Elephant ears and much more

GARDENING

Last weekend, we welcomed a steady stream of visitors to our garden for the Niagara Falls Horticultural Society’s Garden Walk. Well over 300 tickets were sold, effectively doubling the attendance of last year’s walk. I’d like to extend a special thank you to all of my readers who stopped by to say hello —it truly was a pleasure to meet you and share our garden with you.

Our new tomato garden garnered a lot of interest from visitors on the Niagara Falls Horticultural Society’s Garden Walk last weekend. I’ve wanted to relocate the tomato garden for several years, the original garden no longer receives adequate sun to produce a bounty of tomatoes. Our son Mark came up with this ingenious design — it elevates a humble tomato garden to a showpiece.

Cedar boards were used to build a permanent box that fits between the protruding chimney wall and the corner of the house. The wall faces south, it collects and radiates heat, even on a cool spring day. Inside the box, four large plastic tree planters are filled with a mixture of potting soil and compost.

A wrought iron trellis (turned on it’s side to fit the space) hangs from four brackets, it is both handsome and sturdy enough to support heavy tomato vines. The lip of the cedar box, wide enough to rest a pair of garden snips or a bowl for harvesting tomatoes, hides the tops of the planters, giving the whole garden a tidy finish. On a practical note, the top comes off so that I can remove the planters for winter storage, or to replace a planter if required.

I chose indeterminate tomato plants for this project: Yellow Grape, Sweet Million and Big Beef. The Yellow Grape and Sweet Million produce grapelike clusters of small, sweet tomatoes. At the foot of each plant, I tucked in three Genovese basil plants with the hopes the basil will enhance the flavour of the tomatoes, a trick I learned from a wise Italian gardener last summer. Besides, you never can have too much basil.

Maintenance is a breeze. The containers dry out quickly, so they need water daily. I really enjoy tucking and trimming the tomato vines and checking on their daily progress. I’ve been feeding the plants with organic fish emulsion every second week.

So far, the project has been a huge success. It’s only the middle of July and the first tomatoes are ready for tasting, we’ve been enjoying fresh basil in our tomato dishes for the past month.

The plants range in height, the tallest one benefits from the south-west facing corner, it must be the warmest spot. The diagonal growth pattern was not my doing, it just demonstrates which plants receive the most sunlight and heat. Theresa Forte is local garden writer, photographer and speaker. You can reach her by calling 905-351-7540 or by email theresa_forte@sympatico.ca

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Sweet Million tomatoes ripening on the vine, they will be ready to taste test soon. Growing the tomatoes in a container has really sped up production.

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