Garden Calendar

Tomatoes need warmth, not light, to ripen.

- jobs for April

- turn green tomatoes into something delicious

Place tomatoes in a paper bag and sit it in a warm spot. The paper bag acts as a miniature greenhouse, offering warmth and trapping ethylene gas. Like many fruits, tomatoes emit ethylene as they ripen, which accelerates the process. Bananas are prolific ethylene producers, so place one in the bag with your tomatoes if you want to speed up the process.

If you have several tomato plants with unripe fruit on them, uproot them and hang them upside down in a warm, shady spot, eg just inside a shed door.