Making new tomato plants

Here's something I didn't know you could do until recently - make new tomatoes from side shoots of your established tomato plants. You need to take some of the side shoots off once fruit start forming anyway, so put the firmer ones in a jar of water until they grow roots; once the roots are 1-2cm long, you can pot them on and grow them up like new seedlings (keep them shaded!)

This is the first year I've really got on top of the allotment (pictures will probably follow). I set up some actual beds, and stole a planting idea from one of my clients - instead of planting big blocks of one veg, I've got lots of little blocks intermingled. Hopefully they won't all get pilfered by pests (or rotavated by pests!) and I'll also have pictures of cornucopial produce.

I'm not going to be doing an awful lot more veg though - some late potatoes, and seedlings for winter cabbage and lettuce. The focus for the rest of the month will be seeding up some cottage garden favourites for gentle screening next year, and tackling the monster bushes in the front garden in time for the big winter makeover.

Originally published at Terrapy.