Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes

So I thought today I'd focus on toms. It's been a good year for me, growing them in the lean-to at home. I have 21 plants squeezed in, 19 of them have done well. Here's part of the lean-to this morning before I picked the toms.
They look a bit like trees because I've cleared the lower leaves to let in more light and let air circulate.

I have red pear and super marinade:

Sweet cherry:

Money maker:

I also have Craig and ??? ( I forget)
There's stil lots of fruit to pick but lots of the leaves have started to show signs of mineral deficiency so I cleared even more leaves. It'll also give more light to the other plants in the lean-to. I won't bother to feed them again as don't expect there to really be any new toms growing as it's late season and the evenings (and sometimes days) are getting colder.

I grow basil in the same pots as some of the toms, they're meant to compliment each other and basil is supposed to keep flies away. I only grow it in the ones round the edge as otherwise can't very easily reach in and pick it. I also grow it in separate pots too. It's been a good year for this too! I have a later set of seedlings I've recently potted on, so should get a continuous crop for a little while. I put comfrey and alkanet leaves round the base of the tom plants every now and then, it feeds them and also protects the roots, which I find tend to get exposed after all the watering over the season.

Basil - not my best specimen! But you can see where I've pinched out the middle out to produce more side shoots (and hence more yummy leaves)

Also in the lean-to I have peppers (chilli and sweet) and aubergines (aubs have only just started producing flowers as I was a bit late with my seedlings so not sure if I'll get any fruit from them). I also had a bit of trouble with my pepper seedlings so bought a chilli plant (it wasn't named, just 'hot') and two sweet peppers (also un-named) for 70p each. They've actually done quite well and have the first red sweet pepper and a few chillies. I do have a couple of my own pepper plants that are starting to produce fruit too but are a bit behind.

Hot pepper

Sweet pepper up on the shelf

And here's the tomato harvest! Plus beans and a courgette from the back garden.

Quite a lot of the toms are splitting but as I'm just making soup and sauce it doesn't really matter. I should def keep an eye on them more though!

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