According to
the World Bank, over the last three years, global food prices have increased by
83%, with unusually high price peaks hitting almost all the major food groups,
rather than just a few of them.
With food
production needing to rise by a forecasted 50% over the next two-decades to
keep pace with necessity, there has never been a better time - or reason - to
switch to ‘Growing your own' as a solution to the perpetual penny-pinching
problem.
‘Growing your
own' is yet another way to provide healthy, nutritional, tasty food for the
whole family, at a price that won't break the bank. Whether you're new to gardening, in search of
a healthier lifestyle, or an old-timer in need of gardening inspiration and the
best food you've ever tasted - growing your own will help you reap a rewarding
harvest.
Tomatoes are
‘Nature's Red Bodyguards' - packed with vitamins and antioxidants known as
‘lycopenes' (reputedly more potent than vitamin C) - they can stimulate our
immune functions and protect against certain diseases, including cancer, making
them one of the richest super-foods of our lifetime.
As one of the
tastiest and easiest-grown vegetables, tomatoes offer a lifeline to the
gardening beginner, or first-time vegetable grower. Cropping in just 18-20 weeks from sowing, the
historically scandalous ‘fruit of love', or
‘pomme
d'amor' - the French ‘love apple', are indispensible in the kitchen. Just try cooking and eating for a month
without the flavour of a tomato...almost unthinkable!
Heralded as
‘...the World's Most Prolific Tomato', ‘100's and 1000's' is new and exclusive
to Suttons and has taken the Royal Warranted seed merchants by storm. Praised as easily the most abundant cropper they've
ever trialled, Suttons say that ‘a single plant has produced over 2000 fruit!' Bred for hanging baskets and containers,
‘100's and 1000's' is also reassuringly ‘very easy to grow'.
Huge
grape-sized bunches of luscious-red fruit cascade from the long flexible stems,
making this a prolonged cropper that's perfect for summer salads, salsa's and
sauces.
SOWING AND
GROWING...
Sow in a
propagator on the windowsill, in pots or trays - or outside in the greenhouse
heated to 18˚-21˚C (65˚-70˚F), using a quality compost. Cover seeds with a maximum 6mm (1/4") of
sieved compost, enabling germination within 10-14-days. Transplant seedlings when large enough to
handle at the sturdy ‘two-true-leaves' stage, singly into 75mm (3") sterile
pots, for careful growing on. Finally
harden-off slowly before planting out into hanging baskets - one per 30cm (12")
basket or three per 41cm (16") basket, tub or window box. Water regularly and feed with new Tomato
Powerfood.
Developed
especially for Suttons, Powerfood contains all the essential nutrients that
tomatoes need to produce a bumper harvest.
Combining seaweed extract and trace elements, to encourage heavy crops
of full flavoured fruits, Suttons Tomato Powerfood is one of the most economical
and effective feeds on the market - diluting into 900 litres of full-strength
feed from each 750gm pack.
OBSERVATIONS
FROM THE GARDEN GATE...
Is it possible
to have a vegetable garden that is both beautiful AND productive? - YES! To enjoy the best of both worlds, one must
first conquer the old prejudices that vegetables are ugly, and that fruit and
flowers don't mix. A
‘Potager' is the answer (pronounced pot-a-ZHAY)...the
French word for kitchen garden.
- Derived from the necessity for
supplying ‘pot herbs' for thick vegetable soup - or ‘potage' - the kitchen garden comes from humble French
origins, where all the household vegetables were grown.
- Reaching a renaissance in the
magnificent kitchen gardens of Chateau Villandry in the Loire Valley,
a glorious tapestry of texture - vegetables, fruit and herbs...skilfully laid
out amongst an intricate box-edged parterre.
- ‘Villandry-Style' planting can be
adapted and modified to fit much smaller gardens - each becoming a
beautiful and productive ‘potager'
for their owners.
