly! Some people don't tie them at all but just let them wonder over the ground. It must take more space than we have to grow them like that. I wonder how you cage them? I must look more closely at your blog to find out.
Here, some of the locals tie tomatoes to sticks and some leave the plants to lie on the ground because of the wind. This year I've put in some twiggy sticks to see if they will contain the plants.
We don't grow leeks, but the flowers on the wild ones looks just the same.
Crazy tomatoes! My f-i-l showed me a trick where he cut up old socks (across the tube) to fashion into ties for tomato plants. It was one of my very first posts, and come tomato season, always makes me laugh and think back to "papa" who no longer likes to garden because he complains that it's too much work! Oddly enough, he and my m-i-l gifted me with their old vegetable mill as they know who should be making tomato sauce soon!
Cages, sticks, old socks - what variety of supports tomatoes need!
Jan: yes, I think tomatoes will grow if the plants climb over the ground - that might be best where you are because of the wind! Hope the sticks work!
Rowena: I like the idea of using old socks! It must be an honour to be given the family vegetable mill.
That leek bud looks wonderful - I look forward to the photos when it flowers.
Tomatoes are naturally trailing plants, but staking makes the mbest use of precious garden/greenhouse space. We use cloth ties, they're soft. The knotting system: Clove hitch around the stake,cross the ties (making a figure of eight when completed) and tie around the stem with a reef knot. That way the tie doesn't move down the stake, and the stem is cushioned all round, unable to rub on the stake.
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